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SDHQ Hidden Winch with Smittybilt X20 12k Winch

8K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  geekrig 
#1 ·
I've been looking at SDHQ hidden winch for a while already. But the fact that it was designed for $1700 winch was holding me back. I did like the winches that Smittybilt is offering, especially the X20 Comp model with synthetic rope. And their price point is good too.
So I finally decided to give this combination a try and it actually worked out well with minor modifications.

SDHQ winch mount is of a great quality and the instructions are well thought through.
The winch I've got is 98512 - Smittybilt Gen2 X20 Wireless Winch - 12k
I also bought some 10-32 1/2" bolts to mount the solenoid. If I had to do it again, I would probably go with 10-32 3/4" bolts with washer and lock washer.

The winch mount holes match the SDHQ pattern.
I had to drill 4 holes for solenoid mount.

The hardest part for me was to take the stock bumper off.
The Smittybilt fairlead is of different shape than the one that comes with warn winch, so you have to be a little bit creative and careful here. When it was time to cut the hole in bumper, I first applied the warn fairlead template that came with the mount to the bumper skin following SDHQ instructions. Then I filled the inner part of it with painters tape. Then I've started drilling holes in the skin in places I was sure to be covered by the fairlead, carefully making my way to the edges of fairlead. Once my holes were aligned with winch mount holes underneath the skin I stopped. I've put the Smittybilt fairlead with bolts on the bumper skin, visually centered it and traced the outline on painters tape. Then I used box cutter to carefully cut out the fairlead opening in multiple passes.

I followed the rest of the SDHQ provided instructions after that.
When the bumper with winch were installed, I also cut out some of the segments of lower bumper grille to be able to access clutch lever.

I finished my install by cutting off the winch standard hook and replacing it with Factor 55 Flatlink.



Big thanks to @Vector W8 for his post about HF winch installation - http://www.tundratalk.net/forums/7588658-post22.html
 
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