Soooo what the biggest winch you guys put on your Slee short bus bumper? (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
May 22, 2018
Threads
13
Messages
48
Location
Florida
I currently have a warn vr8000 on my slee shortbus bumper and im thinking about upgrade it to a Harbor Freight (I know........) Apex 12000lbs and move my VR8000 to the rear so I will have dual winch setup.
The deal on Black Friday from Harbor Freight is just too good to not to think about it. Its 549.99 and I believe you can use a 20% off coupon on top of that.

So the question is, the slee short bus bumper is not very happy when it comes to winches that has a relatively larger size. On slees website it says the short bus is good for up to 8000lbs winches.

what do you guys have?
 
I'm using a ComeUp 9,500 which I bought from Slee. They also have a ComeUp 12,000 which they sell and Slee said would work.
 
I’ve got an older Warn HS9500. Had to grind just a little to clear the motor cooling fins in one spot on the underside of the motor.
 
12K Smittybuilt
 
On slees website it says the short bus is good for up to 8000lbs winches.

From the Slee site:

002E3D8B-BEE0-4807-8CBF-51C73A5F9836.jpeg

Warn 9.5xps here
 
The 'old' Harbor Freight 12k. But, as a disclaimer - I have only one serious pull on it. Haven't noticed any ill effects on the bumper.
 
Harbor Freight has their 90 day no questions asked return policy, so the only thing you'll be risking is time and trouble if you get the HF winch, pull the bumper and see if the new one will mount up okay. If you're already committed to moving your existing winch to the rear, I'd go for it. I don't think you can get a definitive answer without actually pulling the bumper and trying to mount the new one up.
I'm convinced that SuperWinch is the best budget winch, just my opinion. But hopefully you'll get years of good use out of the new HF winch. They do look good.
 
I run the Comeup 12.5 - fits fine
 
As far as your winch choice I wouldn't worry about it being "harbor freight" unless you worry about what other people think. ;) I have that winch and it's amazing! I think I got it for $399 on some crazy sale. So far I have used it to help pull a skid steer out of a pond, used it with a gantry that I built to pull and reinstall a V8 motor in a boat, pulled a couple 1 ton trucks out a bog...etc. If you look at any YT reviews you'll see it's the best winch bargain on the market. I am specifically talking about the 12,000 Apex with the synthetic line and included remote control.
 
Someone have pics of a Zeon 10S installed on a new (2021+) Shortbus bumper? Apparently it’s supposed to fit without even taking the control box off but it definitely does not.
 
Doesn’t even fit if you try to mount the box on the provided bracket. Tried it several different ways and gave up after my head was about to explode.

288C3449-36F6-42E8-835A-8D97849A1F9D.jpeg


71D0B59A-6C95-40C8-9E87-2F460418693E.jpeg


540271EA-61E5-4781-B661-1F8A25ADE6DE.jpeg


1BFFBC91-9944-4444-A268-0F1852042640.jpeg
 
Unfortunately, the Zeon series only fits with a solenoid relocation kit. If I recall, a couple of folks have gotten it to fit (still attached to the winch), by tweaking the lower grill valence.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately, the Zeon series only fits with a solenoid relocation kit. If I recall, a couple of folks have gotten it to fit (still attached to the winch), by tweaking the lower grill valence.
Slee said they redesigned the bumper in 2021for the Zeon to fit without cutting up the body of the vehicle or removing the box. But as you can see it’s nowhere near close to fitting and my bumper is a recent order, definitely part of the new series. I’ll figure something out, I’m not sweating it, but it was def an unexpected surprise.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom