I did the 300M T-bars when they came in after the rest...and they did improve the ride/handling over stock...

But the bumper/winch made very little difference, as it only added about 145-155 lbs total...about 105 for the bumper, plus about 40-50 lb for the winch with synthetic rope (The wire rope is deceptively heavy)....the roller fairlead is deceptively heavy, and the AL fairlead weighs almost nothing.



I put the winch/bumper on the same day...and swapped on the synthetic rope first...so I don't know how just the bumper itself felt...but I imagine it would merely be even less of an issue due to even less weight.

Winching DOES compress the springs when pulling from top down, and off angle on that side, etc...

I'm not sure that the full stuff/full extension type wheeling I like does anymore damage than winching related compression, or if the amount of winching is statistically relevent or not...I wheeled all last weekend and only used the winch once, and that was to stabilze/recover a partial rollover victim, and he was diagonally uphill from me at the time...with about 4-5 guys pulling on his uphill side with a spotter strap....a 20' pull maybe.



Other trips, like in the pines, I might pull a dozen mud puppies out in a few hours...

If I added up all the winch time I ever did on the new winch, (~A yr?) its probaly less than 3 hrs total...I might cycle the suspension that much in a day without winching, just articulating....

So - statistically, I'm not sure winch compression wear and tear is important....

It might be better able to hold position against the compression related movement downwards, but the forces involved are stronger than a beefed up suspension most of the time.

That said - I went with the new t-bars to improve over stock, not to get back to stock.



I think the overall enemy of the t-bars is weight, total weight dragging them down hour after hour, day after day, until the springs despair of their load, and depart to join other mortal coils.