You are gonna need a quick connect for power for the lights so you can switch between light bar and winch quickly. I picked this little deal up at the flea market for $2.25 and the male end plug for .75 cents. Mounted it up right under the front grille. Simple little plug, but has a cap when not in use and for $3 I thought it was a killer setup.



The 130 watt lights I have mounted on the fairlead plug into the same plug...

Oh and then I went a little outside the box! Found a wireless relay on ebay with 2 key fobs for $14 shipped. Used it and programmed my unused Homelink buttons in the Jeep so I didn't have to run a switch. They give you three buttons, everybody uses one for garage door opener, but the other two remain unused, so I said "what the hell".

Plus it's cool to be able to turn the lights on the winch off/on from in front of the vehicle if I'm forced to use the winch at night.







Of course, since the Hellas on the light bar plug into the same plug, they operate the same way. Either via the Homelink buttons or the key fobs...

 

Make sure you post up pics of your home-made light bar, I'd like to see it...

 

I need to buy a winch for my truck.. Too bad I dont have $1500 just laying around lol but thats a sweet up, both of em.

 

Over the last few years there has been a steady influx of Chinese made winches hitting the market. These are of varying quality, but a few, most notably the Smittybuilt and Rugged Ridge have shown to be reliable occasional use winches with very strong warranties.

I've seen 10,000 lb. class winches in both brands out there for around $399 new in the box.

Are they Warn & Ramsey class? no. Probably not even Mile Marker or Superwinch class, but nonetheless decent winches for occasional, emergency use.


Plus there are always DEALS out there! The ONLY reason I have the winch on the portable setup for my Jeep is because I stepped into a STEAL on the Warn that is now on my truck. Two year old, used once, eXtreme Duty class Warn that I traded a case of .223 ammo ($250 my cost) for!
This winch sells for $1100 new! So it's on my truck and my old winch got hand-me-downed to the Jeep.

 

Thats true, those are out there(Ive seen em once since I gave up on searching winches since all the prices I saw were $1000 to $2000+). Thatll be a possibility for me since I just want one for if I get stuck 4wheelin in the mountains(like I did earlier this summer... man would that have been nice lol). Although if I do get one, Im gonna get a heavy duty bumper to put on the front with the winch mount thing in it..

 

Hey Hammer, let me know when you wanna sell your Jeep. I love what you've done to it. Plus, its black and has nice Nitto's. Just my style

 

Only reason I never got a winch is I'm going to put a plow on mine.

 

I'll prolly drive it into the ground. I got it for about $5000 under KBB in '06. Wasn't really looking for the Overland when I bought it, at the time I thought it was kinda too "Caddy-like" for me inside. But I knew the previous owner and even though it had 61k on the odometer at the time, it was a "tow-behind" vehicle for their Winnebago. The 4.7 HO engine had closer to about 17k miles on it!
I've had it for a little over 4 years, put about 30k miles on it and KBB avg. trade is still higher than what I give for it.

The GC is now a IFS vehicle, so if I ever replaced this one, I'd prolly go with an Unlimited Wrangler to keep the 4 doors and SFA, but into my early 40's now, I'm kinda spoiled by the GC ride quality. Plus now I've changed my mind about the interior it's BIG TIME COZY!!!