Short of a new bumper the solution I am looking at is to pick up the FPP Warn kit, ordered it for $1003 delivered from Northridge4x4 (which is less than the cost of the included Warn Zeon 10S by itself) and that kit includes reinforcements for the frame as well. Then going to combine it with the Redrock winch mount ($350) to get it a bit higher up and tucked in closer to grill. The Redrock includes park sensor holes, camera relocation bracket and extender cables that Ford left out of their kit.
@Ed Morris I’m a little late to this thread, nonetheless I’m finally installing the Lobo HNT on my 2022 Wildtrak. Your comment amount making a wood cradle is exactly what I’m planning to do. I learned that from installing an Atlas II and NP435 4speed in my 68 Bronco. It went smoothly so I’ll be doing that with the winch/skid assembly as well on the Wildtrak. I’m also looking to mount the controller plug somewhere else. Congrats on your installI just finished installing the @Lobo Off-Road HNT Hidden Winch Skid Plate and Openroad 13500 winch on my 2-door 2.3L Badlands with Capable steel bumper and 3-inch lift. Here's what it looks like:
(Note: I'm still weighing hook options. I've never owned a winch before, so I don't really know what I'm doing, but I like the idea of using soft shackles wherever possible, so I'm leaning toward foregoing the hook entirely and just installing a rubber stopper to keep the loop from going into the fairlead.)
I relocated the winch control pack here, fashioning a custom bracket to hold it in place:
I also added a cutoff switch here, which I guess wasn't really necessary but I thought it would be nice to have:
Finally, I fashioned a fork-like extension device to rotate my winch freespool clutch handle/lever here:
(Note: The fork-like part on the end of this rod allows me to turn the freespool handle even though there's a fairly significant angle between the rod and the handle axis. Fortunately, this handle is very easy to turn onthe Openroad winch model that I used. Most other winches I've seen have had a much stiffer freespool lever, which would have made for a bigger challenge.)
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Review/Concerns:
I generally like the design and sturdiness of this skid plate system. I think it's probably the best option there is for adding a winch without extending your front bumper or sacrificing approach angle. However, I do have a few fairly major worries/concerns:
1) Maintenance is going to be extremely difficult with this system. Because the winch is mounted to the skid plate itself instead of to a bracket separate from the skip plate, you can't just drop the skid plate to gain access to the winch, or to the bottom front of the engine bay either for that matter, to reach the radiator hoses or whatever. You have to instead drop the whole skid plate and winch assembly as a unit, which is going to be much more difficult not only because of how heavy it is but also because it involves disconnecting all the winch wiring from the top and re-running the wires when you're done. I just hope I never have to replace my winch rope, or re-tighten the wire connections on the winch, etc., because this will be a major chore.
2) Although the skid plate itself is very thick and strong, I'm a little concerned about the ability of its attachment points to withstand a really hard winch pull. On the back, it's attached to the diff mount crossmember with two very hefty bolts on the driver side (so no concern there), but only with the one much smaller original skid plate bolt on the passenger side (so possibility for shear?). On the front, it's attached to the frame via the very sturdy new intercooler brackets with three M10 hex bolts on each side, but my worry is that these hex bolts don't screw directly into the brackets. Instead, they screw into some "U" clip nuts that you slide into position on the brackets. I don't know, maybe that ends up being strong enough, but I'm worried that these clip nuts could move with a hard winch pull, especially if that rear passenger side bolt were to shear.
3) I don't understand why there's an open slot directly above the fairlead in this skid plate (see pic below), but if you run over any thick brush, it seems like an opportunity for a stick to wedge up into that slot and potentially poke a hole in what I guess is the turbo intercooler. It's only the bottom of the intercooler that's exposed, not the front, but I'd still feel better if the skid plate protected it. Similarly, because this skid plate is so much narrower than the factory one, it's not protecting the wheel well areas and suspension components as much as the factory one did, although I don't see nearly as much danger in this.
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Installation notes:
1) Installation took me (a retired guy without much experience in this sort of thing) almost a full 3 days. But most of that time was spent in designing and fashioning the custom brackets I used to relocate the winch control, add a cutoff switch, and access the winch freespool clutch, not in the actual installation of the skid plate itself.
2) The most difficult part of the actual skid plate installation was maneuvering the winch/skid assembly into place to bolt it up. There's a youtube video that shows this being done with a floor jack, but there was no way I was going to try to balance it on the tiny head of my cheap floor jack. I ended up wheeling it under the bronco on a stool instead, and then using a combination of lumber and bottle jacks to get it into position, but it was a lot of work. In retrospect, I think it probably would have been worthwhile to make some kind of custom wooden cradle for each side, ideally with stable jack points at each corner.
3) The other significant difficulty I experienced was in getting the front hex bolts to line up properly to screw into the "U" clip nuts on the new intercooler brackets. In retrospect, I should have dry-fitted the brackets to the skid plate before mounting them to the frame, to ensure that the "U" clips were all in the exact right position, ready to go.
Keep in mind that is one of the most heavy ways to go about this....
Rope needs to be spooled on the drum before/after using the winch. That is the part the sucks the most.... It is awkward and difficult to see and tension properly under load.
As in the Warn Zeon 10s platinum
Have you thought about replacing the OEM trans skid plate with an aftermarket one that includes an oil plug access feature (door or hole)? I am planning on installing the Lobo hidden winch on my 2026 Badlands 2.3L manual and started a thread asking about this, but so far limited responses.@Lobo Off-Road can answer questions about the stability of the winch on the plate. He installed mine because I had a 2.7 and needed the Mishimoto high mount to fit it. So far I can say that approach angle when rock crawling you need to take into account the hook as it can get scratched up if you aren’t coming up at an angle and getting one wheel up first.
The other issue I found is if you have the factory skid plates, oil changes are a bit longer as the lobo winch skid plate is on there tight, and while you only need to loosen two bolts to get to the oil pan, getting the plate back under the lobo winch plate is very tight, so far two oil changes have taken me longer to get the OEM bash guard for the oil pan than the actual oil change and filter itself
