Build Updates

The Astro Gets Teeth: Winch, Light Bar, and Fog Lights Done

Jun 24, 2026 6 min read

The 2005 Chevy Astro's exterior electrical package is complete — Smittybilt 10K winch, 40" Brightsource light bar, and OEM fog lights all wired and working. Here's what we did and why.

There's a point in any overland build where the thing stops looking like a work van and starts looking like it means business. For the Astro, that moment happened the day we drove it out of Trademasters with the winch loaded, the light bar lit up, and the fog lights burning clean through the bumper.

Astro on the hoist at Trademasters with the JOR bumper off, Smittybilt winch already mounted to the inner frame — On the hoist at Trademasters — JOR bumper pulled, Smittybilt mounted, ready to wire.

This post covers the exterior electrical phase — what went in, how it was done, and what it actually looks like out on an FSR.

The Smittybilt 10,000 lb Winch

We went with a 10,000 lb Smittybilt — customer supplied, Wayne at Trademasters handled the install into the existing JOR hidden winch bumper. The bumper was already spec'd for a winch mount, so fitment was straightforward. The winch ships with red and black leads attached; the run to the battery was tight and needed extended cabling, which Wayne accounted for in the quote.

Front view of the Astro with hood up and Smittybilt X2O 10K winch visible at the front frame — Hood up, leads run, Smittybilt X2O 10K seated in the JOR mount.

For a 2WD van that weighs somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4,500 lbs loaded, a 10K winch gives us a solid margin. The general rule is 1.5x vehicle weight for recovery capacity, and we're well inside that. Will we need it on every trip? No. But the one time you're nose-down on a washed-out FSR spur and there's nobody else around, you'll be glad it's there.

The Smittybilt mounts clean in the JOR bumper. Both recovery hooks are red — hard to miss, which is the point when you're trying to hook up in the dark.

Astro parked on a wooden FSR bridge, low afternoon sun behind the cedars, JOR bumper with red recovery hooks and fog lights on — First trip out after the install — bumper buttoned up, fogs on, looking the part.

The 40" Brightsource ECO2 Light Bar

The roof-mounted light bar is a Brightsource 40" ECO2 curved double row unit, installed above the windshield on the existing roof rack. Wayne's crew ran the wiring to a dedicated lighted toggle switch on the dash — red LED, so you know at a glance what's live.

![Astro in cedar forest with the 40" Brightsource light bar fully lit on the roof rack](/_l5e/assets-v1/418adbc6-2bc2-4550-a526-2a07bf9ce2f4/electrical-IMG3616.jpeg "40" Brightsource ECO2 lit up in the cedars. Reaches farther than the headlights ever did.")

Why 40 inches? The Astro's roofline is compact — a 50" bar would hang past the rack mounting points and look wrong. The 40" sits centred and proportional, and the curved profile matches the slight crown of the roof rack better than a straight bar would.

Curved double row at 40" is serious output for an FSR. On a dark forest service road, this thing reaches far enough that you're seeing the road before the headlights do. That matters when you're picking your line around wash-outs at 30 km/h and don't want surprises.

Wired on its own circuit with an in-line fuse and dedicated toggle. Clean, simple, serviceable.

Three-quarter view of the Astro on a creekside FSR pullout, light bar mounted on the rack, JOR bumper and fog lights visible — Creekside pullout — the whole exterior package working together.

OEM Fog Lights in the Bumper

The JOR bumper has cutouts for round fog/driving lights. We sourced a set of OEM-style round lights and had Wayne wire them into a second dash toggle — same lighted red switch treatment as the light bar.

Low-angle front shot showing the two round fog lights burning bright in the JOR bumper with red recovery hooks — Fog lights doing what fogs are supposed to do — wide, low, fills the foreground.

These are the lights you'll see lit in the lower bumper shots — they throw a wide, low beam that fills in the foreground and the ditches that the light bar's long throw misses. On gravel roads, that combination of near and far light coverage makes a real difference. You're not choosing between seeing far and seeing close — you've got both.

The fog light circuit runs 30 feet of 12GA two-wire to its own in-line fuse holder. Everything is fused independently, which means a fault in one circuit doesn't take down another.

Dusk shot of the Astro with light bar and fog lights all on, parked deep in the forest — Everything lit. This is what the dash looks like at the end of a Coast Mountains FSR after sunset.

How It All Looks in the Field

The photos in this post were taken on a recent run — a combination of forest camp spots and gravel FSR singletrack in the Fraser Valley backcountry. The van handled everything we pointed it at. The lift, the BFG KO2s, and the Truetrac in the rear did what they were built to do. The lights made the difference on the way out in the dark.

Astro parked on a gravel FSR pullout with a forested mountain rising in the background — Coast Mountains pullout. The van earns its keep up here.

![Astro on a steep, rocky FSR climb with mountains and a clearcut behind](/_l5e/assets-v1/83a01239-c048-410b-8589-8066b7cfb1e3/electrical-IMG3634.jpeg "Where 2WD and 30.5" and a locker actually matter.")

Front three-quarter of the Astro on loose shale, JOR bumper and fog lights pointed downhill — Loose shale, off-camber, no drama.

The exterior package is now complete:

JOR hidden winch bumper — installed and fitted
Smittybilt 10,000 lb winch — mounted and wired
Brightsource 40" ECO2 curved light bar — roof-mounted, dash-switched
OEM round fog/driving lights — bumper-mounted, dash-switched
Dual independent fused circuits — one toggle each, lighted red

The build focus now shifts fully to the interior — cedar cladding, electrical rough-in, and getting the camper side of this thing to match what the exterior already promises.

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