Winch Bumper Idea/Help

[saburai]

Hi Gang!

I'm thinking again:Wow1:

I have this Warrior bumper:

I saw this:

I'd like to put a winch behind my bumper...

I know that some sort of sub frame mount/tie in would have to be fab-ed up.
What do you all think?

I know any thing is possible, but do you think it would be practical/cost effective? I would have to have some one fab it for me...

Pros? Cons?

Many Thanks

 

[Root Moose]

http://detoursusa.com/xjbackbone.php

Personally, I'd rather have a whole bumper. There is not much to the OEM front bumper.

I'm not familiar with the system you are running now. It looks ok to me. Is there something wrong with it?

If you like the OEM look, also check out their tail bone product. It's a good look for certain.

 

[luk4mud]

I own a TJ so I can't be of direct help. One lesson I have learned the hard way- once you figure out what you want to do, save your $ and buy it right the FIRST time. I have spent way too much time and money making up for a mistake when I compromised.

Example, I fussed around trying to get an OEM bumper to work, spent $ on brackets bracing, welding. Finally gave up bought a decent bumper (got a great deal off craigslist) and a mount plate, no more hassles.

Good luck.

 

[saburai]

http://detoursusa.com/xjbackbone.php

Personally, I'd rather have a whole bumper. There is not much to the OEM front bumper.

I'm not familiar with the system you are running now. It looks ok to me. Is there something wrong with it?

If you like the OEM look, also check out their tail bone product. It's a good look for certain.

Nothing wrong with the Warrior front bumper I have now, 'cept it does not have a winch mount

As much as I like AJ's and some of the other super heavy duty stuff out there, well I'm not building a weekend rock rig. In my book, bigger and heavier is not necessarily better. In fact, coming from sports cars, motorcycles and bicycles, most of the time smaller and lighter is the ticket.
I would like to keep the weight down as much as possible.

I like the look of the ARB winch bumper - I know that it has weaknesses and it is much too expensive. AJ would build me one of his "PhatXJ" winch bumpers with a brush guard for, I'm guessing $500-$550 + shipping. If it becomes apparent that modifying the bumper I now have is impractical, more than likley I will have AJ put one together for me.

AJ's rear tire/can carrier bumper is awesome! But I bet it weighs a bunch and it will run me $938 shipped:Wow1:
I think I will get the Detours tailbone, figure out where to carry jerry cans and put the residual funds towards ARB lockers:costumed-smiley-007

 

[Root Moose]

FWIW, I went with the C-Rok rear bumper for those reasons: couldn't find what I wanted or it was too expensive. I had originally wanted the AEV but they (AEV) lost interest in producing it. I liked the look of the Durango but it was way too expensive IMO. This is old data obviously - does Durango even exist any more?

I figured the C-Rok was a decent looking bumper at a decent price and I'll weld up a carrier for it since I don't like the style that C-Rok sells (too "over the top" for an expo style vehicle). I'm going to add some "nerfs" the the sides as well. If you've seen some of the FJ80 setups with the side tubes on the rear bumper you'll know what I'm talking about.

I like the tail bone setup but I'm shooting for a different look.

On the ARB front bumper, it has "the look" in spades and that is why I bought it. I had ARBs on two of my previous Suzukis too so obviously biased. IIRC I got it (XJ version) from Rusty's offroad for ~$600. This was about five years ago though. I remember it was a package deal with the M8000 and the winch ended up effectively costing ~$450.

Would I buy another ARB bumper? Probably. I'd deal with the mounting, which would be best dealt with by buying used since it means cutting, welding and ruining the powder coat anyway. I'm at the point now where I need to repaint the bumper (salt belt sucks) so now is the time to revisit the mounting. Some complain about the ARB not being strong enough beyond the mounting points. The idea is to have the thing crumple and save the passengers from shock loads in a crash. I'm ok with that.

What I don't like about the mounting itself is that it doesn't seem to take up enough of the unirails. If it was integrated (welded) into some steering box reinforcement plates it would be good enough IMO. I'm also going to modify the front hangers so they can be used for a shackle. As they are delivered those hangers are only meant to attach a high-lift jack, not for winching loads.

 

[proto]

It seems like what you want should be pretty do-able. The nice thing is that the winch doesn't have to actually be attached to the bumper. All you need is a mounting plate that spans between the frame rails. Cut a hole in the bumper for the cable, and mount a nice roller fairlead on front.

Winch mounts seem to be pretty standardized: most of the ones I've seen need four bolt holes in a 4.5" x 10" rectangle. You can probably mock this up with a piece of cardboard, and figure out whether you need some kind of brackets, or if you can bolt the mount directly to the frame rails. (I'd use some beefy angle iron for brackets just to spread the load.) If it were me, I'd try to mount the plate from underneath. That way, when you need to service the winch, you can just drop the whole plate/winch assembly, instead of having to yank off the bumper.

The tricky part will be finding a winch that will fit in the space available. From your picture, it doesn't look like there's a lot of room vertically, nor a lot of space between your bumper and your radiator. You'll probably want to look at some low-profile winches (maybe a Ramsey rep8000?) or one with remote solenoids.

One issue you'll have to be careful of: with the winch hidden, you can't see how the cable is winding onto the drum. If you're doing a hard side-pull, the cable may build up on one side instead of laying nicely across the drum. This can pop the winch's tie-bars. But, it's certainly manageable, just do straightish pulls or assign a helper to watch the drum for you.

 

[saburai]

Thanks Guys!

I know its do able.

Being a nomad, I only have hand tools - boy I miss my shop

Take a look at this guys work, I think it's a very elegant execution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwade/sets/72157604557867782/detail/

 

[proto]

Hmm. . . that's a different approach! The XJ bumpers I see always have long brackets (like maybe a foot long or more) that reach back along the frame rails.

This mount looks like it spreads the loads over the front stamped-steel box section of the subframe. (I wonder if that's sufficient?) It's definitely not something one could duplicate with just hand tools, though.

In any event, it looks like there's enough room to squeeze the right winch in there behind that bumper. (Is that Warn XD9000?)

 

[wADVr]

That hidden winch setup is pretty slick! Mopar used to make a kit which has been long discontinued but was similar to that above. If you ever see a factory tow hook bracket that has 2 sets of mounting holes and extends back much further than needed, now you know why. And while I dont agree with it the mounting of that hidden winch is the same as an ARB bumper so it "should do"

 

[DaJudge]

Here's another one. There are quite a few on NAXJA.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=950987&highlight=hidden+winch

The problem is it is going to require more than just basic hand tools to do.

 

[saburai]

The problem is it is going to require more than just basic hand tools to do.

No Sh_t! :sombrero::victory:

Thanks for the link.

I gotta find some one w/ a fab shop...