Knucklehead97 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Howdy fellas! So I'm wanting to add a smallish winch to my Jeep (5k or so) just to use for pulling logs and the occasional getting my mom's Camry out of the yard in a rainstorm. Had to pull my fiance's Fusion out of her yard and my 2wd Jeep struggled due to the open diff so I'm looking at getting a winch for those situations and also because I've had MULTIPLE instances that a small winch would be helpful. I have a Reese front receiver hitch that sits under the front bumper and I want to get a winch cradle that goes into the hitch. Has anyone ran this on a MJ or XJ? Any recommendations on a winch cradle or even a small winch? Just want to get some opinions before I start ordering parts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I just installed a badlands 5k on my liberty for the same sort of reasons. so far I've used it precisely once... to drag hundreds of pounds of construction waste (in a Bagster) up an long grassy incline to the street. did the job well. one side note though, as with a lot of Harbor Freight items, the first one refused to operate (pretty sure it was a bad solenoid) but I returned the whole enchilada and got another that works fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sporttruck88 Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Tractor Supply sells a winch mount that mates with a 2" receiver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasbulliwagen Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Receiver winch mounts can be had on Amazon as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 I got me a Harbor freight 5k winch since I got 25% off for New year's. Ordering a Curt receiver mount now. I was trying to find a hitch mounted plate that wasn't overly bulky. If I was using this for wheeling then I would want a super bulky, stout one. But for this one I wanted something that fit well with my brush guard. So hopefully this Curt works out how I want and pictures will be posted when it's done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 Got it all mounted up. Just gotta wire it now. Very happy with how it's turned out. Had to drill new mounting holes on the plate because it wasn't made for this small of a winch. Also had to buy a bigger roller fairlead since the one with the HF winch was made for a smaller mount. Ended up drilling another hole in the part that goes in the hitch so now it's 4" closer to the bumper than it would of been if I used the factory hole on the Curt mount. The hitch mount is tight in the hitch and doesn't jiggle at all. Got me a cover for it as well that's big enough to go over the winch AND fairlead, which is what I wanted. Sadly didn't get started on the wiring for the winch and my dual battery since the rain got too heavy today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lthompson741 Posted February 13, 2019 Share Posted February 13, 2019 Harbor Freight 5K is my go to as well. Doesn’t way a ton and decent pull. They also sell a mount, but I seem to remember my winch came with a mount in the box. (Accident? Someone trying to steal it? Someone return it and didn’t know it was in there IDK). So if you are buying one, open the box and check it there is one in there. Anyway, I’ve got a marking deep cycle battery that it’s mounted. I’ve used the winch on my daily, several of my Jeeps now, and mainly use it on the car trailer to drag dead cars up. For the money, it is a decent set-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knucklehead97 Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 8 hours ago, Lthompson741 said: Harbor Freight 5K is my go to as well. Doesn’t way a ton and decent pull. They also sell a mount, but I seem to remember my winch came with a mount in the box. (Accident? Someone trying to steal it? Someone return it and didn’t know it was in there IDK). So if you are buying one, open the box and check it there is one in there. Anyway, I’ve got a marking deep cycle battery that it’s mounted. I’ve used the winch on my daily, several of my Jeeps now, and mainly use it on the car trailer to drag dead cars up. For the money, it is a decent set-up. The 5k came with a mount but it was just a plate that you had to weld to something in order to use the winch. I used it as a template for my hitch-mounted set up. Since the 5K is an ATV winch it didn't bolt up perfectly to a full size winch plate, hence the reason I needed a template to drill holes with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lthompson741 Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 On 2/13/2019 at 7:41 PM, Knucklehead97 said: The 5k came with a mount but it was just a plate that you had to weld to something in order to use the winch. I used it as a template for my hitch-mounted set up. Since the 5K is an ATV winch it didn't bolt up perfectly to a full size winch plate, hence the reason I needed a template to drill holes with. You right, I remember that now. The 5K is a lot smaller but gets the job done. I remember welding the plate onto a 2 inch receiver and calling it good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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