I'm thinking about a winch on a cradle that I can mount front or rear, depending on need, and leave at home when just daily driving the Jeep. If so, let's see some pics. I had this setup on my 93 YJ and it worked well.

 

I had one on my old dodge. Great idea, but I wasn't impressed with it offroad. The reciever kept digging in, so I pulled it off and went with a normal winch-mount bumper. Probably work better on a JK than my old Ram, though.

 

I thought about this but the hitch's max tension would not match the winch's so I decided for the standard mount on the front bumper.
However, I have been thinking how to route the line to the back so I can use the winch in the front to pull the Jeep backwards.
Anybody ever did that?

 

I made this bumper with a receiver built in. It is braced in all directions on the back side of the bumper. I have a slide in winch that I've had to use on a couple of occasions.

 

That looks like nice work!

 

Olympic and Nates 4x4 are the only JK bumpers with a front hitch. I have Olympic's 'Rock' with 2" hitch for the fishing rod holder. It's a well built sturdy steel bumper, but as said above, I'd call them and ask if the hitch is capable to securely pull the JK's weight with a winch cradle in the hitch.

 

Hidden Hitch makes a front receiver frame -mounted hitch p/n 65055. The maxium winch line pull is 9000 lbs. I got mine from Quadratec. Very handy for moving trailers around, "rescuing " other vehicles.Works with stock front bumper, just notch airdam (or leave it off )