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Warn 9.5 XP Winch Installation | |
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CONTENTS 1) Vehicle Setup 2) Performance Review 3) Installation 4) Additional Resources 1) VEHICLE SETUP - Rubicon Express 2 Budget Boost - Spidertrax 1.25 Wheel Spacers - BFG 32x11.50 MT's - Warn Rock Sliders - 1 M.O.R.E. Body Lift - 1 M.O.R.E. Motor Mount Lift - Currie Anti-rock off-road swaybar There are no components that need to be installed prior to winch installation. 2) PERFORMANCE REVIEW New Features / Product Line Distiction: Warn's new line of Ultimate Performance winches includes their 9.5 xp, the 9.5 ti, and the 9.5 si. All of the Ultimate performance line have benefited from improved seals, better electronics for continuous duty cycles, stronger new generation Bosch series wound motors, and so forth. Features definitely worth the extra cost if purchasing a new winch but not something I would specifically replace an existing Warn winch for. The 9.5ti in particular has proven to be very popular with a lightening fast retrevial speed nearly matching the legendary Warn 8274 and motor temperature feed back in the control remote. The 9.5si employs Warns solid state winch control which does away with the mechanical solenoids used on any other electric winches on the market. It's said to be far more reliable and offer better control than the old mechanical systems. Nonetheless, I opted for the 9.5xp with the remote solenoid pack. The idea being that I can remote mount the pack under the hood for a cleaner and less cluttered profile up front. After having the winch install for over a year I've yet to get around to doing this. It's still on my "project list" though. Winch Mount Plate: Warn's mounting plate is an expensive chunk of steel at $156. At first I couldn't figure out why such a simple piece of metal would cost that much but decided to worder it anyways. After recieveing it I see why. It's a very stout, well designed mounting system that is far more robust than any pictures I have seen of it would indicate (Fig 1). However, if there are plans for a winch-mount aftermarket bumper in the future save up and get that instead. The winch mount plate is still expensive and very heavy. Might as well put some of the money and weight getting a stronger front bumper with integrated winch mount. Field Use: Over the last year plus I've use the 9.5 xp numerous time. Sometimes for self-extraction, often I'm helping others up the trail. Never once has there been any problem with the Warn unit. It's pulled strong in all situations without issue. The long 125 ft of cable supplied with the 9.5xp is nice, but sometimes it seems like it's almost too much cable. In the NW where trees are plentiful theres always a handy anchor point near by. Often, though, the winch cable spools up on one side and rubs the tie-rods connecting the different sides of the winch housing. This rubs the cable smooth and has been roughing up the tie-rods. I would mark this up to the user (me) not re-spooling a full cable drum during mid-winching operating and the fact there is a whole lot of cable. The finsh has been holding up very well despite perpetually being coated in a thin layer of dirt and mud and left out year round without a cover on. Dropped Front Bumper Height: The winch and mounting plate add up to a heafty 130 lb. or so. On stock springs this will cause a 3/4" - 1" drop in front bumper height. For those running Budget Boost lifts such as myself the rake becomes very comical. While handling is not affected the the Jeep just looks funny and this quickly become a persistent annoyance. There are XX solutions: 1) Add a 3/4" spacer ontop of the 2" BB spacer (nor recommended by lift kit manufacturers) 2) get a set of the ACOS (Adj. Coil Over Spacers), expensive at $200 per pair 3) get HD 2" lift springs to deal with the winch weight. For me the 2" HD lift springs were the way to go at $100 for the front pair. I left the rear BB spacers in place and the front lift springs returned the Jeep to the facotry rake angle. That is, there is a normal factory angle so that when passengers and gear are loaded in the Jeep it doesn't look ass-heavy. 3) INSTALLATION The winch installation is a straight forward process. However, the installation instructions would be more helpful if they were clearer. I did need to call Warn's technical line because I couldnt read the technical electrical diagram. The other thing that would be helpful is a better identification of the different hardware included. Not all the bolts, screws, and nuts are used and some look very similar to each other. In the end everything was sorted out. It would be a good idea to have a torque wrench for this installation since Warn calls out the necessary torque settings for all the fasteners. [ cont. ] |
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