So its pretty late and I stopped for the night. I'm going to try to write this out the best I can. I had the Honda Warn winch mount with Warn 4500 winch from Honda previously installed but we had a little mishap when we were stuck in a blizzard a weekend or two ago and I cracked the drum so I wanted to get another winch while I wait for parts. I saw EMP had released their mount and it looked like it had way less angle than the stock mount and I thought it would be better for synthetic rope.
Fast forward to thursday morning and I ordered it from EMP overnight delivery (which ended up costing more than the mount!) The were great and got it out that day so I received it Friday. Friday night after work I started installing it and noticed that one of the bolts was not going to fit the mount on the planetary gear side without grinding the bolt most of the way down and welding it in place since there would be no room for a wrench at that point. Got that done and painted then installed it on to the bumper.
That's where I ran into the next major problem. It doesn't fit the stock bumper with a Terra 45. It hit the side brace on the Terra 45's planetary house and also the tabs for the drum support rod hit the front of the bumper! Fast forward to Saturday and after work I cut the support out of the bumper to clear the planetary and welding a piece back in on the side to restrengthen it. Also I had to cut the lower part of the bumper and fold it out in like a triangle shape then re weld it so it didn't look like s***. Got all that done and it worked perfect.
Then I started to try to tighten the inner bolts, what a freaking pain in the ass that was. Ended up using a ratchet wrench on the back two bolts through the front of the bumper and the front ones I slowly did by hand. A few beers later I had those ones done. Then I moved onto the side ones and they were pretty easy for the most part you just can't get a whole lot of turn out of them. Make sure you put the U-bolts in before tightening all these too cause I made that mistake just trying to tighten the inner ones before sliding the bumper on (which didn't work because it sucks the bumper tubes in enough they won't slide into the frame) The U-bolt ones were probably the easiest to tighten but I didn't like the fact that there's a little over a 1/4" gap between the supports and the frame. Yes I did have the plate all the way back too. There's only so much actual wiggle room it would work with.
So all in all the Superwinch Terra 45 is NOT a bolt in option for that mount. Warn pro vantage 4500 will probably fit as they use a smaller planetary set, more powerful motor and a 1/4" larger drum to get their gearing down. I also think the Warn may have a little bit better cable angle being a larger drum. But I didn't check with mine cause it was such a pain installing. The Superwinch line on the last wrap of the drum still does have an angle coming out even with the fairlead down as far as it will go without hogging out the stock holes. Its much less of an angle though. I would say like 15 degrees? I could be off on that it might be more or less, i'm tired.
All in all it is decently made piece,time consuming to install but should be strong. The powder coating was done nice and they include quality bolts and flanged nyloc nuts with it. Their instructions are pretty decent except where they forgot to say which direction the plate goes. I can look with a flashlight and tell you if you need help one side has more holes that's how i figure it out since they had it on their website and you could see. It will be a nightmare if you broke your cable close to the drum and had to respool it on the trail. Taking the bumper off will take 10 times as long now since you will need to loosen all the bolts to the mount since they pull the bumper tubes together a bit.
Last thing worth mentioning is there is no protection for the Superwinch Terra 45 since it all the way up against the bash plate. You hit that bash plate in the right spot where you had to cut and reweld it for room your winch will be broke cause its going to take the blow. As soon as someone comes out with a better option or full bumper I will be taking this off and going that route. If not I will be building my own bumper this winter when I have more time if my winch cable makes it that long.
Fast forward to thursday morning and I ordered it from EMP overnight delivery (which ended up costing more than the mount!) The were great and got it out that day so I received it Friday. Friday night after work I started installing it and noticed that one of the bolts was not going to fit the mount on the planetary gear side without grinding the bolt most of the way down and welding it in place since there would be no room for a wrench at that point. Got that done and painted then installed it on to the bumper.
That's where I ran into the next major problem. It doesn't fit the stock bumper with a Terra 45. It hit the side brace on the Terra 45's planetary house and also the tabs for the drum support rod hit the front of the bumper! Fast forward to Saturday and after work I cut the support out of the bumper to clear the planetary and welding a piece back in on the side to restrengthen it. Also I had to cut the lower part of the bumper and fold it out in like a triangle shape then re weld it so it didn't look like s***. Got all that done and it worked perfect.
Then I started to try to tighten the inner bolts, what a freaking pain in the ass that was. Ended up using a ratchet wrench on the back two bolts through the front of the bumper and the front ones I slowly did by hand. A few beers later I had those ones done. Then I moved onto the side ones and they were pretty easy for the most part you just can't get a whole lot of turn out of them. Make sure you put the U-bolts in before tightening all these too cause I made that mistake just trying to tighten the inner ones before sliding the bumper on (which didn't work because it sucks the bumper tubes in enough they won't slide into the frame) The U-bolt ones were probably the easiest to tighten but I didn't like the fact that there's a little over a 1/4" gap between the supports and the frame. Yes I did have the plate all the way back too. There's only so much actual wiggle room it would work with.
So all in all the Superwinch Terra 45 is NOT a bolt in option for that mount. Warn pro vantage 4500 will probably fit as they use a smaller planetary set, more powerful motor and a 1/4" larger drum to get their gearing down. I also think the Warn may have a little bit better cable angle being a larger drum. But I didn't check with mine cause it was such a pain installing. The Superwinch line on the last wrap of the drum still does have an angle coming out even with the fairlead down as far as it will go without hogging out the stock holes. Its much less of an angle though. I would say like 15 degrees? I could be off on that it might be more or less, i'm tired.
All in all it is decently made piece,time consuming to install but should be strong. The powder coating was done nice and they include quality bolts and flanged nyloc nuts with it. Their instructions are pretty decent except where they forgot to say which direction the plate goes. I can look with a flashlight and tell you if you need help one side has more holes that's how i figure it out since they had it on their website and you could see. It will be a nightmare if you broke your cable close to the drum and had to respool it on the trail. Taking the bumper off will take 10 times as long now since you will need to loosen all the bolts to the mount since they pull the bumper tubes together a bit.
Last thing worth mentioning is there is no protection for the Superwinch Terra 45 since it all the way up against the bash plate. You hit that bash plate in the right spot where you had to cut and reweld it for room your winch will be broke cause its going to take the blow. As soon as someone comes out with a better option or full bumper I will be taking this off and going that route. If not I will be building my own bumper this winter when I have more time if my winch cable makes it that long.
Last edited:
