Ok, Let me start by saying that I am not always cheap, but when it came to adding a winch I did plenty of research on winches and the Harbor Freight 12,000lb winch comes in at one of the best buys in winching according to Four Wheel and Off Road Magazine. At a price of $294.00 and for as much use as I think I will be getting out of it, I couldn't pass up a good deal. But one has to ask themselves weather or not this will work with the SDHQ winch mount. The simple answer is YES. It takes a few modifications to make this happen but they are simple. Items to note are the winch mounting holes are standard, so the HF winch mounts on the same bolt pattern as the Warn Winch. The Fair Lead is also standard affair and a common size, so the hole size provided in the SDHQ kit works just fine.
The only items that require a bit of a change up in the instructions are as follows.
1. The Warn controller has a different bolt pattern, you will need to drill new holes for the HF controller.
2. The screws that come with the HF control box will be too short to secure the box through the 1/4" plate steel of the SDHQ winch mount. So a trip to your local ACE Hardware will provide you with some slightly longer screws in Stainless Steel.
3. The areas you need to trim on the upper bumper support bracket are slightly different as you need to remove the lip to clear the two springs on the HF winch and there is a handle to engage and disengage the planetary gears on the HF winch so you will need to clearance for that handle.
4. You will need to take a pair of flush cut side cutters and trim out one section of the grate to allow hand access to the handle. Easy enough to do, took 10 seconds and you will need to either use a heat gun or a dremmel to make a slight clearance for the spring loaded lever arms on the HF winch.
Otherwise this is as straight forward as it gets for installation. So here are a few pics.
1. Out of the box preparation:
2. Pull the whole bumper, its faster and easier, It all has to come out anyhow
3. The whole front end off your truck. Not hard to do. I also removed the panels below the headlights, it will make for a faster installation once you need to level the SDHQ mount
4. Due to my Supercharger installation, you need to move the water pump up from its installed position, This is a simple swap of the P clamps that are already on the water pump, just flip them over to raise the pump.
5. All of the wires will get covered in convolute, before buttoning up the install. It makes for a factory look and protects that 4gauge wire from ever accidentally grounding out. This is test fit time.
6. You only get one shot at this so make it count. Cutting a hole in your perfectly good front bumper cover will make your butt pucker. But if done right, all will turn out well. If you mess up, it will be an expensive mistake.
7. Front bumper cover loaded on to the SDHQ mount. This may take a little time and adjustment to get right so be patient. Its a lot of fun. Please keep in mind that I did this all alone without an assistant. It makes the job a little more difficult but not impossible.
8. Final wiring
9. The end result. Oh I did paint my fairlead 040 white to match the truck. This was more of a struggle than the whole install. The epoxy coating on the HF part is not compatible with any paint or primer, so I had to take Zip Strip to it 4 times and scrape at it for hours to get the stuff off. I then used DupliColor Primer to prime the whole thing, Then painted it 040 white and clear coated over that. Originally I tried scuffing up the HF paint with 1000 grit paper then wiping down with alcohol to remove any oil or grease, then primed and painted it and after several days, you could walk up to the part and scrape the paint right off with your finger nail. Whatever they use for paint in China is not compatible for any other paint.