Warn Rock Crawler bumper winch mount

[dtrojcak]

My jeep had a Warn Rock Crawler bumper on the front when I bought it.
I recently acquired a Warn XD9000i winch and have bought and installed the recommended 13910 mounting plate.
My confusion is how does the winch attach to the bumper.

From research I've done on Warn's website, they refer to the rockcrawler bumper as a "winch mounting system".

I've installed the mounting plate and winch per the instructions that came with the plate, but the bumper is not attached to either the plate or the winch.

Why would Warn refer to the bumper as a "winch mounting system" if the bumper is not actually attached to the winch in any way?
The mounting plate attaches directly to the frame rails. There is no need for a bumper at all from what I can tell.
The Warn bumper actually has some minor clearance issues with the mounting plate and the winch.
The edge of the side plates barely clear the top mounting bolts on the bumper and the bottom of the roller fairlead hits the top of the bumper.

Did I miss a step or do something wrong?
I followed the instructions that came with the mounting plate, but I could not find anything on how to mount it to the rockcrawler bumper.

 

[dtrojcak]

No one has a Warn bumper and winch?

 

[Posi]

Both my bumper and winch plate are fastened to the frame horns as well.



I welded a tab onto the inside bottom of the bumper for reinforcement.

 

[dtrojcak]

Thanks for the reply.
I guess I was just confused about Warn's description.
It says the rock crawler bumper is a winch mounting system.
But the truth is, you still need a winch plate.
Ironically, the winch bolts to the plate and the plate bolts to the frame.
NOTHING connects the winch and/or plate to the bumper. In fact, the bumper bolts are actually slightly in the way of the plate and the fairlead.
I'm just having trouble trying to figure out how this bumper is part of a winch mounting system.

 

[Hedgehog]

Obviously Warn is lying to us about this winch thing, I wouldn't trust'em. Or Maybe Warn considers the bumper, Winch, and plate to be part of an over all system that works well together. Yes, I read and do remember that you are having some clearance problems. Big deal, it's a part that is designed to work on many different years of CJ's. There could be some additional slack given with the fact that your jeep has lived a CJ's life for ~37 years.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

First thing one learns about CJ's.
No two, are the same---------
LG

 

[dtrojcak]

I never said Warn was lying or that I didn't trust them, so I'm not sure the attempted sarcasm was necessary.

My point was/is, I can remove the bumper completely and still have the winch mounted properly.
I was just making sure I wasn't missing any brackets in the plate box.

I received a reply from Warn confirming that I had all the pieces and that the bumper is not actually part of the winch mounting system.

Thanks to everyone who offered useful information.

 

[Hedgehog]

Ohhh I don't know, after seeing your posts that seemed to disbelieve Warns description as a winching system I was obviously drawn to a false impression of what you were trying to say.

 

[dtrojcak]

Ohhh I don't know, after seeing your posts that seemed to disbelieve Warns description as a winching system I was obviously drawn to a false impression of what you were trying to say.

You've offered useful advice to me in other threads, so I'm not sure why you are so persistent and condescending in this one, but maybe you can explain how the bumper is part of a winching system, when the bumper is not attached to the winch at all.

Warn's explanation to me was that the page is listed as "bumpers and winch mounting systems".
My bumper is just a bumper, not a winch mounting bumper. So in fact, I was correct in doubting Warn's description.
Other bumpers are able to accept winches.
My confusion was in thinking that all bumpers in that page were winch mounting systems.
It's not that big of a deal, just a little confusing on the webpage description.
As I already stated, my concern was missing parts/brackets with my winch plate.
I ordered it off of Amazon, not Warn, so missing parts was not an unreasonable concern.
Everyone is not as knowledgeable as you think you are.
The condescending remarks are not necessary in response to someone asking for help.

 

[Hedgehog]

Hey, I'm just going on the words as you wrote them, yes now it's a little clearer where your problem was and I understand the fear of not being sure you actually got all the parts you should have. But honestly, I can see a bumper that is designed to be used with or without the rest of the winch parts being called part of a bumper system or a group of parts designed to work together. When they stand alone the parts still work. Believe it or not I always try to be helpful in some way, I thought you were being harsh on Warn's description, so yes I did call you out on it, more to see if you'd relook at the wording of your posts than to be critical of you as a person. Jump on me if need be, I've got big ol' internet shoulders, this isn't a well rounded medium and intentions can easily be lost.

I do believe that a growing part of this CJ addiction we have is finding ways to modify often imperfect parts and pieces to make them work as advertised. For instance adding a tab or two to help one part work with another. Lets face it, the CJ line of add on parts matured 30 or so years ago leaving most of the imperfections in place. It does seem that the newer Wrangler or newer Jeep parts are designed better than the older parts. It's possible that the newer jeep corp. is more encouraging to aftermarket parts manufacture's.

...All I've got to say is, "take it easy son, we are friends here, life ain't so bad."