Harbor Freight had one of their 25% off coupons for the 4th, so I picked up a Badlands 9K winch for just over $240. Not a bad deal.

This is not Warn, nor does it pretend to be. However, this should be more than enough winch for my occasional use. Now I need to figure out how to mount it to my TJM bumper. The tricky part is going to be the solenoid.

The wires on the solenoid do not match what is in the diagram. Just make sure that the long red wire goes to the positive ( ) on the battery and that will be fine.

I've already opened up the case and plan to get some welding cable and run longer wires from the solenoid to the winch so it can be mounted under the hood closer to the battery.

Universal winch mount from Harbor Freight...maybe universal for a Jeep, but not for the Bronco...After my 20% off coupon, I think I paid about $40 for. I will need to get cut down to fit between the frame horns on the Bronco, but I should be able to make it work.

Cut the universal mount down..this will go between the frame horns..it's going to be tight..

fit is going to be tight, so the bumper itself will need to be trimmed to accommodate the winch lever and mount.

Didn't have the time, so rather than doing it myself, I paid a shop to weld up the mount to the frame horns (cost $225). This way I can remove the bumper pretty easily to access the winch..I'm happy with the job. Here is is mounted up. At this point I haven't run the wires from the solenoid.

Side shot.

Everything mounted back up. I'm guessing the original TJM fairleads used 4 bolts..this one only uses 2 and is a bit lower than I'd like. I may change it out for one of the slim profile ones in the future. With the winch in there, the clearance to get the bolts that hold the bumper on is minimal. Several mashed knuckles later all the bolts were tightened up..I extended the wires from the solenoid which is mounted under the hood near the batter.

Here is the solenoid wired up..I did use the factory mount so I had to drill holes in the case and flip it upside down to mount it to the fender wall..it doesn't look quite as neat as I'd like it to, but it works. zip ties helped clean up the wires a bit..

I was a little nervous that I may not have wired everything correctly, but when I hooked up the switched the winch worked.

here is final product with the hook on. I'm considering buying synthetic line, but that purchase will have to wait. The amsteel blue I was looking at costs about $200..

this is the clearance for the winch lever. It's tight, but I can still get my hand in there to turn it. The original hole in the bumper had to be trimmed at the back to get it to fit.