I got an FJ Cruiser a while back. It's time to add a winch. Please read my intended use before making recommendations.
I have no intentions of ever taking the FJC offroad for recreational 4x4 trail riding. I have no intentions of ever upgrading the suspension and sizing up tires. I will be running some aggressive all terrains on it; right now I'm using Toyo Open Country ATII's and am happy with them. I'm pretty pleased with the offroad performance of my rig in it's stock form with good tires on it. At most I'll consider skid plates just to keep grasses and twigs at bay when I drive through overgrown fields and two-tracks when hunting.
My vehicle is my daily driver as well as my weekend rig. On the weekends, the wife and I like to go hiking, camping, canoeing, and I like hunting. On some of the hiking and hunting trips, it's not uncommon at all for me to be an hour or two from reliable cell service. It's not uncommon for me to go through miles of county roads that turn into dried up creek beds, have washouts, have mud pits, occasionally have downed trees that need removed. The environments for these roads is in mountains with lots of loose rock on top of hard packed clay-like dirt in heavily wooded areas. There is not really always a good place to turn around when rough roads become a little dicey. Sometimes forward is the only choice for a while. When this happens, its way out there and help is going to be difficult to call in and expensive to find. I am almost always the only vehicle going into these places.
Most of the time with good common sense, 4x4, and good all terrain tires you can get by just fine if your not in a hurry. In the past several years I've needed to winch myself out twice and got pulled out by a friend twice (where a winch would have worked as well). I want to add a winch as a lifeline to my 4x4 for those times that things don't quite work out right and I'm way in there all by myself. I know that I could use a come along or high lift to get me out of a jam too but a winch also offers utility in pulling logs into camp for firewood and hoisting animals for cleaning and as a utility tool. It's certainly pricey for my limited intended use but it has a lot of value even outside of serving as a lifeline for self extraction. All that said, I'd like advise on winch mount options and winches.
Winch mount options that I'm looking at are:
The two winches that I'm considering right now are the Badlands 12000 and a Warn VR10. The Badlands is only $400, which is attractive and while it's not a highly refined winch there's a ton of guys around here that use theirs regularly without problems. It would get the job done and have power to spare for a light weight FJ. The Warn is $200 more and not rated as strong but would be plenty strong enough for me, has a better warranty, and may stand up to long periods of light use a bit better.
What are you guys thoughts on a good winch mount and winch solution for my specific needs? Right now I'm thinking the best value in quality and capability might be the VR10 with either the hitch or US OffRoads mount.
I have no intentions of ever taking the FJC offroad for recreational 4x4 trail riding. I have no intentions of ever upgrading the suspension and sizing up tires. I will be running some aggressive all terrains on it; right now I'm using Toyo Open Country ATII's and am happy with them. I'm pretty pleased with the offroad performance of my rig in it's stock form with good tires on it. At most I'll consider skid plates just to keep grasses and twigs at bay when I drive through overgrown fields and two-tracks when hunting.
My vehicle is my daily driver as well as my weekend rig. On the weekends, the wife and I like to go hiking, camping, canoeing, and I like hunting. On some of the hiking and hunting trips, it's not uncommon at all for me to be an hour or two from reliable cell service. It's not uncommon for me to go through miles of county roads that turn into dried up creek beds, have washouts, have mud pits, occasionally have downed trees that need removed. The environments for these roads is in mountains with lots of loose rock on top of hard packed clay-like dirt in heavily wooded areas. There is not really always a good place to turn around when rough roads become a little dicey. Sometimes forward is the only choice for a while. When this happens, its way out there and help is going to be difficult to call in and expensive to find. I am almost always the only vehicle going into these places.
Most of the time with good common sense, 4x4, and good all terrain tires you can get by just fine if your not in a hurry. In the past several years I've needed to winch myself out twice and got pulled out by a friend twice (where a winch would have worked as well). I want to add a winch as a lifeline to my 4x4 for those times that things don't quite work out right and I'm way in there all by myself. I know that I could use a come along or high lift to get me out of a jam too but a winch also offers utility in pulling logs into camp for firewood and hoisting animals for cleaning and as a utility tool. It's certainly pricey for my limited intended use but it has a lot of value even outside of serving as a lifeline for self extraction. All that said, I'd like advise on winch mount options and winches.
Winch mount options that I'm looking at are:
- Front hitch and winch plate
- Pro's
- cost
- weight
- ability to move winch to rear of vehicle for a direct line pull for reverse self recovery
- Con's
- not as strong
- leaves winch hanging out as a thief magnet and also in a place to take damage from sticks and debris
- may be very difficult to move front to rear in an actual recovery situation where the mud/slope/gravel aren't really great for walking with a 100lb winch in hand
- Pro's
- US Offroads hidden winch bumper
- Pro's
- STRONG
- Light weight
- very low profile without reducing ground clearance or approach angle
- most affordable, permanently mounted option on the market
- looks factory and keeps winch kind of protected from thieves: it would be very hard to pull one out of this bumper
- Con's
- Offers zero protection for front of vehicle from brush (may not be much of an issue for me)
- Leaves the plastic valence on the bottom at the sides which may not take years of running through tall grasses and hitting small downed twigs
- Pro's
- ARB winch mount bumper with brush guard
- Pro's
- STRONG
- Offers a lot of protection for the front of vehicle from twigs/branches/grasses when hunting
- Con's
- HEAVY - will likely lower fuel economy and may make the front sag a bit
- Bulky
- the most expensive option of the lot
- Pro's
The two winches that I'm considering right now are the Badlands 12000 and a Warn VR10. The Badlands is only $400, which is attractive and while it's not a highly refined winch there's a ton of guys around here that use theirs regularly without problems. It would get the job done and have power to spare for a light weight FJ. The Warn is $200 more and not rated as strong but would be plenty strong enough for me, has a better warranty, and may stand up to long periods of light use a bit better.
What are you guys thoughts on a good winch mount and winch solution for my specific needs? Right now I'm thinking the best value in quality and capability might be the VR10 with either the hitch or US OffRoads mount.
