RC High Winch Mount & Winch Install w/ Control Box Relocation

[66GT]

Those Badlands are huge. Smittybilt with relocated control pack smaller.

I really like the Badland winch... made on the same assembly line as the Warn Zeon for a fraction of the price. My only issue was how large the control box was. I took all the guts out of it and rehomed them in a small project box that I placed under the hood. Added a couple of Apex stickers that came with the winch and hopefully it looks a little less home-built... lol.

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[BroncoAZ]

I really like the Badland winch... made on the same assembly line as the Warn Zeon for a fraction of the price. My only issue was how large the control box was. I took all the guts out of it and rehomed them in a small project box that I placed under the hood. Added a couple of Apex stickers that came with the winch and hopefully it looks a little less home-built... lol.

What are you on about? The Zeon is assembled in Oregon, the HF is made by slave children in China. Warn does use global sourced components in the Zeon, but the assembly is advertised as being done in USA.

https://www.roundforge.com/articles/warn-winch-made-usa/

 

[66GT]

What are you on about? The Zeon is assembled in Oregon, the HF is made by slave children in China. Warn does use global sourced components in the Zeon, but the assembly is advertised as being done in USA.

https://www.roundforge.com/articles/warn-winch-made-usa/

Touchy subject?... lol. I might be misquoting. Met a guy on the trail last summer who claimed to be in the business. He raved about the Apex series... what he said may have said something more akin to the internals were sourced from the same place... or something similar to what you said. He did say the biggest difference between the two was in the Warn warranty and service, not the product. I may have paraphrased him too loosely... or maybe he was full of it himself.

Either way, it sounds to me like Warn using "globally sourced components" either means they're building ridiculously overpriced winches (with guts made of harborfreightium and chinesium)... or those 'shared' parts are actually up to Warn's specs. I don't claim to have any personal inside knowledge. I'm just a consumer... and at $500 for a highly rated 12k synthetic line... still pleased AF about the bang for the buck.

I'm not running a recovery service, so it's certainly not going to fail from overuse. I read the reviews before I bought... and they were almost universally skewed to buyers being very happy with it... with no trends or reports of niggling issues. These are the types of ratings I like to see before I buy. Very happy with my purchase regardless of what percentage of the components are or aren't shared with a higher end product.

All I can testfy to personally is that the build quality and fit and finish are off the charts for a HF product; it has pulled strong every time I've used it; and I have had several unsolicited comments by people that see it and say it's a good winch that they've heard nothing but good things about it.

... and besides, I spend a lot of time down in Oregon, a bucket of imported parts with 'final assembly" done in a state where the government doesn't trust its citizens enough to pump their own gas... really doesn't inspire any additional confidence in me. A Warn warranty on the other hand, does... I'm just not willing to pay the triple-price premium they're asking for it.

 

[BroncoAZ]

Not a touchy subject, I‘m not a fan of any blatant BS statements on the forums. If left unchecked they are later quoted and eventually become the perception in our hobby. The HF winch may be fine, I don’t know as I don’t have one. I have no dog in this fight, the last Warn winch I owned was a 1990’s 8274. I’m currently running a early 2000’s Milemarker winch on a multi mount plate. I was very tempted by the smittybuilt winch when it was on sale last month for $429.

 

[ne2000]

Did anyone here not use the parking sensor extensions RC provided and be willing to sell them to me?

 

[Bearcat1]

Did anyone here not use the parking sensor extensions RC provided and be willing to sell them to me?

I just installed a couple of weeks ago on my Black Diamond, I don't have front parking sensors so don't need them. DM me if interested in them.

 

[Bearcat1]

I just installed a couple of weeks ago on my Black Diamond, I don't have front parking sensors so don't need them. DM me if interested in them.

 

[hammer_head]

I had a problem where the Ford parking sensor ends weren’t long enough to pop through the sensor holes in the bumper like the directions said. So my parking sensor extensions are short getting to the sensors to connect… any suggestions?

 

[Merc4x4]

I had a problem where the Ford parking sensor ends weren’t long enough to pop through the sensor holes in the bumper like the directions said. So my parking sensor extensions are short getting to the sensors to connect… any suggestions?

I took the bumper apart and cut some of the cable wrapping to allow the sensor wire to bend a bit more towards the sensor holes. I re-wrapped the wires I freed/cut back from the OEM wrap.
I'm glad I did because I found they pinched one of the fog wire leads between the bumper structure and bumper. Did a little wire reconstruction to fix.

Ford assembly pinched my fog light wire inside the bumper assembly. Luckily I had to remove the bumper to free the proximity sensor wire a bit and caught the broken wire.

 

[hammer_head]

Should be fun tearing that all down now that I have the winch installed LOL, but yeah, good call, I will have to do some reconstructive surgery on the wires and wrap to get the extra length I need. Appreciate it @Merc4x4 !

 

[Merc4x4]

Should be fun tearing that all down now that I have the winch installed LOL, but yeah, good call, I will have to do some reconstructive surgery on the wires and wrap to get the extra length I need. Appreciate it @Merc4x4 !

I put on and took off the mount multiple times during my install, the first was when I found the sensor wire wasn’t long enough (passenger side) and I had to remove the bumper.
I didn’t take a picture, but the plastic plug didn’t completely make it out of the sensor hole and the mount was a little off center. It centered itself after fully mounting.

 

[Merc4x4]

@hammer_head
To be more clear, I cut back the harness case at the Y junction for the sensor lead off the main harness. This allowed me to pull back the sensor lead from the main harness (they run parallel for a while) enough to get the extra length I needed.
Then I wrapped the main harness where I cut back the casing, then wrapped the exposed wires of the sensor lead, then wrapped the new Y I made.

(I had to do similar for the fog light lead in the pic above that was destroyed by assembly)

I used this cloth tape from amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYZDN2X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Tesa 51608 15 Original Wiring Loom Harness Adhesive Cloth Fabric Tape (19 mm x 25 m)

 

[dfosterh]

Hi, I just joined the forum because of this string. I'm putting the Apex Badlands on the RC mount and have (for now) 2 questions for the control relocation.

1. What are your project box dimensions? Looks like I'll need internal space 2.5 high, 4 wide, and 5-6 long. No issues closing the hood with that on top of fuses?

2. Ground wires: I get grounding directly to battery for the motor itself. The control box has 2 grounds: 10ga wire and, I think, the middle 2AWG. Do I need to run both of those all the way back to the winch? The 10ga almost certainly not, right? And why not ground the middle terminal on top of the motor to the ground on the back of the winch? I'm not looking to add risk here, but 2 6' 2AWG grounds seems unnecessary.

 

[kevin.gt]

Hi, I just joined the forum because of this string. I'm putting the Apex Badlands on the RC mount and have (for now) 2 questions for the control relocation.

1. What are your project box dimensions? Looks like I'll need internal space 2.5 high, 4 wide, and 5-6 long. No issues closing the hood with that on top of fuses?

2. Ground wires: I get grounding directly to battery for the motor itself. The control box has 2 grounds: 10ga wire and, I think, the middle 2AWG. Do I need to run both of those all the way back to the winch? The 10ga almost certainly not, right? And why not ground the middle terminal on top of the motor to the ground on the back of the winch? I'm not looking to add risk here, but 2 6' 2AWG grounds seems unnecessary.

My post has a link to the project box I used. Hood closes fine.

from what I recall, the control box only has the small ground wire. 3 of the 4 posts on the solenoid pack are 2 awg going to the 3 posts on the winch. The forth is positive from the battery (with the provided cutoff switch inline). I used the two 6’ cables from the apex and bought two more from batterycablesusa.

to recap the wiring:
• 1’ battery to cut off switch
• 3’ cut off switch to project box
• 6’ ground from winch to battery
• 3x 6’ from winch to control box (one provide, 2 from batterycablesusa)
• tiny ground from control box to battery

 

[dfosterh]

My post has a link to the project box I used. Hood closes fine.

from what I recall, the control box only has the small ground wire. 3 of the 4 posts on the solenoid pack are 2 awg going to the 3 posts on the winch. The forth is positive from the battery (with the provided cutoff switch inline). I used the two 6’ cables from the apex and bought two more from batterycablesusa.

to recap the wiring:
• 1’ battery to cut off switch
• 3’ cut off switch to project box
• 6’ ground from winch to battery
• 3x 6’ from winch to control box (one provide, 2 from batterycablesusa)
• tiny ground from control box to battery

I believe the middle of those 3 2AWG routing back from the control boxes is ground. That's the run I'm questioning. I assume you grounded the small wire inside the engine compartment and not all the way back up at the winch.

It will be easy to check which is ground (and if it's ground) when I hook it up. But I'm a bit superstitious/paranoid that the load for some reason requires a second ground path.

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