Help me pick a hawse fairlead

I want to see this Red LJ of yours. Is it out of the bag yet?

Just moved into position to start its transformation.

Here’s a pic before it went into position Monday.

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There continue to be threads that amaze me.

It amazes me that someone about 10 posts up is going to document and show us how to install a hawse fairlead. 🤔

It's starting to hurt just signing in to wranglertjforum

That someone would be me - the OP. I'm amazed you didn't notice that - especially since my avatar by that post you are referring to has an "OP" banner on it.

I am not going to show you how to install a hawse fairlead. What I said was "I'll document the installation - we'll see if I have to trim the opening of the current winch mount so there are no sharp edges for the winch line". I figured one or two pictures and a measurement or two. Sorry I didn't spell it out for you or bold the part where I said "We'll see if I have to trim the opening of the current winch mount...".

Think before posting.

I am going to show you when I do install it if I need to enlarge the current opening of the winch mount or not. If the opening isn't large enough, then the synthetic line will be dragged over a sharp edge and would probably be damaged. Just eyeballing mine with the current roller fairlead on it it might be close.

That's why I posted earlier the height (as posted on their websites) of the opening of the two hawse fairleads (I think one was 0.98", and the factor 55 was 1.1"). I thought some folks might be interested in that aspect when they go to buy or mount a hawse fairlead - is there enough clearance in the winch mount's opening. Maybe I can help someone from making a dumb mistake that frays their synthetic line the first time they use it?
 
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Does it come with a free harbor freight offroad trailer? Dirt Lifestyle hat? Jar of vaseline?

I think now that I've picked a hawse fairlead (and waiting for it to arrive so I can do a step-by-step instructional tutorial and video on how to install it along with a list of required tools, safety instructions, California list of potential carcinogens, etc. ;)), we're just going off on tangents and having fun.

It is amazing what you can do with a little 4' HF trailer and a little bit of imagination. Just saying...

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Trailer build thread: https://www.jeepforum.com/threads/m...uild-up-thread.1180456/page-176#post-41479392

Video:
 
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Ok, I'm here to bring about some closure. I'm sure some of you have been wondering if I ever installed this fairlead, and how it went (and did I have to trim anything).

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It was fairly straight forward, but Jeep projects are never as easy as you think they will be. The only issues I had were:

1. I had a small LED light bar that mounted on a mount that bolted in front of the winch mount between the roller fairlead and the winch mount plate. So now I had to mount it behind the winch plate so the hawse fairlead would be flush with the winch mount. But to put it behind the winch mount, I had to cut about 5/8" off the bottom of it. Easily done.

2. The original bolts would not work - too short. The original ones were 1.25" long; I needed just under 1.5" long. Too long and the bolt would hit the winch body before the hawse fairlead was snug on the mount. And with the LED light mount now between the winch mount and the winch itself barely had enough room for a nylock nut. So there are actually two washers behind the bolt heads on the fairlead to give me that credit-card thickness of space between the end of the bolt and the winch itself (circled in red).

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3. I had to unspool all the line from the winch and disconnect it from the drum. The hook is permanently attached to the line, and there wasn't enough room in the hawse fairlead for it to pass through. I respooled it afterwards, but not under tension. So eventually I need to respool it.

4. I ended up trimming about .25" of material off the bottom of the opening of the winch mount (and then ground it all smooth) before mounting the new fairlead. The sides and top were fine, but I wasn't comfortable with how close the bottom of the opening on the winch mount plate was to the bottom opening of the hawse fairlead.

I'm pleased with how it turned out - I think I made the right decision going with the Factor 55 hawse fairlead.