No, that would not hold the winch. The grill guard is made of aluminum and WAY not strong enough for a winch. If you feel that you need a winch then you must get a winch bumper. Check out shrockworks.com to see what they have.

As far as doing anything else to help traction --like you said-- locking the differential is a very efficient way.

When traction is llimited all the power will go the the wheel that takes the least amount of power to spin, such as the wheel with little or no traction. A locker elimiantes that by locking the differential so that no matter what traction conditions are your two rear wheels will spin at the same rate/speed.

Other than that - make sure that you have recovery gear with you just in case. Seein that you have a 4x2 you may need it possibly.