I had a HF 12,000 lb winch under my original bumper on my LX450. Easy install for a low budget tool.
Keep in mind, HF stuff has it's place but especially anything from HF involving electrical, like a winch, will have a horribly short duty cycle which will work in many cases but might require extended cool off times between pulling efforts. If I remember, their winches have a 5 or 10% duty cycle with a 20 minute cool down.
That said, below are some pics where my son sunk my 97 LC to the frame in lake mud. For 3 hrs. he and his friends dug, stuffed boards under tires, got turned down by several offroaders who declined to go out there and suffer the same fate. Finally he had to eat crow and call dad to be rescued. After airing the LX450 down to 15 lbs, I was able to pick a route to get within 300 ft. from there between the 85 ft of cable, chains and a retired low stretch rope from SAR, and 8 people rocking the LC side to side to break the vacuum, I was able to winch him out. HF worked hard, did the job. HF winch is not the right tool for a hard core rock crawler, but just fine for a budget tool for the occasional rescue.
Insallation. (sorry, didnt take pics... now sold) 1. Remove bumper. 2. HF mounting tray bolted between the factory hooks and the frame. Some limited trimming of the tray will have to be done to fit. 3. I was a little concerned on the tray's strength after the trimming so I bolted on a full length 2 X 1/4 inch angle iron under the tray...full length running between trucks frame rails. 4. Cut bumper to fit fairlead. I originally bought a low profile fairlead but it didnt stick out far enough to protect bumper from cable damage, so I used the roller fairlead that came with the winch. 5. cut 1 inch hole in top of bumper to access the clutch handle. I made a little handle from a 4" X 1/2 inch galvanized pipe, 90 deg angle and 2 inch pipe. I cut a slot in the end of the 4 inch to straddle the clutch handle. This way I could access the clutch handle to operate the winch. 6. Hardest part of install was placement of the control box. I had it inside of the bumper also but was not happy with it. I am sure you can find a better solution.. Suggestion. open up the control box and heavily coat all electrical connections with dielectric grease or they will corrode because the box is not at all weather proof. (typical HF crap)
Dont forget to use good tires for the task, air down, have the other recovery tools also, like dampening blanket, anchor straps, snatch block.
1st pic. 1200 feet from the last solid ground.
2nd pic stuck right up to the frame.
3rd pic. bumper cut and clutch handle access hole ( after winch was removed.. tray still installed)
