Hidden Winch (Rough Country) install on TRD Pro front bumper -- no cutting required

[Gastan]

This may be helpful to future 6th gen 4Runner TRD Pro owners looking to install hidden winch in the front bumper. This great DIY writeup is from @jettaway at Tacoma4g

Hey Everyone,​

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I recently finished up the install of my Rough Country Hidden Winch Bumper on my 2024 TRD Pro.​

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This was a bit of a learning adventure for me since not many or any hybrid Tacoma owners have posted their hidden winch installs yet. I also took a gamble because I did not want to do any cutting to the cross member which RC's website states is necessary. I really wanted to retain the stock configuration and also the Factory TRD Skid Plate. With some luck, the bumper fits just fine without ANY cutting needed (besides the front fascia for the fairlead). I thought this may prove useful to anyone interested but shying away from any cutting like I was. With this revelation, I thought I would share some of my findings, and the final result:​

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1. The installation of the actual bumper and winch/mount is exactly per the directions that RC provides. They put in their directions to slice off the cross member at at the very beginning. And this is because that cross member gets in the way of their high clearance skid plate that is included in the kit which you install later.​

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I had no use for their skid plates, since I wanted to retain the TRD factory plate. And so I was happy to find that when the bumper is bolted up to the frame, it clears the cross member and the plastic shroud with ease. And the mounting points for the factory skid plate are not touched. You don't even have to remove it to do this install.​

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2. One small difference with the Hybrid models, is that little pedestrian warning speaker at the front of the truck has to be relocated. It gets in the way of the winch once bolted up. You cannot simply remove this little speaker or you will get endless check engine/error codes. There are ways to bypass this device with a resistor, but I think it serves an important purpose for pedestrians, and I elected to keep it on the truck. To remount it, I had to remove the metal mounting bracket and adhere the speaker directly to the cross bar with 3M auto body tape as seen in the photo. It fits nice and snug there.​

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3. Next, you will find that by installing this hidden winch bumper, you will lose the four lower front fascia support mounting points. RC's included Skid Plate brings back the middle two screw points. And the outer two are sacrificed since they are not necessary. But If you do not use RC's skid plates, you would not have ANY lower fascia mounting points. So to overcome this issue, I ripped the front two inches off their included skid plate, painted the rough edges black, and bolted it up to the hidden bumper. This allows you to regain those two middle mounting point shown in the photo. Also, I found the front fascia was very solid with just these middle two mounting points. No flexing or flapping in the wind. So I can see why RC eliminated the side mounting spots in their kit.​

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4. Battery location is obviously very different on the hybrid models. You DO NOT want to tap into the jump points under the hood. The wiring to these points is only rated for 200A, and the winch can draw up to 450A. Fortunately, there is a nice large grommet at the drivers side firewall which leads nicely behind the dash just above the dead pedal. And a nice big and wide channel that runs under both door sills. I was able to run my 2GA +/- wires (~25 feet of each wire is needed) through here, and along the door sills, tucking into the rear lower seat where the 12V battery lives. I also installed the Warn Power Interrupt Kit next to the 12V battery. And connected this solenoid to the Aux 2 switch on the truck. (There is an open plug for the factory supplied dongle just behind the dead pedal). This gave a nice clean install with all wiring up to the winch "dead" until powered on by the switch. I left some extra wire looped behind the bumper to make installing and removing the winch easier in the future.​

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5. Shout out to @Soft Taco for his post and ideas for extending the winch clutch control to above the bumper. RC's bumper design just assumes you will leave the winch engaged at all times, and power out the line when needed. Like @Soft Taco, I did not like that solution. So I took his ideas and went a bit further. The clutch lever on the RC brand winch is mounted on a small metal shaft that is just larger than a 3/8" socket. So I mounted a custom ground down 3/8"-1/4" socket adapter with a set screw to this shaft. I was then able to use 1/4" chrome socket extensions and U-joints to bring the handle up and under the hood. I mounted a small stainless bracket to eliminate any slop, and greased up the U-Joints to avoid corrosion. The plastic covers have a hole just large enough for the extension, and they hold it all in place nicely. The new clutch lever is solid and sites just under the hood for easy disengagement.​

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6. Also as @Soft Taco points out in his post, you only need to cut an oval shaped hole the size of your fairlead opening, and it will mount nicely right up to the fascia. No need to cut a big gapping hole like RC recommends in the manual.​

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I hope you all find worth in this post. I will probably use this winch 5 times in the life of this truck :crackup:, but it is still a dream come true for me.​

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Thank you!​

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[andim]

Wow great. Thanks! I would assume that some shop will come out with a kit that makes this even easier with a bracket for the speaker and a solution for the fascia points.