How would you outfit this custom LJ?

[wandererr]

I like the idea but aren't you worried about restricted airflow towards the radiator?

 

[jscherb]

I like the idea but aren't you worried about restricted airflow towards the radiator?

No I'm not. There's plenty of room between the winch and the radiator for air to flow around:

And what I've done covers no more of the radiator slots and has more spece between the radiator and the winch than the one in the photo below, which is pretty common.

And I've driven around town in traffic on a hot day with the winch in the storage position running lots of errands and saw no ill effects.

 

[wandererr]

Food for thought - check what happens at slow speeds (potentially stuck in traffic) on a hot day with a fair amount of pavement reflected heat. The movement forward will help overcome the cooling issues which would manifest themselves at slow speed (or stopped) situation.

 

[jscherb]

Food for thought - check what happens at slow speeds (potentially stuck in traffic) on a hot day with a fair amount of pavement reflected heat. The movement forward will help overcome the cooling issues which would manifest themselves at slow speed (or stopped) situation.

When the Jeep is stopped the engine fan will draw air through the radiator and there are more square inches of space around the winch than there are square inches of air passages through the radiator, so I'm confident there will be enough airflow.

 

[jscherb]

I picked up the tow bar shackles at the powder coat shop the other day and yesterday I installed the tow bar and tested it.

I towed the LJ around the block for a test. Everything behaved very well.

I may never need this setup, but now that I've finished the TJ/LJ and JK quick-install front receivers, I can tow any of the three Jeeps using either of the other two as the tow Jeep.

Now I really should get on with mounting the winch on the cradle, installing the winch wiring in all three Jeeps, and testing the winch.

 

[Presto88]

Did I miss the part about the JK quick-install front receiver, or is that in another thread?

 

[Ozrockrat]

Another thing to consider is making up another tail for the jumper leads with a welding hand piece and earth. You will need another battery but since your kit is so modular it not much more to carry.

 

[jscherb]

Did I miss the part about the JK quick-install front receiver, or is that in another thread?

Yes, it's in my JK thread: https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...factory-hardtops.127687/page-234#post-2530856. There's also a video there of the quick install process.

 

[jscherb]

Another thing to consider is making up another tail for the jumper leads with a welding hand piece and earth. You will need another battery but since your kit is so modular it not much more to carry.

I've got a second battery that I use in both my LJ and my JKU for powering the Trail Kitchen/fridge. In the LJ it mounts in a tray above the rear inner fender:

It's wired so that it gets charged by the Jeep when the Jeep is running although that cable isn't large enough gauge to support welding, but it would be possible to connect the rear battery to the front battery using the rear extension for the winch (the long coiled cable in the upper right of this next photo), so a welding configuration is possible.

BTW this is what the Trail Kitchen looks like in the LJ, it's the main reason I carry the second battery in whichever Jeep the kitchen is in at the time...

 

[BulldoginaJeepwithaColt]

I really like this front receiver concept to help give more storage options for the TJ Not so much for the removable winch, but more so mounting a hitch cargo hauler, bike rack, cooler and rod holder etc., and whatever else... Nice job!

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[jscherb]

I've been meaning to try my bike rack on the front, because of your post I did it this morning.

It's a bit high because the receiver is on top of the bumper and you do have to look through the bike while driving, but it's not too bad. And considering it leaves the tailgate free to swing open, or the rear receiver free to tow a trailer, that's not a bad compromise.

Because of the design of my bike carrier, it would be easy to disassemble it, drill a few new holes, and reassemble it to be shorter so the bike isn't as high, I may modify it now so it's ready to be used on the front when I need it. I did the mod digitally in this photo:

Another possible use for the front receiver:

I subscribe to two Land Rover magazines from the UK, I picked up the habit of reading them when I lived in London some years ago and I've kept the subscriptions going - I always find interesting ideas in those magazines that aren't often seen in the US.

For example, I just finished my quick-install front receivers for both my LJ and my JK, and came across this photo in a magazine I was reading the other day. It's a Belgian Minvera (a Land Rover derivation built in Belgium for the Belgian Army), and it's got a front spare carrier.

Then a day later this showed up in Craigslist:

I'm not going to buy the spare carrier that's on CL, but I will keep the idea in the back of my mind in case I ever need to carry an extra spare and I don't have roof on the roof rack or inside the Jeep.

 

[jscherb]

I also tried a hitch cargo rack...

Piling the cargo too high would obscure the headlights (and the turn signals in the CJ grille, but for a TJ this wouldn't be a problem because the signals are in the fenders), so anything taller than this cargo bag probably wouldn't be a good idea.

 

[akpostal]

Could carry a couple 3 or 4 bundles of firewood up front that way. I like the spare tire carrier up front thinger.

 

[BulldoginaJeepwithaColt]

Nice list of options indeed, you really can make that front receiver versatile.

My current challenge centers around a traditional winch mounted on top of the bumper and devising a way to modify my hitch hauler in order to clamp it onto my front bumper fashioning some kind of brackets/clamps....

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[ITTOG]

I wonder if it is legal to have a bike up front obstructing your view. I have heard of people being ticketed for stuff hanging from the rear view mirror.

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