featherz

Not planning on doing heavy duty or frequent offroading, but very occasionally may need a winch for recovery. Was planning on replacing stock front bumper with the Shrockworks stubby now that I have a guy who knows Jeep bumpers to help me install it. (and before you think 'sissy man', I'm female and am not mechanically inclined) ..

What's the best 'bang for the buck' winch for my situation that will easily work and install with that bumper without too much trouble? I don't need anything fancy or heavy duty ($$$), just something that's reliable for the maybe once or twice a year we might use it. Not planning to winch out a humvee any time soon so I don't want to overspend on something I really don't need.

thoughts?

wayoflife

What I would recommend is a WARN M8000. Very affordable, very reliable and will bolt right up to just about any winchplate. Also, being that you're in SoCal, if you ever need any help, just give me a holler

MJS_Jeep_888

Can't swear that it'll fit (you do the legwork there ), but the Harbor Freight winch offers excellent, tested and confirmed bang-for-the-buck. If you're leary about going with such a "generic," you may want to check out the offerings from Chicago Electric... Either winch, while not "the best," should offer more than enough capability for what you're indicating you'll use it for. Hope this is helpful!

Edit: I see that the bossman beat me to the punch, and is recommending a Warn product: I don't know too much about that particular winch, but you can't beat Warn in the winching industry.

wayoflife

LOL!! Actually, I really want to test out a Harbor Freight Chicago Electric or one of them new Smittybilt winches for myself. If they really do work out and work out well.... well, you know, $299 is a really hard price to beat. But, I'd hate to recommend something that I have no experience with especially when it comes to recovery gear.

MJS_Jeep_888

I haven't personally tested these either, but I think that this article gives a REALLY great description of the capabilities/strengths/weaknesses of the major contenders in the winch biz... thoughts?

I'm linking, but please edit if necessary: http://www.moabjeeper.com/articles/g...?articleID=353

featherz

Lol thanks! I'd take you up on that but it's quite a drive from Laguna Niguel to here as I am sure you know. I have a guy at work who moonlights as a mechanic -he swears he has done jeep bumper installs before for people up here in the mountains so I am hoping he won't charge me too much to help with the install.

Thanks to the rest of you as well.

tgrt

You'll want someone to help for ease of install, but installing a front bumper on our JKs is really as simple as it can get.

featherz

How hard is it to install a winch on said bumper? After looking at instructions, I think it's likely that hubby and I could install the bumper, but not as sure about the winch.

I don't need to add an extra battery or do any under the hood mods, right? Assuming light use only.

wayoflife

Super easy. Click on the link below to see my write-up:

http://project-jk.com/jeep-jk-write-...ation-write-up

featherz

I've seen that writeup - maybe we CAN do it. But don't you need to wire up the winch/connect to the battery? I know, these are noob questions, but I stated that up front. :P