Hidden Winch 2018 TRD PRO

The zeon winches are a pretty tight fit with a hidden winch system if you don't relocate the solenoid, there is a bracket the may contact the top of the solenoid. A light bar in the lower grill slot is hit or miss depending on the winch/bumper you pick, some are able to get them to fit others can't(me being in the can't group, I have a SSO bumper)

 

Thanks guess I’ll just have to try

 

There’s pictures in this thread and on the SSO website itself of the streamline bumper with a winch and light bar. The white truck on their website doesn’t have a winch but that blue one does

 

The picture above is not a SSO bumper FYI, I believe that is a SOS.

There was no way I could install the LED mounting brackets and the bumper and still have proper thread engagement on the stud for the nut, I have/had the CaliRaised brackets. I'm also not sure if the light bar would have cleared the winch clutch handle either, would have been really tight from looking at it.

I'm not able to enlarge that picture but I don't see a winch in that bumper, just a fairlead.

 

What winch did you end up using with this? I see they only guarantee Warn will work but I was going to do a Smittbilt....

 

Love the hoops man. Only way to go IMO

 

Yea sorry meant SOS but I now see that you have the SSO. And uh, people do that? Install a fairlead with no winch?

 

Anyone else have a hard time swallowing the shipping costs on these things? I get that these are usually small fabricators, but in the Jeep world, everything shipped free. Paying an additional 15-20% to ship a $700 product seems crazy to me. I really need something, but ouch.

 

Did you ever think that the "free shipping" isn't necessarily "free". All they are doing is marking up the product enough to cover the shipping.

Actually you get screwed this way, because they are going to add in the shipping costs of the most expensive zone...so, if you are in a zone closest to the shipper you are actually paying more than you would have if you paid shipping separate.

@Mobtown Offroad shipped my skids and sliders at a rate that is cheaper than my own...and I work for a very large logistics company with DEEP discounts from FedEx and a bunch of LTL carriers. Not sure about other vendors, but their shipping is very fair.

 

I do certainly understand that. But you also have products such as bumpers that start in the $400 range plus free shipping for a decent quality product. On the Tacoma, we’re stuck with $700+ and then add $100-200 for shipping. It’s market demand, and I get that, but damn it sucks. I’m new to the Toyota world, so if there are good options out there that I just haven’t seen yet (entirely possible), I’d love some guidance.

Sorry if I thread jacked this.

 

That is an unfair comparison. A Jeep bumper is small and extremely basic and simple compared to what it takes to make a bumper for the Tacoma. Jeep bumpers are small enough to where you can also ship them through fedex or UPS ground whereas a bumper on a Tacoma is very large and although you can ship them fedex or UPS ground you are asking for trouble due to their weight and size. I've made a bumper for a Jeep and I was able to ship it fedex for $40 to South Carolina from Maryland. It was small enough and light enough to where I could pick it up with one hand and set it in the truck for fedex. That is just not possible with a bumper for any Toyota truck. The Toyota geometry just does not allow you to make small bumpers attractive. The way jeeps are designed it is very easy to do that period and like the one guy said free shipping screws the people that are close to where the bumper ships from. I can ship sliders for $125 almost up-and-down the entire East Coast whereas going to California theyre $250 we ship a lot to California. So setting up free shipping with me in my product would be 250 more dollars and free shipping. It would basically make it extremely unfair for anyone else in the country

 

You may be right when comparing a stubby to a full width tacoma bumper. But I’d have to disagree in a broad sense. Take the Warn Elite front bumper for a Jeep - full width, plate steel, powder coated, $680 shipped in the lower 48. In comparison, your full width plate bumper, powder coated is $1,049 plus ($100?) shipping. Even the SOS LoPro bumper is a couple hundred more than a Jeep stubby before shipping.

My point here wasn’t to call out Tacoma parts builders as taking advantage of the consumer, but rather to highlight that the bigger Jeep aftermarket supports lower prices through higher volumes, and that sucks for us. Your parts could be higher quality steel, thicker, more cuts/bends, etc. and that’s cool. But you simply don’t have the volume or distribution (Quadratec for example) to get prices down. That’s not unfair, that’s reality.

 

Sub'd

 

x2 on the SDHQ hidden winch mount. Keeps the factory look, but is easily the best hidden winch mount for factory bumper on the market.


edit:

http://store.sdhqoffroad.com/2016tacomahiddenwinchmount.aspx

 

Think that’s the one I’ll end up with. It’s more expensive than most, but the design looks solid, and they have really good instructions.

 

everything they make is done so with the utmost attention to detail and quality, even down to their exceptionally detailed instructions and packaging. Add to that their mount is the only one that had integrated recovery points. Believe me, it is definitely worth the extra few bucks. No better fit and finish on the market.

 

Where are those recovery points? I don’t see them on the pictures. At least not on the 3rd gen version.

 

they bolt on the under side of the bumper. They are the two additional pieces in their product pics. Hard to see, but on the 2nd or 3rd page in my build thread, you can see some soft shackles in mine.

 

Ended up ordering the CBI...Smittybilt X20 10K, Factor 55 Flatlink and Factor 55 1" Fairlead.