It took me a while to decide what kind of winch bumper to get for my DII. At one point I wanted to keep the plastic setup and install a discrete winch mount , however that idea was quickly washed away on a very rainy day when I assisted a stalled 2009 Ford Explorer out of a flooded road a cracked my front bumper, (I had no tow rope).

That was when I realized that I needed something stronger. There are many aftermarket winch bumpers available and at the end of the day, it has to come down to 3 areas;  personal preference, cost, and intent of use. All three considered I decided to go with Bearmach's DII winch bumper that is sold here in the U.S. by Atlantic British*

* There is a discrepancy with the product description by Atlantic British where it is stated that the bumper is made out of 4mm steel and Bearmach's states 6mm. I measured mine and it is a little over 6mm.

1. Remove 14 screws securing wheel arch liner extension on LH/RH sides.

Wheel arch liner removed

2. Remove 2 screws (1 each side) securing bumper valance side mountings to body.

3. Remove 3 screws securing bracket from LH/RH sides. Remove bracket.

4. Remove screws securing bumper cover to cross bar.

5. Remove 4 nuts (two on each side) securing bumper to crush cans, remove bumper.

Bumper removed. Make sure to clean off the windshield fluid reservoir and paint the lower grill support beam (in red) black to match the grill before final install.

6. Remove 4 bolts securing crush cans. Retain the nuts and bolts as they will be re-used. Remove the crush cans and cross bar.

7. Install the provided anti-torque bracket with nut. One per each side. The picture below shows how it is positioned once behind and through the hole. Some filing is required to allow the bracket to fit.

8. Decide whether or not you will be using the front cross bar. With the help of two strong people, slide the bumper on and secure with the bolts you removed from step # 6 and the anti-torque bolt in step # 7. I removed the metal mesh guard from the old bumper and installed it using zip ties and I left the air plastic air dam

Now I need to get a winch.....