Need Winch Advice

[MikeJLURubi]

Getting ready to buy a winch for my JLU Rubicon on the stock steel bumper. Looking at the Smittybilt synthetic but not sure if I should go with the 9500-10000 or 12000 lbs? Just want one for the just in case situations; and mostly for winter situations and some light off road.

Also will any winch plate work with the stock bumpers?

Appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Mike

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[Krondor]

I got the JCR Offroad winch plate. Solidly built.
Smittybilt Gen2 X2O 10,000lb Synthetic is a great winch and fits as per another member.

10,000lb seems to be the sweet spot for Jeeps. The 12,000lb come with shorter lines so I'd stick with 100' synthetic.

This time around I got the Warn Zeon for the beefier case and line coverage. Keeping the sun and road debris off my rope this time.

 

[MikeJLURubi]

Thanks. 10,000 it is!

 

[offcamber]

I'd stay away from the JCR plate. I installed mine this weekend. I had to redrill almost every hole in the plate because only 1 out of 10 holes lined up with my Jeep. I tried every which way but it was completely off. What should have been a 1 hour job turned into an all day job.

 

[Sheepjeep]

seems as your mind is already pick but posting this more for the others that come across this

the general rule of thumb for picking a winch is a minimum of 1.5 x your curb weight, the idea being that you should be able to pull the weight of the jeep along with the added drag from what ever it is stuck it.


the JLUR is about 4500 lb (rounding up a bit) by itself plus add in people and added weight from gear and mods you can easily see 5000lb, so 1.5 x 5000 = 7500lb as a suggested minimum size, so anything over that will be better. The closer the winch is running at its max capacity the more current the motor is drawing, more heat it is creating, and slower the pull will be, causing more damage to the winch and cause it to thermal shutdown.


but.....

You do not want to go too big because if you have took much pulling power and you have a really stuck object you are pulling you winch can actually rip itself off the frame. There is no nice formula for it as it depends on the strength of the frame of the jeep and the design of the bumper, but generally anything over 12k should be considered overkill.


All that being said other thing to look for is the line speed of the winch, faster winches get you unstuck faster, winch brakes (most have these now)

 

[MikeJLURubi]

Good advice! I found the winch but it seems like the winch plate options are extremely limited. It's unfortunate that the bumper didn't come with the plate but I guess Jeep trying to keep the cost down for those that chose not to install a winch.

 

[Krondor]

I'd stay away from the JCR plate. I installed mine this weekend. I had to redrill almost every hole in the plate because only 1 out of 10 holes lined up with my Jeep. I tried every which way but it was completely off. What should have been a 1 hour job turned into an all day job.

Ouch, well that's not depressing or anything.

@JcrOffroad any ideas on what may be wrong?

 

[BostonBilly]

I went with Rusty's plate and a x20 10k from smittybilt

 

[Krondor]

Guess I'll just take the wraps off my toys and "stage" them. If the holes don't line up I'll post back here. Though many have already successfully mounted theirs?

 

[JcrOffroad]

Ouch, well that's not depressing or anything.

@JcrOffroad any ideas on what may be wrong?

Out of the many (a few hundred) we have sold, we have heard of very few issues. Rarely more than one or two holes. We have yet to hear of every hole not fitting. Could be an error on our part (laser cutter became sentient?) or it could be a weird variance on a specific Jeep? Not sure.

I'd stay away from the JCR plate. I installed mine this weekend. I had to redrill almost every hole in the plate because only 1 out of 10 holes lined up with my Jeep. I tried every which way but it was completely off. What should have been a 1 hour job turned into an all day job.

Sorry to hear about the issues you had! Did you happen to reach out to our tech support department? We would love to know what was wrong.

 

[AdamH]

FWIW - I have the Warn Zeon 10S and the Warn plate for my JLUR with steel bumper. Warn states their plate should work with most winches that have standard mounting points.

 

[Magnetdragon]

FWIW - I have the Warn Zeon 10S and the Warn plate for my JLUR with steel bumper. Warn states their plate should work with most winches that have standard mounting points.

Lol you me?? I literally just ordered the same stuff too

 

[Tridgerat]

I put a DV8 bumper on that is rated for a 12,500 winch and put a 12,000 winch on it. Much more than I would need for my JLUR but I wanted a lower Amp draw while pulling.

 

[MikeJLURubi]

I ordered the Warn plate also but went with the Smittybilt 10k Synthetic Wireless. I had a Smittybilt on my 2013 Sahara and loved it.

 

[Vintage]

Help - I was going to post a new thread but this seems the right place . . . I am going to buy the new Superwinch EXP with synthetic line. I have a forum coupon from Extreme OR (forum sponsor) that helps a little. Isn't the 8,000 lb. winch plenty? Do I really need the 10k winch? The price is $1k versus $1.2k?

In the end, it is already pricey so the $200 delta isn't a huge issue. BUT, it seems that for almost all situations, 8k of pulling power is plenty and I don't want to waste more money. If I need to increase that, I can just add a recovery shackle in the mix. Thank you for your responses.

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