Installing a Winch on the Jimny

Traveler · April 15, 2025, 5:02am

The desire to install a Winch on my Jimny had been lingering with me for a very long time. There were multiple challenges as well which had so far prevented me from doing it.

Finally, after almost two years of having owned the Jimny thing fell in place, and I was able to get the winch installed.

Several design considerations were taken into account and in part these also lead to the delays in getting this done earlier. Few (or rather lot) of the considerations I had were as follows.

Had to be light weight and compact.
Had to be reasonably priced.
Since the use was likely only during my expeditions, I was okay with something that was reliable as well as in budget.
I wanted to retain the stock bumper and not hang a monstrous abomination in front of the Jimny on a heavy steel bumper.
I also wanted to retain stock suspension coil springs although I do have Bilstein shocks. I like the ride quality of the stock coils springs and Bilstein shocks, so these had to remain.
I also wanted to have a wired as well as a wireless remote to operate the winch.
Should be inconspicuous and not attract undue attention. I don’t want to be flagged down and handed a traffic violation ticket every time I go the mall.
No holes should be drilled anywhere in the chassis or body to mount the winch.
The installation should be completely removable in case I decide to remove the winch later.

Here is a detailed writeup on how I did the install for a XBULL 6000 lbs IP68 Winch with a synthetic rope on a 5 Door Jimny.

I procured the Winch from Amazon and had a friend carry it in his checked in baggage. The entire box was around 14 Kgs and was not too big and he was able to pack it in the suitcase.

Once it arrived, I had the winch delivered straight to 4xForza in Delhi and requested them to custom build a mounting plate or rather a mounting assembly for it. Since 4xForza folks have a Jimny, it was easy for them to design it as well.

Due to time constraints and other work, the winch mounting assembly was finally made, re-made, perfected, powder coated, packed and shipped to me in April. It took another week or so to get time from the workshop folks to give me time to get it installed.

The mounting assembly was constructed using a central pipe with mounting brackets on both ends as well as a 5 MM thick centre plate that grabs the chassis member from behind. It also has an integrated winch base plate with the provision to install the fairlead on it as well.

Here is a picture of the mounting assembly that was custom fabricated by 4xForza with the winch installed. My deepest gratitude to them for making this lovely piece of art.

Both ends are bolted onto the chassis extension blocks that come from factory and already have holes for the bolts to be inserted. We utilized the same holes to bolt the mount to the chassis. Then there are two other bolts that are installed from behind the cross member in the center and they bolt up the center part of the assembly. Total 6 bolts are used to mount the assembly on to the Jimny.