Calling all Bud built hidden winch owners...

Looking to do a hidden winch setup on my 2013 Trail. Thinking right now that I'm going to go with the bud built plate, I like that it doesn't require any cutting of the bumper. Looks like a very clean install.

Questions for anyone running it, which winch are you running? I don't have any specific brand loyalty on winches, I want to stick to a 9500 - 10k per the recommendation on the bud built site. Looking for something that will require the least modification of everything else, while being reliable and not too too spendy.

Thanks for any advice!

I'll just add that I don't do a ton of off-roading, this isn't something that's going to get beaten to death every weekend. I mainly want this for peace of mind, a few weeks ago I had to help recover somebody where a winch would have made the recovery much easier.

 

Sorry, I can't contribute anything meaningful and I'm too lazy to visit their website so I have to ask - how do you mount a winch without cutting the bumper?

All of the hidden mounts I've seen require at least a cutout for the fairlead. And if you're gonna cut a hole for that, may as well cut for a low pro bumper. Bumper cover is destroyed either way unless you plan to hide the hole with the valance in the future

 

Here's the pic from the bud built site. Lower grill piece is removed, fairlead lines up right in that space.


I have a 2013, as far as I know, nobody makes a low pro anymore for the 2010-2013. If that were an option I probably would go that route. I'm tempted to go with a full bumper replacement, but I really don't want to add that much weight to the front.

Here's a shot of LFDs mount for the 2010 - 2013, I like this one too, but as you can see you need to trim the lower bumper a bit for the fairlead. Not a deal breaker, but the bud built is actually cheaper as well.

 

Damn, yeah, I see your plight. Not a lot of options for prefacelift.

I agree with not going full bumper if you're not hardcore - that's why I went aluminum to keep the weight down.

Budbuilt looks like a good option - would be nice to see actual users chime in

 

Dang! I sold my Victory Low Pro earlier this year. With the bar it was 86lbs btw

 

I'm kind of liking the Ironman winch.

https://ironman4x4america.com/recov...Sp9WYEtQb8ni68STqxJo2IyGssOZ4m0MaAok4EALw_wcB

It's about $525 on sale with free shipping, and since the control box is separate, mounting looks to be easier. The limited number of reviews are positive.

I was also thinking Warn EVO 10S, but that's a little spendy. Smittybilt XRC Gen 3 is on the list as well, for roughly the same price as the Ironman.

 

I didn't realize victory made one for the early 5th gen, I'll have to check to see if it's still in production.

 

I don’t believe it is on the site, but they might still do it if you call them. I’ve had luck calling other places that still had designs for our OG 5th gen. I bought mine in Sept 2020. You can see it in some of my old pics

 

All things being equal, I’d suggest a winch mount/winch combo that allows you easy access to the hard wire connection port and allows you to reach the clutch lever easily through the front. Access to the port is less important if you dona hard wired remote installation, you might need it if the battery in the remote controller is dead—cuz it will be lol).

The LFD one seems to mount the winch a bit lower, and it looks like plenty of space for a hand to fit easily. This would make it less of a hassle, and quicker to use in tough self-recovery situations. I got stuck in a pretty deep puddle exactly when I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t looking for trouble, but it found me. While my buddy was there to winch me out, if I had been alone, and I had to muck around popping the hood to access the clutch, it would have taken a long time to get things set up for the pull. All while my 4runner sat in deep water. And since I would have been nearly waist high in water, it would have meant some awkward climbing/crawling on the vehicle to get there from up top by popping the hood.

Also, if you’re in a salt state, you should probably rig up some sort of removable cover to keep salt-spray road mist from soaking the winch.

 

I have this installed in my hidden winch. My control box is buried pretty deep in the bumper near the winch so I primarily used the wireless controller with the dongle plugged into the box, however recently I purchased their winch plug extension and have it ran to a place I can access it.

Note that the wireless controller is powered by a "non-replaceable" and "non-rechargeable" battery. Which is annoying, but you can pretty easily replace the weird A23 battery if you run wireless a lot. I ran mine for like 1.5y before it died on me, I now actively replace it once a year. Just need a screwdriver.

 

Thanks for the info, that's good feedback.

Good point about being able to access everything quickly. I was looking at the LFD again, and also my front bumper, and you're correct, it does look like it gives more hand access. I can see how with the winch mounted a little bit lower. I can totally reach my hand in there to hit the clutch if I need to. I see on the later 5th gen people have to cut holes in the radiator shroud to get it, nice not having to do that on this one. Also, I noticed that LFD has a version with front recovery points that stick out on either side of the fairlead. Looks pretty cool, and those look much easier to get at than the ones buried underneath the bumper.

I think I'm going to go this route, and they're also having a 10% sale right now.

And yes, I'm in Rhode Island, where they love to dump a ton of salt on the road if it's even predicted to snow an inch. I was thinking that I would want to rig up some kind of a cover for it. I have friends that run winches, so I'm going to reach out to them to see what they do.

 

Thanks for the info! I haven't been able to find a lot of info on this winch, I don't think many people are running it, or at least posting about it. The few photos they had of Toyota installs on their websites look pretty good, so it's still a contender. Unfortunately the discount on it is as much as I thought it was, it doesn't fall under their 25% sale.

 

I got the BudBuilt Hidden Winch for my 2021 4runner Limited.
It bolts to the frame and ubolts to the Crash Bar.
On my post-facelift 2021 I had to have some of the plastic cut, but it does a good job of protecting winch from wet and salt.
I went with the Harbor Freight 12,000 Badland winch with Synthetic Rope, My shop was able to get the Harbor Freight winch installed without needing to relocate the solenoid. I had them cut a bit of the black background in the grill for access to the clutch, switch, and wired connector.
I've used the winch a bunch. for recoveries and for pulling stumps (it was a cold winter and a lot of bushes didn't survive.) It's worked so well each time I've used it.
*** Ask Bud and team to put the recovery points on it. The pictures don't do it justice, but the recovery points are 1/2" steel and part of the main piece that is bolted to the frame/crash-bar. The website makes it look they are bolted/screwed to the plate. They accept normal D-ring shackles and function very well IMO.

 

That looks great! Thanks for the info about the recovery points. I didn't see any mention of them on their website.

How do you access the winch controls, from under the hood?

Do you have any install pics? I don't doubt the strength, but installing with U-Bolts just sounds janky, haha.

 

1. I access the winch controls from the front. You can see where the plastic is cut in the 2nd picture above. Just to the right of the TSS Sensor. You can only see it if you bend over and look straight into the grill. After using the winch several times I can say it is so much nicer to have front access. You reach in, turn on the wireless, engage the clutch, unspool, hook up to the anchor point, walk back to the truck, set the clutch again get in the truck and start winching. Every time you touch the winch, if you were accessing from the hood, you would need to open and close the hood, that is a lot of open/closing.

2. I can't find the install images but i believe @Well69 has some images of the install for his.

 

Hang on and I'll see if I can find the post with the install pictures.

Budbuilt is definitely the way to go in my humble opinion.

I have a harbor freight Badlands 12,000 lb winch with synthetic rope. It's around $500 and like you I just wanted piece of mind. I've ended up using it a lot more than I would have thought to do things unrelated to being stuck. The reviews are solid and it's a good winch.

Bud offers two types of hidden winch mount - with or without recovery points/shackles. I was the guinea pig and as usual, after he builds something his engineer brain makes the second version better - thus the recovery points.

Since you have a 2013 you can install it yourself if you want. I didn't install it because it hadn't even been installed on one with TSS and I didn't want to break the system. I would have if I didn't have that system to worry about.

I like having the power cut off switch that comes with the winch installed. It's nice knowing it's not leeching power. It's not required, but my two cents.

 

https://www.4runners.com/posts/519190/