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Tucked away winch

87xjco

87xjco

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Denver, CO
I've never liked the winch brackets and bumpers that stick the winch out in front of the grille on XJ's.

So I built my own brackets for my beater I picked up a few weeks ago
Dsc00455.jpg


Here's where it ended up at
Dsc04569.jpg


I am only loosing a little bit of approach angle compared to stock with no bumper.
Angles.jpg


I first cut out an opening in the stock crossmember. I left the top of that crossmember in place since the bottom radiator mounts are mounted on it. I don't think I'll loose any rigidity in the frame rails, because I believe once the winch plate is bolted on it will be stronger then stock.


These views from underneath and looking at the backside of the winch, show how tight of a fit the winch is, it's against the fan shroud on the right side and there's just a little clearance to the steering gear box on the other side.


I made alot of brackets. it sucked!!
Brackets.jpg




Rt. Inner going in Sleeves nut strips Inside rail
 
Lt. inner brkt In place Rt Inner Lt. Lower

Rt. Lower Tapped Lt. side done


Now it's time to build a bumper around it
Dsc04571.jpg
 
nice!
that looks really clean.
are you gonna clock the winch so you can reach the controlly knob thingy... I forgot the name :D
you're work is always top of the line!
 
wow really nice job man! looks like some good effort went into it. did you put the stock bumper back on and put some sort of fairlead on it?
 
Jimbo_1321 said:
nice!
that looks really clean.
are you gonna clock the winch so you can reach the controlly knob thingy... I forgot the name :D
you're work is always top of the line!
Click to expand...

I think I'm gonna just drill a hole in the lever and make a simple push/pull lever. I clearanced the crossmember a little more than this picture shows, then welded on a reinforcement around the cutout area.

Dsc04495.jpg


I still have to mount the control box somewhere too.



The bumper I build won't hide it, just go around it
 
Really nice work but alot of brackets!
What do you think about incorporating a winch mount behind one of the one piece HD bumpers like the Nates 4X4 bumper ?http://www.nates4x4.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=37
The reason I mention this idea is because I do not like the big winch bumpers with the winch sticking out on the front, I would like a stealthy approach where the winch remains out of sight & I'd like a simple bolt on product for the obvious reasons (I still understand I would have to cut the crossmember, But I can deal with that).

Cut away most of the crossmember (The bumpers strength will compensate for the crossmember), Mount the winch to the one piece bumper & mount the bumper to the unibody. Would it be strong enough?
 
Last edited:
garr said:
Really nice work but alot of brackets!
What do you think about incorporating a winch mount behind one of the one piece HD bumpers like the Nates 4X4 bumper
Click to expand...

I think it could be done, you'd almost have to have a bumper to test fit while fitting the winch.

garr said:
Cut away most of the crossmember (The bumpers strength will compensate for the crossmember), Mount the winch to the one piece bumper & mount the bumper to the unibody. Would it be strong enough?
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly how that bumper attaches. I would hope it uses something more than the stock bumper attachement points, those are pretty flimsy. Most winches and winch bumpers use a variety of attaching points to make them stronger than stock. So maybe that bumper incorporates the same features.

I felt the rails needed some beefing up for the winch and I plan to weld clevis mounts on those brackets too.

If you did something similar, keep in mind I have added plate right over the engineered crumple zones in the front of the rails, my luck I'll rear end someone and I'll go thru the windshield instead if the crumple zones absorbing that collision force :dunno:
 
looks good
 
Nice work. Jeep offered something similar in the 80's. It used the stock bumper, but yours is much nicer.
 
awesome work. i bet you could get some good $ for brackets like that. awesome clean fab work too.
 
Nice work. That took a lot of time, something I can appreciate.

I followed the hidden winch thread a couple of years ago and finally got around to doing it several months ago to my 2001 XJ.
It looks so close to stock that no one has spotted it yet among my Jeep friends.
The winch mount builds off the towing base plate I made several years ago. The base plate doubles as recovery points in the front.
I had to move the bumper forward a little over an inch and did a lot of tweaking to maintain the stock bumper.
I cut the clutch handle off and made a removable handle that includess a 7/16" socket, used to remove the license plate bolts.
The relay box is hidden under the hood and the controller plug is sunk into the grill.
The M8000 is loaded with 85’ of 3/8” synthetic line.

It took a lot of time, something 87xjco may appreciate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwade/sets/72157604557867782/
 
Cleaned up the welds and threw a coat of paint on. I'm gonna add supports and something around that winch later.
Dsc04589.jpg


I'm thinking I may build something like the chopped in area in gray, I like the look but I hate to loose the clearance.
support+chop.jpg
 
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