Badlands 12k clocking handle?

Hey all, does anyone know if you can clock the free spool handle 90 degrees to face the front on the badlands apex 12k winch?

 

@Black Wolf has a Badlands winch. He may or may not know.

 

I'm am not sure if that can be changed to face forward.

 

From what I remember while researching a couple years ago you can't with the APEX winch. That was the reason why I didn't get it at the time.

 

I think I found out on the ih8mud forum or the expedition/overland forum can't remember 100%

 

Yes. I have mine that way.

 

The Apex winch?

 

Yep

 

Nice, was it a pretty easy process?

 

You pull the allen bolt that holds it on and relocate the handle how you want it making sure it locks and unlocks the winch drum as before. The only thing is, the bolt won't go back in as you've moved the hole on the handle from its original starting position. Unless you go on trails where you'll be upside down, the handle won't go anywhere.

 

So what I’m trying to figure out is if you can take the whole housing on the apex and rotate it 90 degrees toward the front of the truck so that the clocking handle is facing the front of the winch and not on the top of the winch.

 

No I don't think so. Not unless you rig up a mounting plate/location on the backside of the bumper (side that's flush with the front of the truck). It's possible to pull the control box and allow the line to come out the "top" of the winch though. Not sure if the strength of the mount from that position would be sufficient under load though....

 

Commences to put both feet in my mouth

Thanks for the clarification.

 

well i read the apex is not clock-able. but what about the ZXR12000. #63770.
this was one up front of the store, older stock. almost 2 bill le$$ than what was on the shelf. not a return item all clean inside.
I would like to mount this up what the factory calls the "bottom" were the mounting bolt holes are. i would rather have them face forward. so as to put all the pressure to the front of a mount, not trying to strip out the two back bolts under stress and the forward to bolts would be under compression. so the stresses would be trying to tilt the winch off the mount, or twist the mount.
as i would not go that way all stress would be pulling the body of the winch into the mount, thus not stressing the bolts in a weird way.
but this puts the free spool knob pointing toward the motor. not accessible. so a 90% (pointing up) or a 180% (pointing forward) rotation needed.
I just bought this on friday. and have not had a chance to open it up to do a proper lube on the gears. next three - four weeks i will be busy, so not able till dec, maybe jan,
and all of the wiring supplied goes into the trash. as i will be using home made wires made out of 100% copper welding cable. yes co$t big, but the wires will handel any amount of juice put through them, with very low resistance. and the control box will be under the hood, not on the winch.
then as if possible build some kind of a "box" around the winch to help keep junk off of it. only opening would be for the cable.
heck i am retired and busier then when i worked for a living.

 

hows this, i found a u-tube video doing exactly what i need to do.
very easy. just remove the gear box from the winch, there are a number of small bolts inside there, holding the gear box to the mounting plate.
remove the bolts, turn till the free wheel handle is pointed where you want it to be.
pending the degree of were the bolts thread you can do more than just a 90% or 180%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GkOTvPH2g0&t=277s
if link works here is the video.