I don't know if it's relevant because I have an ARB bumper, but I was able to mount my Superwinch without cutting anything by remote mounting the solenoid completely. I put the winch remote plug on the grill and the solenoid in the battery box. Bought bulk cable and a hydraulic crimper, and built all the cables to the correct length and diameter. Makes for a very very clean install.

 

is it okay to it that piece out? what structural purpose does it have..

 

I remote mounted my solenoids too when I upgraded the cables to a heavier gauge. I have a Smittybilt and the supplied cables are way too light. I added a small toggle switch on the dash to supply power to the solenoids so that I can keep the system off unless I need it. With this setup, the only wire I have that is always hot is a piece about 18" long that runs from the positive terminal on the battery to the solenoid pack in the box right behind it. I'm not too comfortable with an unfused cable running to the front bumper, even with extra insulation wrapped around it. I also added a harbor freight wireless remote while I was at it. The thing works great, especially for the $25 I paid for it on sale.

 

Can you be specific about about you did the switch? I live in fear of my remote getting squashed and starting the winch, especially since the hook is o my very expensive bumper.

 

The winch solenoids are activated with 12V + from the remote. On factory wiring setups, the feed to the remote is typically a direct wire that is connected to the positive terminal on the winch. For my Smittybilt it used white for +12v, green for cable in, black for out and brown was a ground. It will be a lighter gauge wire as it only needs to carry enough current to activate the coil on the solenoid. You can take that wire off the terminal and then feed 12 volts to it from another source. For my setup, I ran from a constant power source to the dash switch then back to the solenoid pack. The winch can't be activated until I turn on the switch. Make sure you put a fuse in the wire near the source just in case.

 

Here's a few pics of my setup. I ran the main cables through conduit inside of the frame rails and up into the bottom of the box. It all fits with the lid on and the remote can be plugged in with the hood closed

 

You should have some adhesive lined heat shrink on the main pos cable.

As well as on the other electrical terminals on the right.

 

The main positive cable does have heat shrink on it. It isn't visible in that picture. The only visible cable that has no heat shrink on it is the factory ground. The orange cable in the picture is a 12/3 cable I used to connect a socket for the wired remote on the bumper to the solenoid pack. The individual wire connections are soldered and heat shrunk and then the entire bundle is wrapped in tape to keep it together.

 

Great pics and explanation! Thanks!

 

Ah, I see, it's the earth cable, the black overlap threw me off.
The earth should have heat shrink on it covering part of the cable lug. In addition to corrosion protection, it adds stress relief to the cable to prevent damage to the wire strands.

It's too late for yours, this is mainly for others who decide to do something similar.