New Ranger

[bigdeer2000]

cj4,

let me know if you have any questions i would be glad to try and help.i first tried to mount the winch without taking front bumper off. struggled with it for a while and ended up having to take it of to mount the winch. grille covers and bumper cover the winch mount so well that photo won't help with that. only thing photo might help is with contactor location. if you want that let me know.i drilled a hole in the dash to mount the plug for the winch cord.i spliced the red wire off that plug to the 12 volt accessory plug on the dash so winch would only work with key in on position.used a two wire snap splice.remember to slide your black post covers down your wires BEFORE you attach wires to contactor.yes i did forget that. said some bad words, took wires loose and tried again.

 

[CJ4]

bigdeere,

I'm sure i'm gonna say even more choice words than you....fixing to go get some torx tools.....all of my tools are at the lake place. Yes, i'd love your contactor pics......how did you bolt it on??? did you have to put nuts on the back of the bolts or use metal screws?

 

[bigdeer2000]

cj4,

here are some pics of the contactor location and plug location i used on my install. i hope your install goes smooth. i used the small bolts with lock washers to attach contactor to the black plastic liner under the hood.

 

[CJ4]

bigdeer,

Thanks a million for the pics.....they helped a whole lot......I just came in from working on it......I'm pretty slow at it but i'm taking my time and trying to enjoy it and making it a problem.....I'm really puzzled though on one issue....ie: the instructions showed mounting the winch where when you look at it mounted from the front, the wires are on the right side and the "free wheel" knob is on the left with the biggest gap on the left.....If I had mounted it that way the labels and logos on the winch would have been hidden on the back of the winch.......I mounted it the opposite....it looks good but the dang grille the sent won't fit........$%#$#$$ I think I mounted the d_ _ n thing backwards!!! It looks like you mounted yours the same way though.....couldn't see the winch itself in your pics but I did notice it looked like your yellow and blue wires were on the left side like mine. Did your grille fit??? I'm not gonna take it back off, I'm just gonna leave that little grille off....I have big hands and didn't like the little gap they left to get in there to freewheel it anyway.

Nice job on mounting the plug.....I took a different approach though.....I mounted it up front in one of the grille screw holes right by the winch.......I think I'll mount the rocker switch on the dash where you mounted your plug. Probably not relevant either way because the cord will probably reach on yours over the hood to the winch if you need to operate it while you wind your winch line up.

I hate to ask you but if I get the brush guards etc like you did for the front of yours.....am I gonna have to take this crap all off again??????? Man I hope not!!!!!

You won't believe what I did today with it. It doesn't have 10 minutes time on it since i pick it up but I own a wrecker service and a customer (who happens to live a couple blks from my house) had called because they had a pickup and a chipper in a pickle behind his house. He lives on a hill in a residential neighborhood and had rented this chipper and the rental co delivered it, drove down this incredibly steep hill with this pu to deliver the chipper behind his house down in the woods and unhooked it. Well they found out real quick it was easier going down that embankment than it was coming out. The pu got high centered coming out and that was all she wrote. I took my truck wrecker over there and winched him out, no problem but they couldn't figure out how in the heck they were going to get this chipper out. Hummmmmmm I couldn't either....I thought, my 4x4 Tahoe couldn't even get back outta this.......then it came over me.....wonder if that dang Ranger could do it????? I thought I gotta try it......took off to the house, took the receiver hitch off the Tahoe, put it on the Ranger and off the wife and I went. Drove down in there, hooked it up and fricking walked that sucker right outta there!!!! I've been in the towing business all my life but I couldn't believe it pull that thing outta there especially as heavy as that chipper was with the weight handicapping me. We forgot the dang camera though.....ticks me off....the wife took a couple pics with her cell phone and i'll try to post them....thought you guys might like to hear that story.....

 

[CJ4]

Here's a couple pics but the wife had her head up her a_ _ at the most important time and didn't get pics when I was on the steep part.

 

[bigdeer2000]

cj4,

great idea using your ranger to pull that chipper out. now you can write it off in your business as off road recovery equipment. i mounted my winch with the free spool on the right and my cover fit perfect. as for my front bumper you are installing yours in the right order. i had to remove the front side guards to be able to remove the freshly installed new front bumper to install the winch. if you buy the polaris extreme guards put the side guards on before you install the bumpers.

 

[CJ4]

Will the extreme guards fit with my bumper or do I have to replace my bumper as well?? If so, I've gotta remount the winch on a new bumper???

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

a word to the wise go to walmart and get this stuff called liquid-tape after you have installed youwinch and are sassy-fied with everything spray all the connections down with the stuffi use it on all my eletrical conections and it works great it's just like electrical tape but it sprays out of a arosol can and if you want to go back and repair a wire later on you can just peel it off but it does a good job of sealing up the wires from water and them touching each other.they sell it in the automotive department at walmart.

 

[bigdeer2000]

cj4,

the extreme front and front side guards mount to your existing front bumper. i think i will get some of that liquid tape tommy was recommending

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

just don't put it on the contacts that b=need to make conections because it will kill the current but as for sealing up wire conections it's the best.