I received my new 10,500lb Recon winch in the mail today and it looks like I should be able to install it onto my XHD bumper without removing it. It seems like a simple install. Bolt on the fairlead, bolt on the wench, and run the positive and negative wires to the battery. Is there anything else I need to be aware of or worry about?

 

Nope, should be good, I was able to mount the winch on the bumper after I put the bumper on first...

 

Don’t drop it on your foot…you might hurt the winch.

 

Go buy some longer bolts. Now they may have started shipping longer bolts since I bought mine. When we installed it we could barely get the bolts to thread. Between the bumper,fairlead mount, and lock washers the bolts were not long enough. Went to ace and bought some about a 1/4 inch longer.

 

I got it on! Thanks everyone. It went smooth except for shortish bolts. The lock washers made it hard to catch the threads, so I had to compress them a bit with pliers before installing them.

 

Well I ran into a small problem. It seems like the thimble is slightly took big for the included hook to attach to. Are you supposed to man handle it on or what? I'm afraid getting it on would compress the thimble and pinch the synthetic winchline. Thoughts?

 

I had the same issue. I compressed the metal on the winch line loop about 1mm with a pair of pliers and then the hook fit on. However, the hook isn't big enough to clip onto a standard d-ring...the spring clip won't close.