hoag4147
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Rick
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2019
- Threads
- 64
- Messages
- 4,399
- Reaction score
- 6,009
- Location
- Colleyville, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- 2022 JLUR XR
- Vehicle Showcase
- 2
First, looks greatWell, had a couple of failed attempts to go with the more practical, for my not living offroad Jeep use, VR Evo 10s. Kept putting it in the cart, but just couldn't talk my thumb into hitting the buy now button.
One of my fellow enablers, Hoag4147, was kind enough to share a couple of links to a place that had the Zeon 10s with synthetic line in stock. I kept going back to that site to ogle it. Apparently, the thumb issue is intermittent and the dealer cannot replicate.
Seeing as how this happened about 10 minutes into my Jeep ownership...
I pulled the trigger on the Zeon 10s. Ordered it on 9/2 with a promise date of 9/9. A couple days before expecting its arrival, I got an email that their inventory was wrong and they don't expect more until next July. Yeah, no! They were super cool and immediately offered a full refund, which went through in well under 24 hours.
Since both the 8k and 12k winches were mentioned earlier in this thread, I inquired about a confirmation that the zeon 12s was in stock. After a quick yes, I shot over to the Warn site for dimensions of the 10s vs 12s. I remember reading about problems fitting some 12k winches in between the frame rails, where the 10 drips right in. Turns out the 8's, 10's, and 12's are all 24.5" wide. Gave the trigger a 2nd squeeze on 9/13 and it showed up on 9/17. On 9/15 I ordered the Warn winch plate and it was delivered on the 17th with the winch.
After work on Saturday, I installed the winch and plate but ran out of daylight so it will have to wait until this Saturday to get wired up. I have their power interrupt solenoid to run it off of a factory aux switch. I temporarily hooked it up to the main battery to both test it and to spool up the synthetic line. Once the wiring is done, I have to pay out the line and properly respool it under tension.
The install should've gone quicker, but the extra bumper lights and bull bar soaked up some time. The wiring for the lights required some artful rerouting to prevent heat inflicted damage from the winch motor. My bull bar didn't need to be fully removed, but it's chassis reinforcement brackets did. And not wanting to delete them made it a little funner to get a couple of bolts back in with the winch right there. No trimming was needed and no compromises were made. Completely a bolt on affair.
I've had the Factor 55 1" fairlead and Ultrahook with rope guard for a while now, so a slight dent in the pile can be seen when the sun hits it just right. I used the Warn failead backing plate that also has provisions for the front license plate, so I had to remove the Maximus-3 Stealth bracket. It's also angled back, so the plate seems to sit the same as before.
Also worth mentioning: I recently swapped to the front and rear Antirock sway kits. Not having the front disconnect motor to worry about meant that the bumper skid plate was no longer needed. Since I didn't have any paint on hand to coat the cuts, I didn't chop the walrus tusks. My plan was to cut them just under the sway bar bushing brackets. Thankfully I didn't get a chance to do that, because the Warn winch plate uses the 2 bolts on the inside of each tusk. With the plate reinforcements installed, only a 1/2" of tusk hangs lower than them. Almost not worth the cutting.
I never take pics during installs, because of time restraints, but here's a couple of before and after shots...
The winch sits so low that only the contactor housing sits above it, which is almost completely hidden by the center LP4's. Any closer pics just show some black aluminum and plastic in front of the grill, so I didn't even bother snapping them.
Didn't mean to ramble on, but wanted to tie a bow on this thread. Thank you very much, to those who chimed in and to everyone on this forum who makes this such a great community! And a special thanks to hoag4147, for providing the links and helping me spend some money!
. Very tucked in. Second, sorry the 10s stock didn’t work out and you had spend even more $$$ because of my links 
. And third, that Zeon sure is purdySponsored
