Many people ask us what winch will work in conjunction with our FJ Winch Bumper and our Tacoma Winch Bumpers. The answer is that just about any winch will fit the mount. We have holes drilled for the standard 10″ x 4.5″ mounting bolt pattern used by 99% of the winches out there. What can limit your selection of a winch is the bracing behind the grille of the Tacoma and FJ or the A/C line on various year model FJ’s and the design of your winch and solenoid mounting. Visit our Google+ page for more customer installation photos and winch combinations.

Please read this full article but as a rule of thumb we suggest using a removable/remote solenoid style winch on FJ Cruisers and Tacomas. 

We offer an in depth line of combination packages with winches, shackles and more that take the guess work out of this.

You can also stagger the solenoid box off to the side some to clear any center grille bracing or A/C line.

 

 

One dimension to watch is the winch depth (front to rear). Most are around 6.25 to 6.5 inches. The winch tub on our bumpers is 8″ wide and there are a few winches out there wider than that. Because of certain clearances it’s best to stick with a winch that is less than 6.75″ wide, which most are.

For example:

• Viper Max: 6.3″
• Engo 10000S: 6.3″
• ComeUP DV-9S: 6.3″

…and most others, just check the specifications on the winch you are buying to make sure.

Below is a compilation of known winches that will work using our mount in any 2007-2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser and 2012+ Toyota Tacoma. That is not to say no other winch will work but the winches listed below have been fitted and are in use with our winch mount. Test fit your winch before painting your mount to make sure you don’t have any fitment issues to deal with! We also suggest testing the functionality of your winch, used or new, before installing it.

Here’s an example of how much this setup will weigh:

Winch mount bumper: 55.00 lbs (63.5 lbs (Tacoma)
Viper winch with no rope: 51.40 lbs
85′ x 3/8″ AmSteel rope: 3.6 lbs
Aluminum hawse: 1.5 lbs
Coating and fasteners: 1 lb
Total weight: 113 lbs (121 lbs Tacoma)

Mean Mother, Superwinch, ComeUp or one of the Engo winches and any other similarly styled winches that have a removable solenoid/control box will work quite well. Pay attention to the control cable port orientation on your selected winch. If it’s pointed straight up, for example, you won’t be able to get a control cable connected without opening the hood or adding an extension cable and mounting it in the grille or somewhere accessible. 

 

We are also finding that some winches with integrated solenoids can and will fit. Something like the Warn Zeon 10S fits, snug, but it fits. Depending on the year of your FJ the A/C line might be routed in a fashion that could interfere with the rearmost portion of the solenoid. 

 

As you can see the Zeon is 10.52″ tall but still fits. The Viper Elite is 10″ tall and 4″ narrower at 20.5″ wide so it should fit as well vertically but is a bit deeper and is untested. 2010+ FJ’s route the AC line differently and will hit the solenoid on the Elite.  The center brace behind the grille will interfere with the Elite as well. Some have made it work by trimming the brace. As a rule of thumb we suggest using a removable/remote solenoid style winch on FJ Cruisers and Tacomas.