Truer words were never spoken!
4.5 x 10 is a popular bolt patter amongst winches. Very happy about that as we could now actually rebuild winches rather then buy brand new ford ones, or deal with the awful warranty process.
Definitely interesting. As far as I know 4.5"x10" is the standard bolt pattern, so I bucket this with the Goremantech mount. Obviously differences between them, but fundamentally a similar idea.
From another thread, my thoughts on factory vs third party:
I recommend a third-party winch purely so you have a relationship with the winch manufacturer directly, rather than having to go through Ford. This is in case something goes wrong with your winch. I'm not saying the Ford winch is bad quality necessarily, but things go wrong sometimes.
As I've learned over the last 3+ months trying to get my winch repaired, Ford does not have a good system in place for repairing their winches. And this was with it still under the bumper to bumper warranty. I don't know what it will be like to get individual parts once the winch is out of warranty.
My winch died on December 16, 2022. Today I picked up my truck from the dealership with a repaired winch. That's 105 days without a working winch. Roughly speaking here's the breakdown of that time:
If I had a direct relationship with the manufacturer I wouldn't have needed to wait for an appointment with the dealer, there wouldn't have been any bickering over what diagnostics needed to be done, and I could have done any necessary diagnostics myself before getting the parts shipped directly to me.
- A month of that time was waiting for my first appointment with the dealership (I have three Ford dealerships in the area and all are incredibly booked out).
- Another month was the dealership bickering with Ford over how much diagnostic work the dealership needed to do to root cause the problem.
- The final month was them doing the diagnostics, getting the replacement parts, and doing the install.
So that's my #1 reason, by a long shot, to go third-party. But there are other benefits of going third-party.
I talk about doing things myself, but that's a pretty massive PITA because of how the factory winch is tucked away. Sure does look nice, but means to do pretty much anything other than a rope change you need to drop the bumper. Almost nothing is accessible. Depending on the mount you go with, it might be a similar story...or it might not be. You can choose how you want to prioritize that if going third-party
I will say the cause of my failure was corrosion, and apparently there was corrosion found all around the winch. I would love to put connector sealant on the winch connections regularly...but I'm not sure I can do that because they aren't accessible. This is problematic.
The factory winch is non-standard in a couple of ways:
All of those non-standard bits mean aftermarket support is pretty much non-existent for the factory winch. Should you want to move to a different mounting solution in the future, you're either immediately modifying that new mount to work with the factory winch, or replacing it. Not the end of the world, but not great, either.
- Mounting pattern. Effectively all aftermarket winches (there's a couple of very specialized exceptions) use the same mounting pattern, making mounts and winches interchangeable. The Ford winch uses a special mounting pattern that's smaller than standard.
- Caveat to this complaint: you can drill new holes in whatever mounting solution to make the Ford winch fit.
- Fairlead bolt spacing. Effectively all aftermarket winches and mounts (there's a couple of very specialized exceptions) use the same fairlead bolt spacing, making fairleads, winches, and mounts interchangeable. The Ford fairlead uses a narrower spacing. Additionally, the fairlead has the connector for the controller built into it - different than all aftermarket ones - so the hole for the wires (and potentially the backside of the connector) doesn't exist.
- Caveat to this complaint: you can drill new holes in whatever mounting solution you're using to make the Ford fairlead work, or just discard the Ford fairlead and switch to aftermarket and move the controller connector somewhere else.
- Rope length. The Ford winch has a non-standard 70' of rope. Most winch rope is sold in a length of 100'. The reason for the shorter rope length is packaging to make the winch fit in the cramped space.
- Caveat: there are some reputable companies making winch rope in 70' lengths and, worst case, you can shorten synthetic rope pretty easily.
Initial thread on my winch failure:
Follow-up thread that discusses aftermarket options quite thoroughly, and I would strongly recommend reading through to help with your decision:
Factory winch just died
Pretty sure my factory winch just died, unless someone has a suggestion to get it going again. Was servicing my truck. As a part of it I like to pull some winch rope out and wind it back in to exercise the winch, since I don’t use it regularly. When I went to wind it back in there was a bunch...www.fordtremor.com
What to do about dead winch situation...
So as some of you know, my winch died before the holidays. Thread on that here: https://www.fordtremor.com/threads/factory-winch-just-died.13294 There's three things that have me sketched out about the whole thing: It's taking 2+ months to resolve. We're already at the 2 month point and my...
www.fordtremor.com
www.fordtremor.com
www.fordtremor.com
www.fordtremor.com
www.fordtremor.com
Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for (FWIW only one of those threads shows up if you google this + another one where a guy's control box corroded because it wasnt installed correctly by the dealer in order to allow water to drain properly). This answers my biggest concern about the strength of the mount or I guess the mount is fine (havent seen anywhere the winch was torn straight out of the truck) but the mounting plate for the fairlead I mean... more annoyingly this means that would probably have problems with any of these aftermarket mounts as they all use a similar setup. I havent found an aftermarket winch bumper that I care for too much (my truck isnt a desert racer, and I'd really prefer to not make it look like I am pretending that it is), and I am not interested in the Warn kit that requires putting 4" spacer on the bumper either.From another thread, my thoughts on factory vs third party:
Winch, would you order OEM or Add Later?
Given the rather exorbitant cost for the OEM winch, what are your thoughts about having a dealer or other shop add later vs. buying OEM? The savings "might" approach $2,000 (perhaps slight exaggeration). I'd probably go OEM, but at some point it is the "principle" of the thing. After market...
Worth noting that all hidden winch mounts, including Goremantech and this Rough Country one, will make it a PITA to access the winch for servicing. So that's not unique to the Ford kit.
Another common issue is the plate the fairlead mounts to bending easily when snugging the hook up to it (for those storing it that way):
OEM Warn Winch - Lesson Learned - Hook winch hook to Tow Hook!
I have a 2022 Tremor - ordered OEM 12k Warn Winch - dealer installed. After about 1,000 miles I had issues with my adaptive cruise control. Found stuff on here, that a lot of folks found that dealers missed step 7 & 8 in install and failed to remove a bracket in the bumper during install that...
Factory Winch Deflection caused by pro-link or ultrahook?
Does anyone use a Factor55 ultrahook on their factory winch? If so, does the front plate deflect (or move back ) when snugging up your hook when you are done using it? Trying to figure out if the dealership botched my install or if this is normal behaviour on the facilities winch setup
Another issue that's been reported is the Ford mounting plates bending when doing a side pull. I can't find the post for the life of me, though, and it was only one report (that came from Facebook, if I remember right) so take it with some amount of salt. But there was a general lack of surprise from the forum based on the design of the mount.
I also recommend reading through these two threads which discuss the topic of Ford winch vs third party:
Pros and Cons of Ford Warn Winch
I've had my Tremor since Jan 2021. I thought it might be helpful to share my initial thoughts on the Ford Performance Winch By Warn package. I haven't really had a need to use the winch yet for a real recovery. I've only run it to practice rigging and to tension the new winch rope. So far...
Winch or no wench?
Sooo I’m finalizing my order. I’m debating the winch option. Seems like a pretty good deal from the factory. its covered by the Ford warranty correct? What’s everyone’s thoughts? winch pros -having a winch is damn cool - make new friends pulling people out of ditches - another random tool...
Welcome to the club on this one.
How do you feel about full replacement bumpers to protect against deer damage?Welcome to the club on this one.
I had a Ranch Hand Legend full replacement bumper on my original 2021 that I sold last summer (long story there), it was excellent peace of mind on early morning trips to the ranch during hunting season and even just driving around at night around town where deer are frequent. It was heavy though, and stuck out almost a foot further than the factory bumper.How do you feel about full replacement bumpers to protect against deer damage?
Thank you
How do you feel about full replacement bumpers to protect against deer damage?
Thank you
Whoops! Missed this one. I think you've seen my rants before in this regard lol, but will re-type for folks watching this thread.
Deep, but good stuff....Whoops! Missed this one. I think you've seen my rants before in this regard lol, but will re-type for folks watching this thread.
Appearance: I haven't seen a replacement bumper focused on deer damage that I love the looks of on an otherwise stock truck. My opinion, they vary from horrendous to mediocre, in no small part because of how much they angle up in front of the tires and stick out like a pouting bottom lip (other reasons, too). With the right changes elsewhere on the truck, they can look pretty good.
Functionality summary: Aftermarket deer bumpers appear to do the job of protecting from deer strikes quite well, but you need to be aware of and OK with increasing the risk of taking or dramatically changing another person's life in a collision. This includes collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles at speed. In the case of impacting another vehicle, that risk applies not only to everyone in the other vehicle, but everyone in your vehicle.
Let's get into the details of that summary.
None of the deer protection bumpers available for our trucks have been crash tested to ensure safety in a collision with another vehicle or a pedestrian.
I contacted Warn, Buckstop and Ranch Hand, and confirmed they don't do crash testing. For the ones I did not contact, they're smaller brands and if they did crash testing, you would think they would advertise it. ARB crash tests their bumpers, and advertises it, but they don't make one for the newer generation Super Duty's. If someone knows of an aftermarket bumper for our trucks that is crash tested please let me know.
Maybe (maybe!) in a high speed collision with a lighter vehicle you're more safe having an immovable bumper. But that's not guaranteed. Crumple zones exist for a reason: the vehicle absorbs the impact, not the occupants. In an impact with a similar weight or heavier vehicle I'm truly not convinced a solid bumper is good.
Even if we assume you're OK in your truck with a big bumper thanks to being heavier, that doesn't mean the person or family that's on the other side is OK. Reducing your crumple zone decreases safety on both sides of the collision.
As for pedestrians, I struggle to see how any bumper that protects against deer damage is anything but horrible for pedestrian safety. Vehicles designed for pedestrian safety focus on the bumper and hood being relatively soft to minimize leg and head injury, as well as prioritizing the pedestrian coming onto the hood so they don't go under the vehicle.
Bumpers focused on deer protection emphasize that they're unmovable and often have features to prevent deer from coming up on the hood. The exact opposite of pedestrian safety design.
Regardless of who's at fault (we all make mistakes), I want to minimize, not maximize, my contributions to ending or dramatically changing someone else's life.
I hear the arguments for needing deer protection, though.
People who live where there's so many deer that they will have multiple collisions per year. Assuming the driver is already driving defensively, then that deer bumper is critical in reducing truck downtime. That can make a huge difference in someone's ability to live and work. This is the strongest argument, by far. It is up to the individual to weigh the benefits of reducing that downtime with the increased risk of taking or severely damaging a life (including their own).
Another common argument is life safety. The bumper reduces the likelihood of the vehicle being disabled in bad weather or a remote location. This is a weak argument to me. There are a million and one ways a vehicle can leave you stranded that don't involve deer. If you're going somewhere that being stranded is a risk to life safety, don't get a new bumper, get supplies, equipment, and training to keep you alive and rescued (extra food and water, sleeping bag, satellite communications, etc). And slow down to decrease the likelihood of hitting a deer in the first place.
