2021 jeep.  Probably get a bumper and winch soon.  Suggestions?

What type of off roading will you do?

What are you state laws like in regards to width, height, altering contact height, etc?

Like for me, I have to be no narrower than 10" from the outside frame rail. I am 9", oh well. Bumper contact height must be no higher than 36".

Aluminum vs. steel?

What looks good, not gaudy, and doesn't weigh 600#s is the answer.

Lots of factors.

Yeh so nothing extreme on purpose but id like a winch too just in case.  Sporty looking.  Durable.  

First time jeep owner

Thanks

For what you are talking, I would look at a Rival bumper.

https://rival4x4usa.com/catalog/jeep/jl_wrangler/jlw_aluminum_bumpers/

10-4 thanks

I’ve heard good things about the Harbor Freight Badlands Apex winch.  You can see them on Matt’s Off-road Recovery YouTube channel.  I bought one on sale, but haven’t gotten a bumper yet to mount it on.  I suspect, I am going to need a lift since the winch is a heavy fucker and most bumpers are not light either.

Thanks for the winch info and thanks for jeep link.  Ill add mine when it arrives.

And just as a note, I bushwhack a lot. So I went with steel bumpers. They are about 70# up front and 125# for the rear with the swing away tire and Jerry can carrier.

Aluminum will be around half that. Which plates on all of the aluminum bumpers I have seen are steel plates still.

I have a warn Zeon 10-s winch. Upgraded Mechman 280 amp alternator, and dual battery setup.

If you go with the Harbor Freight, replace the cable with a Synthetic Factor 55 winch rope. I have seen 2 of the winch ropes catastrophically fail on the Apex winches in the last 3 years. One time almost killing a guy.

Good stuff thank ya sir...

Synthetic winch rope is where it's at. Safer, and saves a bunch of weight.

Replace the fairlead too if it's a roller fairlead.

This!

Unfortunately I’ve seen a few Warn VR models fail (made in China ones). So I started looking at other brands. I couldn’t find a bad review on the Badlands Apex. Only thing I found was 2 with damage due to the mount on the bumper failing which caused the winch to twist.  

My Apex has been great. I got the synthetic rope model. I’ve done a few recovery’s on myself and others with great success.
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Matts Off Road and FabRats swear by these with an aftermarket synthetic rope.

After I snap the synthetic rope that came on it or it wears out to the point of replacing I’ll upgrade it but so far mine has held up to some pretty gnarly pulls.

Good info and thanks again....

Got it today...

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Poor guy jeeps are like ex wives you pour money into them and trade them for a younger model then someone else enjoys you tricking them out.🤫

Buy an aluminum bumper. It’s lighter and stronger than steel.

Donte buy a smittybuilt or badlands winch. They’re slow, and they have cheap parts holding them together. Spend $700 on a good name winch, not $350 to say you bought a winch on sale at the cheap hardware store. Buy a Warn VR EVO 9 or a Superwinch Talon. You’ll thank yourself later when you’re using it.

Buy this winch

I’ve seen more Warn VR Line (China winch) stop working than I’ve seen BL Apex winches stop working.

I wouldn’t put the VR line at the same reliability as the US made winches from Warn.

Most guys with a Badland winch aren’t putting it to the test like the guys using a Warn. I would put a Badland winch on a car trailer before I put it on a vehicle I take off roading to remote locations where a winch would have a 50% chance of being used.

Yes for the normal badland. The Apex is a much better quality winch then their cheap line of winches.

I spend a lot of time with Jeeps and Toyotas in the Mohave desert, Colorado mountains, and Moab.  I’m around a lot of rigs. Warns are great but I would avoid the VR line. The guys with Apex winch’s are really liking them and I haven’t seen one go down yet.


Edit. My first Gen VR went down is why I bought the Apex. It’s been solid for about a dozen pulls. A few double line and redirects on some heavy overland rigs too.

Honestly the harbor freight badlands winch has been performing very well in the off-road community. As for a bumper it’s whatever flavor you like. I don’t like the look of the bulky Smittybuilt stuff but it varies person to person. It’s a Jeep, there are a million options, just pick what you like.

- Jeep TJ master race owner

When I used to rock Crawl I had a Ramsey made in Oklahoma. They stood behind it... And if you play enough you Will Burn A Winch Motor! I burnt a Polaris winch up just a few months ago. I bought a Rough country for my Wife's ranger and it's impressed me. I had a coupon from them that made it hard to pass on. I've used several times to pull trees out of roads and once to retrieve the Ford Ranger and it seems like it pretty good so far. But my first two choices would Be Ramsey and Warn, just because your local alternator guy should be able to replace the motor.

http://ramseywinchstore.com

Roller Faileads are fine,  as long as they aren't all jacked up from steel rope . I switched to Synthetic rope 15+ years ago and have never used a Hawse fairlead  .

OEM and smittybilt

I have the new bumper installed.


Is there any market for the factory Rubicon front bumper?

Check Amazon too. They will sometimes discount bumper’s from the above sellers. Check eBay too if you plan on raptor or rhino lining something for a custom look. Sometimes you can save on a scratched or product in the white.

I used to work for the BLM and we used Warn winches. I saw many trucks coming in with broken winches with the line wrapped around the bumper.
I bought a Ramsey my self (based on what I saw with warn at work), this was in 2000 on a brand new ram I bought, the first time I went to use it it wouldn't work! Luckily I'm pretty mechanical and I figured out it was the switch on the end of the remote. I cut the cord and was touching wires together to make it work. I got home and called Ramsey and the told me it only has a 1 year warranty on electrical and I'd bought it just over a year ago from northern tool. They were pretty rude and short with me. I told him I'd just like to let them know it's a bad design (they're still using that remote) and that my old remote I got on a used truck from the '70s is still working (toggle switch style). He gave zero fucks. I'll never buy a Ramsey again. They made me look like a fool and made their own company look like clown shoes! I just bought a HF winch for a truck bed crane, I think it was 2500 or 3000. It works good in testing and I plan on buying the 12,000 when it comes on sale. The one that is $350 regular.

No help on bumpers - I'm from the toyota world.

I would suggest a Warn. I have several and they have all been used for tough pulls. Meanwhile I have seen other brands fail when they are needed the most. If theres one thing thats infuriating to me its a product that doesnt work when I need it the most. - Just my experience. A Warn Zeon is made in the usa, but come at a higher cost.

Warn VR10 owner here. Soon to be former Warn Winch owner.

Used it 3 times last year, then went out to retighten the cable on the drum and it was dead.
Called Warn and sent it (minus the cable + the controller) in to one of their repair facilities at my expense ($70 shipping).

The tech that worked on it called me back stating he replaced some electrical parts on it under warranty and that my controller was also broken and needed to be replaced ($100). He sent it back to me. He also mentioned to not submerge a Warn Winch or use a pressure washer on it.

My Warn was in my Warn Winch Bumper and I'm sure it's been submerged - not while running obviously.

In the meantime, I had replaced the Warn with a 9k Badlands on my 4Runner. I lead trail rides weekly and don't like being without a winch.
Plus taking off the winch on my 4Runner is a Tedious but not necessarily difficult process requiring removing front end of the vehicle.

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So back to my Warn VR10. I planned to put the repaired one on another one of my vehicles.
The Jeep Bug hit and I bought a used 2015 Willys JK Wrangler. Put a cheap Extreme Terrain Red Rock winch bumper on it. And installed my Warn VR10 winch on it.
Guess what...

No power and this happened...
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Well I really don't feel like spending another $70 to ship this POS back to Warn. I offered it to a 20 something kid, I trail ride with. He can ship it back them if he wants to.

With Harbor Freight - you buy the extended 2 to 3 year warranty on the Badlands Winch. If anything happens to it. Swap it out at your local HF store.
Hell just swap it out every 3 years.

My 2nd 9k Badlands in action:
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2021 JLUR 392    Approximately 7500 lbs. when loaded for off road.
Factory steel bumper in stubby mode, Warn install kit
12,000 lb Warn 12S
Factor 55 Ultra hook

Some say overkill,but it works every time.

I have that same winch.  It's a work horse for sure.  

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Warn m8000s

@sanchocobb, did you ever sell your bumper?

Here is my set up...   Attached File


The winch is a Badlands Apex 12000 winch with synthetic line available from Harbor Freight.

The bumper is this one that is available from several sources.  This is it on Amazon...  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M3X8MRL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is my setup.  Quadratec QRC bumper and Badlands APEX winch.

I have a Smitty winch on one Jeep and a Warn on the other, both have treated me well.

Same here. The Smitty has been on 3 jeeps and is 10 years old and the Warn on 2 almost 20 years old

Don’t worry about lifts, tires, winches, and bumpers.

Just make sure you have at least a dozen plastic ducks on you dash.

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Last rubber duck that was left on my hood was used to scrape some semi green cow crap from the fender well then relocated to the jeep that parked a few spots away. You try to give the damned things to kids and they tell you they aren’t gay…

You saw a spectra line almost kill someone?  That's weird.  One of the big advantage of the synthetic line is that it goes from high tension to laying on the ground really fast.  Cable will definitely kill you.  But the synthetic lines I saw snap just fell out of the air.   Wasn't even that loud when it let go.  

Worst I saw was a piece of chain break when pulling a tractor out of a bog.  Left a huge dent in the forestry cage on the dozer doing the pulling.  And loud!

@Bilymac

@sanchocobb, my mistake.  Looks like your factory bumper is the same plastic one I have. I was looking for the metal version.

Nice Jeep BTW.

10-4

Thanks!

I got nothing on bumpers as both of my jeeps have stock front bumpers. As for a winch you might see if you could find an older Warn.
  The 9000k I bought in 1996, the 9500k winch my wife won was the top raffle prize  at Fun in the Desert (2001) put on by Victor Valley Four Wheelers.
  Neither winch has ever failed us and have been used many times over the years, mostly to pull other vehicles out of mud holes.
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Damn you. I have a hs9500i sitting on my work bench. Needs a new motor. Can’t bring myself to spend $300 on it.

I bought a jeep jku at the end of December with a blown engine (spun rod bearing) for 5k, cheap enough i couldn't walk away from it.

Still building it up slowly since it's just a Sahara... lol

After i rebuilt the engine, i started looking for parts.
Seeing how cheap I can build it up for currently, it's always fun to source the parts IMO.

One of the lucky finds was a new in box but missing the mounting hardware quadratec modular front winch bumper.

I'm not sure about the modular part of the bumper, however i absolutely love how it's built.

The biggest thing i noticed was the D ring loops on the bumper.

They stick through the thick skin, and they are part of the main structure, and they bolt directly to the frame.

Welds look really good for a mass production part.

I'm just impressed with it, and I'm using it as an example of how it should be done.


For the winch, i picked up a xbull 14500 lb winch for a little under $400 shipped after sales tax.

Came with synthetic rope, and the remote looks like the exact same design as the harborfreight winch.

Same remote can do wireless or wired.

I did some research into the brand before i tossed my money into the hole, it seems they have a decent following, but mostly in Australia.

I also worried about spare parts like the relays and other electronics, but they seem to be mostly universal.
They also sell parts on their website...

This is something i figure i might use once or twice, but mostly it's there to fill the gaping hole in that quadratec bumper.. lol

The hope is that it actually works when i need it...

Installing i found the included power cables had a pretty weak crimp, so i fixed that and sealed up with some actual marine grade shrink tubing since they didn't bother with that either.

The controller box on the winch, i used some rtv to seal the two halfs from water intrusion, and the same where the cables enter the box.
But i left the bottom drain holes in place.

I also took the winch apart to ensure the case was nicely sealed.

Just messing around with it, I'm happy.
But i probably won't know if it's a total pos for a few years.

Oh and i found the warn stickers look like they belong on the control box, if you're worried about looking like a cheapskate.


Overall I'm happy with my jeep purchase, but it's constantly draining me dry as things i want for it keep popping up on local for sale ad's.

Offroad, i really love how it handles.
I went from thinking about flipping it to make some money, to "I'm keeping it" pretty quickly.

I had to use my smittybuilt to support the weight of my Jeep.  The roller fairlead bent, the c clip went flying, and the pin dropped out.  This is the first time I’d held my Jeep up vertically and it isn’t even the entire weight of the vehicle.  Seems pretty cheap to have a 9500 lb rated winch and a fairlead not even hold the weight.


I bought a Warn for a great deal, disassembled it, cleaned and greased everything, and will be using it on my Jeep with a new fairlead.  I’ll put the smittybuilt where it doesn’t have to be worked too hard.  I’m done with cheap winches after this experience.   The winch itself is good so far.  I’m just converting stuff to a more expensive bend hoping for better quality.