I installed the winch between the frame rails using the stock bumper, I have a shorty bumper ordered as the stock bumper just can't take going offroad. I nstalled the solenoid beside the battery. I had to rewire the solenoid but not a major issue. I used a trailer 4 wire trailer harness that had both ends for the remote plug connection and a black and red 18" battery cable to make it work. Pull the box apart. Switch the long wires from the solenoid to the short ones used for the winch connection. The short wires purchased fro the auto part store are then attached where the long ones were removed. The trickest part was hooking up the plug. I removed the plug from the solenoid by removing the I screws. I cut the of the controller plug wires about half way so that I had enough wire to spice the trailer harness wires inline. I removed the grill and drill a hole through the metal grill guard on the left side and installed the plug. With the grill held back in place I could tell how long of a wire I needed before the plug so that the grill could be removed in the future. I removed the outside black wire from the harness as I only needed 3 wires. I cut one of the plugs off leaving about 12" of wire attached. I ran the remaining wire to the solenoid. Connecting the plugs together I was able to figure out the proper length of wire I needed. All wires were spliced together trying to connect like colored wires to avoid confusion. Each connection was the heat shrinked to avoid a shorting Issue I then wire tied the wires to secure them and reinstalled the grill.
Remember to run all solenoid wires bach through the solenoid cover before closing and mounting the solenoid.

Total install about 1 hour. Total cost $45

Since the install I have hooked a battery isolater with a cab mounted switch to avoid a possible solenoid issue. If youy have any questions PM me and I will get back to you. To

Before any one asks I didn't have a camera available during the install.

 

Any new ideas on how to hide a solenoid pack?

 

For a semi-stubby:
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modified-jk-tech-2/wiring-winch-33623/
I like the beside-battery mount in that it keeps the solinoid out of the weather.

 

I took my box apart and put the solenoid under the hood and the control hookup under as well. The mount for the control plug was part of the solenoid mount that I didn't use.

 

bump... for more pics/ideas on where to mount the winch's solenoid pack...

 

I always liked it straight up, instead of laying down on the winch like the Warn solenoid mount has it.
So I combined the Warn mount with a piece of right angle steel (painted black) from Lowe's. I already had a hole in the FabFour bumper in the right location, so I just had to drill one in the bracket to match.

 

thanks for the tips guys, liking the behind the grill location for sure!

 

where is your winch cable, and does the stock bumper work out OK with this setup?

Jay

 

Thought I see if anyone has put an Engo solenoid box behind a 2012 grille yet or how the solenoids behind the grille have been holding up. Any updates would be awesome?

 

Where did you guys find the battery cables to extend the box? Were you able to find different colors?

I'm thinking of doing this on my runva winch to help with water proofing. It would also be handy to have the winch control plug right inside the drivers window. I hate using the wireless controller because of the delay.