WARN JL Rubicon Winch Mount Plate and Zeon 10-S Install

[aug0211]

Did anyone have an issue with the supplied bolts not being long enough to go through, and connect together, the winch plate, bumper, filler plate & fairlead?

I had 3 sets of bolts supplied, all varying lengths, specifically to make sure the setup worked (the manual quotes variances in fairleads, winch plates, etc).

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[Tech Tim]

We used the Maximus 3 fairlead, so ours was a little different.

 

[Jlrut]

Did anyone have an issue with the supplied bolts not being long enough to go through, and connect together, the winch plate, bumper, filler plate & fairlead?

The bolts for the fair lead have are a little longer and have @ 1/2 inch towards the head that is not threaded.
Good luck

 

[NCSUSTATS]

I put the VR8 on my JL and had to go to the local hardware store and get longer bolts.

The bolts for the fair lead have are a little longer and have @ 1/2 inch towards the head that is not threaded.
Good luck

Yeah, thats what WARN told me too...go to the store and good luck...

I took a trip to the hardware store and picked up a couple 50mm 1.75xM12...done

 

[NCSUSTATS]

 

[Tech Tim]

Looks good!

 

[pangmaster]

This will be my next project! Hoping to start this week, but it's been crazy busy around here. Thanks for the writeup and info!

 

[sigsegv]

I cannot, for the life of me, get the bumper on.

I literally have two steel Rubi bumpers on hand and neither will go on. The holes line up enough for me to get the bolts on the bumper to go through so about 1/2” protrudes on the driver side and about 1/4” on the passenger side. Then it gets stuck.

I’m looking at the winch carrier holes and everything really looks lined up to me. I made some really small adjustments, but still no luck.

Any ideas on what might be blocking the bumpers from going all the way back on?

I know you got the bumper back on, but I wanted to put in my 2 cents since this happened to me.
I also ended up enlarging the frame bracket holes a bit so that I could fit the bumper back on.

I realized after the fact that it's almost definitely the rear frame bracket being pushed out of whack by the giant zip ties that you attach to the winch bracket. The winch + bracket is pretty heavy, and they apply some sideways pressure to the rear frame bracket.

If I was doing it again, I'd probably use my floor jack to hold the winch bracket up and skip the zip ties. I bet the bumper would have slid right on.

 

[thefrog]

No one else mentioned this ands it’s probably just me being stupid but I had a HELL of a time getting the fairlead on... Trying to keep those 2 bolts from dropping in back into the bumper as well as keeping them pushed up tight enough against the holes from behind was a ridiculously difficult process. I used everything from magnets to masking tape. At one point, one of the bolts dropped back inside the bumper and got wedged under winch spool. I had to take the entire bumper off and then reinstall it again! Nightmare. A also couldn’t get the 2 lower inner frame bolts back on. Just can’t see how to fit a tool in there. I’m going to give it another try tomorrow. Would be great if someone could post a video on how to get those inner lower bolts back on.

 

[pangmaster]

No one else mentioned this ands it’s probably just me being stupid but I had a HELL of a time getting the fairlead on... Trying to keep those 2 bolts from dropping in back into the bumper as well as keeping them pushed up tight enough against the holes from behind was a ridiculously difficult process. I used everything from magnets to masking tape. At one point, one of the bolts dropped back inside the bumper and got wedged under winch spool. I had to take the entire bumper off and then reinstall it again! Nightmare. A also couldn’t get the 2 lower inner frame bolts back on. Just can’t see how to fit a tool in there. I’m going to give it another try tomorrow. Would be great if someone could post a video on how to get those inner lower bolts back on.

I am in the exact same situation. Going to try to finish again today. My kit didn't have the right bolts or nuts for the fairlead and the filler plate so I had to run out to get some. But you are right... those two lower inner nuts are seriously hard to access to even get them threaded on the bolts.

I might have to loosen the winch from the plate or pull the winch out entirely to get them back on.

 

[pangmaster]

Got it buttoned up today. I didn't have to struggle too much to get the fairlead on, but I did drop a bolt in there once and cursed up and down. Got lucky that I was able to recover it with a telescoping magnet wand.

As for the two lower inside nuts, I struggled with trying to get them threaded and then my wife came out to the garage to see how it was going. Of course when she tried it was no problem. Small hands FTW!

As others mentioned the skid plate holes in the lower rear no longer lined up, so I had to widen them a bit with a file. Overall I'm pleased with the results. Now just need to pre-tension the line!

Again thanks to @Tech Tim for the great writeup, and for everyone else's inputs!!

 

[Rubi JLU]

Thanks for the write-up. I used this write up along with this install video.




I should have installed the fairlead before reinstalling the bumper and I missed tightening the bolts for the winch to the winch plate.

This is a Warn VR 10s

 

[Guy N Cognito]

Did anyone have an issue with the supplied bolts not being long enough to go through, and connect together, the winch plate, bumper, filler plate & fairlead?

Yep. I had to go buy new ones at Home Depot. Really frustrating, especially when using all Warn kit.

 

[chadc880]

Does anyone know if using the mopar winch mounting bracket 82215182AB, will this eliminate the issue with getting the skid plate back on if mounting the Zeon 10-S ?

 

[NCSUSTATS]

Does anyone know if using the mopar winch mounting bracket 82215182AB, will this eliminate the issue with getting the skid plate back on if mounting the Zeon 10-S ?

https://moparonlineparts.com/docs/82215182AB.pdf
No direct knowledge, but looking at this install guide it does not seem to me the bumper moves out as it does with the Warn plate. Fwiw, it was very easy to widen the holes a tad on the skid, so I would suggest not letting that aspect disuade too much from the Warn.

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