I'm with jim on keeping the winch inside when not in use, not sure on how you wheel but in most cases the winch is used on rare occasions and keeping it dry and out of the mud only lenghtens it's life. One wheeler I know of had the winch mounted every day for over 2 years with no protection just to keep the bling factor as high as possible and finaly when it was time to winch out of trouble it was a no go. All the salt and crap from the roads seized up the winch or crapped out the relay.

The only winch I'd trust inside my bumper would be a hydraulic or a PTO powerd one.


This is one way of keeping the winch in place and minimizing rattle and sideways movement.