I love the hidden connections! I’m a non front plate state….Hi there, ok, so I think I may be the first to install the RC hidden winch kit on a 2.7L mod bumper. I have a First Edition and want to keep it looking stock. Now I'll be the first to tell you that I have EXCLUSIVELY purchased WARN winches prior and I agree RC would not be my choice of winch (and it may get swapped out down the road) however this is not really an off road vehicle for me as I have a built Gladiator on 40's so it'll do or now.
I did want to accomplish a couple of things however with my First Edition:
1. Keep it basically looking stock (no lift, just front level)
2. Set it up for dinghy towing
3. Add a winch, in case I want to hit some trails or need it to help someone out
4. Add onboard air
6. Add steps so the kids can get it
7. Get rid of the auto start/stop
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Basically we separated the winch from it's power controller, moved the cooler up some from it's stock location to on-top of the winch, mounted the controller up by the battery and ran the controller extension out to behind the front license plate which was converted to flip up. Behind the front license plate I have my winch control, air chuck (dual ARB compressor under the hood), break away and tow wiring connector. This does not affect the AAC, camera and we used the factory skid plate. I know someone mentioned going wireless, I have done that before on prior builds and find that the remote is always dead when I need it so I've gone back to wired remotes on my winches, but maybe that's just me?
Sorry, I didn't have the shop document the install process, we just focused on making it work, but if you have a good off-road fab shop (not a bolt on parts shop) it can be done and you could swap out the winch if it meets the size and spec of the space of the RC with their mount.
As a fellow wheeler, the one thing I would warn you about with this setup if you do plan to do a lot of wheeling in the future is that the winch is not accessible. That means you can't unlock it and free-spool so it you need to run it out, you have to electronically run it out slowly. This could be frustrating if using it a lot on a trail. For me, this is really a like to have on this than a plan to use so I'm good with it as I use the jeep for off roading, but if I planned to actually wheel the Bronco, I'd probably lean toward relocating the AAC module and putting the WARN up front.
Iirc the warm platinum zeon 10 uses an electric remote spool solenoid. Not cheap…. @ 2000
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