building a front winch bumper. opinions needed!

jeeptech1 · Mar 27, 2011

Ok so i am going to be building a front winch bumper for my jeep. today i pulled the stocker off and started cutting card board. im planning on using ajs offroad front bumper brackets and jcr weld on d-ring tabs. i will be trimming the fenders even with the bottom of the grill and will be adding some metal on the bumper to run along the fender. so, hopeing these pictures show up. what do you guys think strength, looks, and function wise?

whitexj98 · Mar 27, 2011

Looks pretty low, I would want it tucked up higher and further back.

jeeptech1 · Mar 27, 2011

ya, im a fan of the same look. i was trying to figure it out but i dont want my winch blocking the grill due to air flow. not sure if pushing it out farther and then up would help either cuz then id have a super long bumper. probly doesnt help that my winch is old school and huge! any pics of other peoples might help.

jdougn · Mar 27, 2011

Hey, I like the lines you're working with! Mocking it up before you start cutting steel is smart. You could probably gain a couple inches by moving the winch higher but, to me, it depends on how you wheel and how you want your XJ to look. The bumper will try to twist so that solid plate behind the winch and the boxed plate underneath is smart.
(I built the front bumper on my XJ to work with the Warn 8274 winch since it's a vertical mount and not horizontal like most.)

jeeptech1 · Mar 27, 2011

yours looks pretty good. i keep looking at it and it looks big, but its only 5 and 3/8" tall. according to jcrs website theirs is 5" tall.

jeeptech1 · Mar 27, 2011

any ideas on how to slim it down?

in4aride · Mar 27, 2011

lift it up. if you have heating issues with it in front of the grill you need to fix your cooling system anyway. mine is pressed against radiator and i dont rn a grill at all. run 195-200 all day....

looks good. brace/support it more than you think you might need

jeeptech1 · Mar 27, 2011

i would put it in the grill i just like the way the grill looks. i went and plugged my measurements into my CAD program and did some more measuring. these are what i came up with. bare in mind the jeep details aren't dead on so don't crucify me but the dimensions are correct. the altered is assuming 1/2" trimmed out of grill and 1/2" taken off bottom so bumper would be 4.5" tall. also moving the winch back against the front of the frame moving the front of the bumper back about an inch. please if you have any insight (been here before, done that, got the t-shirt), tell me what you think.

jeeptech1 · Mar 28, 2011

Re: building a front winch bumper. opinions needed!!!!

sorry to not respond in4aride. i like the way the grill looks so not much for getting rid of it. though i have to say i say a picture of yours and it looks sweet! anyway sorry for the bad pictures of a computer screen but my computer won't let me show the file. here's another revision.

Lowrange2 · Mar 28, 2011

Why don't you put the winch behind the crossmember and do a tube bumper?

I really like the way they look and they're WAY out of the way.

There are several guys on here that build them that way. Vetteboy, Rcman, and theres more but those are the two off the top of my head.

chris420 · Mar 28, 2011

I think it looks fine just make sure it up against the bottom of the body you have 1" gap there. If you are looking for more ground clearence buid the center of the bumper first and do it strong then use tube or small square tubing for the rest of the bumper. The center of the bumper that holds the wench needs to be strong and the rest of the bumper can be weaker. Check out the backbone system and you will understand what I am talking about.

jeeptech1 · Mar 28, 2011

i went and looked through the 80+ pages of rcman's build post. i love tube bumpers but don't have a bender or access to one. i like the idea but i dont know that my winch will fit like that. wouldnt cutting that middle section out cause frame issues? not sure i like having to reach under and engage the clutch (living in oregon water holes are part of the mix). oh and ya the real bumper will sit closer to the grill (card board not completely acurate). i guess my question is would pushing the bumper out an inch so i can put it up higher be better?

Starboard M · Mar 28, 2011

lowrange2 said:
Why don't you put the winch behind the crossmember and do a tube bumper?

I really like the way they look and they're WAY out of the way.

There are several guys on here that build them that way. Vetteboy, Rcman, and theres more but those are the two off the top of my head.

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1041403

Im almost insulted I didnt get mentioned. :tear:
:laugh3:

jeeptech1 · Mar 28, 2011

nice build! man i wish i had the tools and time to do that! putting the hole in the front to access the clutch is a good idea. still not sure i want to go through cutting the front section out as i have to drive this jeep everyday and thats not a 1 day project. if only i could have a dedicated wheelin rig! another quick question, roller fairlead or hawse? i like the clearance/looks of the hawse, but will it really eat my cable up badly?

Lowrange2 · Mar 28, 2011

Starboard M said:
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1041403

Im almost insulted I didnt get mentioned. :tear:
:laugh3:

You were the other one... that just didn't happen to be on the top of my head at the moment.

RCman · Mar 28, 2011

jeeptech1 said:
i went and looked through the 80+ pages of rcman's build post. i love tube bumpers but don't have a bender or access to one. i like the idea but i dont know that my winch will fit like that. wouldnt cutting that middle section out cause frame issues? not sure i like having to reach under and engage the clutch (living in oregon water holes are part of the mix). oh and ya the real bumper will sit closer to the grill (card board not completely acurate). i guess my question is would pushing the bumper out an inch so i can put it up higher be better?

Haha! I'm not even sure I'd go back and read that whole thing. Finding stuff in there can be a challenge.

Anyway, your winch would probably fit if you cut like I did or like Starboard M did. Others have just left the stock crossmember and bolted it behind that, it works with a winch like the M8000 as it does not have the integral solenoid pack that your Ramsey does.

As for cutting out the stock setup, yeah if you didn't replace it it would not be a good idea. However anything that will be strong enough to a winch pull would be leaps and bounds stronger than the paper thin stock stuff.

Starboard M said:
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1041403

:laugh3:

Honestly, if I was to go back and redo mine, the mounting to the unirails and rad mounts would be done closer to yours than the way mine is currently. Don't get me wrong, I like mine and it works great but for ease of construction ditching the entire stock crossmember setup and making new rad mounts like you did (here) is the way to go. I was just in a pinch trying to get it done before a run so I didn't want to have to strip down the whole front cooling/steering lines systems again.

Lowrange2 · Mar 28, 2011

The main reason I suggest building one like all these old farts did is because I plan to soon. They have good ideas...

I built mine VERY similar to yours several years ago. It's still on there but it's on borrowed time. As soon as I can afford a bender it's coming off and it's all going behind the cross member.

jeeptech1 · Mar 29, 2011

ok you guys are talking me into the hidden winch design. so rcman, did you mount your winch to same spot as the fairlead? how much did you cut out of the crossmember? could you in theory cut out the crossmember except for the flat top part that holds the radiator? one more, can you clock an oldschool ramsey like mine?

RCman · Mar 29, 2011

jeeptech1 said:
ok you guys are talking me into the hidden winch design. so rcman, did you mount your winch to same spot as the fairlead? how much did you cut out of the crossmember? could you in theory cut out the crossmember except for the flat top part that holds the radiator? one more, can you clock an oldschool ramsey like mine?

Yes, my winch and fair lead are on the same piece of steel, just opposite sides of it.
I cut just enough out of the front of the crossmember that allowed my to package the winch. In theory? Yes, it is exactly what I did. I left the top section were the radiator sits and the corner as well as about 0.75" of the face. I did it that way for two reasons; first my PS cooler lines run in that gap, second it allowed for some more rigidity so that radiator supports. Like I said above though, if I was to do it again I would have cut it all out like Starboard M did thus allowing me to move my winch up that extra 0.5". Many people actually just leave the stop crossmember in place and through bolt it to something much more substantial in front of it. I didn't do this because I wanted a little more room between the balancer and the winch as well as the a bit more grill protection. Cutting it out allowed me to move it ~1.75" forward.
As for clocking your Ramsey, I do not know.

Here are some random shots to hopefully help:
I have just about 3" of clearance between the balancer and the winch.

Here's a shot looking straight down. As you can see I'll have more clearance than the stock bumper and the fairlead is tucked enough that it isn't past the tube.

Side profile:

Complete:

REVROK · Mar 29, 2011

RCman said:
Yes, my winch and fair lead are on the same piece of steel, just opposite sides of it.
I cut just enough out of the front of the crossmember that allowed my to package the winch. In theory? Yes, it is exactly what I did. I left the top section were the radiator sits and the corner as well as about 0.75" of the face. I did it that way for two reasons; first my PS cooler lines run in that gap, second it allowed for some more rigidity so that radiator supports. Like I said above though, if I was to do it again I would have cut it all out like Starboard M did thus allowing me to move my winch up that extra 0.5". Many people actually just leave the stop crossmember in place and through bolt it to something much more substantial in front of it. I didn't do this because I wanted a little more room between the balancer and the winch as well as the a bit more grill protection. Cutting it out allowed me to move it ~1.75" forward.
As for clocking your Ramsey, I do not know.

Here are some random shots to hopefully help:
I have just about 3" of clearance between the balancer and the winch.

Here's a shot looking straight down. As you can see I'll have more clearance than the stock bumper and the fairlead is tucked enough that it isn't past the tube.

Side profile:

Complete:

It has an evil smiley kinda look doesn't it? RCman's is my favorite "barely an XJ" build on NAXJA

... followed it from the first post.

building a front winch bumper. opinions needed!

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