AirJordan613

while I was still testing it out

jadmt

I have been happy with my Rockhard4x4 plate. solid and easy to mount.

Gabexr

Smittybuilt winch plate

nevrnf

AirJordan613
What brand winch did you use? can you easily access the manual release and the plug in for the hand held controller?
Any pictures of how much you cut the plate down? How about the cut in the bumper?

AirJordan613

I cut a notch in the crash bar to make it easily accessible. It's a quadratec Q9000S. I'll try to post some pictures I took along the way.

Rock Hard 4x4

Thank you for considering our winch plate! Don't panic too much on how high a winch can sit, remember much of your air flow comes from underneath and your fan. Also, simply select a lower profile winch like a WARN VR Series or the traditional M8000. The ZEON in reality is only a little taller than those.

Out of the winch plates you mentioned in your OP, ours is by far the easiest to install and requires the least amount of reconfiguring your front end. As you can see in our install video below, you can install our winch plate in minutes and it DOES NOT require even touching your vacuum pump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLvHLcLyOCU

nevrnf

I like how it looks but with it mounted upside down if you are sunk there is no way to release the drum without digging a hole to reach the lever. You are dependant on power out to spool the cable.

AirJordan613

I've never dug myself that deep before. I've put it through its paces though

jadmt

I perfer my winch to be up high but everybody has different needs and tastes. I will say that I have had mine on for 39000 miles and I have evic on my 14 jkur and it shows coolant temp and my temp has never been an issue even in 100* temps crawling in 4 lo. I had to remove my winch in august while I was waiting for parts for it. I paid close attention to the coolant temp with and without the winch in place and it did not change one bit. thermostats on water cooled engines are a great thing.

I will say I think the airjordans set up looks great but it would not work for me. I snow wheel and it is common that the front bumper is completely buried and the lever would likely end up being encased in a solid chunk of ice.

nevrnf

jadmt, i'm with you. Living in the snow belt that is another consideration. I think i am going to start with the Harbor Freight mount and since i have a welder i am going to make it fit down between the rails with side plates to mount it to the frame
rails like the Rock Hard one does then cut the bumper to keep the stock look. I really like the factory cover for the center look and they are A dime a dozen on Craigslist.