Warn XD9000i Winch

I never figured I would get a winch so quickly, but luck steered me into a great deal on a brand new XD9000i. I saw a post on a bulletin board online (after doing a search for this winch) from a guy who needed to sell his winch, new in box and never used. I emailed him, and after the original buyer fell through, he offered it to me for $600! Turns out he works for Warn, but to make a long story short, I couldn't pass up the deal even though I'm enemployed and broke:) Shipping wound up being only $30, so I think I got a pretty good deal.

Installing the winch was a piece of cake, about as easy as installing the bumper. Wayne sent me a fairlead bracket since the bumper is designed for a foot mount style winch. This bracket gets sandwiched between the winch and the top of the bumper, and has two holes on the front surface to attach the roller fairlead. I had to replace the 4 mounting bolts Warn sent with a new set that was .25" longer, to account for the added thickness of the fairlead bracket. The bolts were the perfect length, and the whole thing bolted up easily. Slightly more difficult was the task of routing the heavy 2 gauge cables through the grill, around the battery, and then getting them connected to the battery post bolts securely.

After mounting the winch and fairlead, the Jeep has setled maybe another 3/8", but not much. The 1" spacer and 5/8" isolator I added to counter the additional weight of the winch and new bumper may have been a bit much, but it could still settle a bit. With about 7.5" of lift in the front, my track bar is now too short, causing the front axle to be off center by about an inch. This problem will have to be addressed in the near future. I may also need to add about another 1" to the rear in the form of blocks, to level things out. I could have sworn I vowed never to go higher than 6" of lift!!!