Just finished my new homemade tube winch bumper.

I am waiting patiently for my Tom Woods rear shaft to get here after installing the Clayton 6.5" LA suspension lift and SYE, so I decided to build my tube bumper this weekend since I haven't been able to drive my jeep in about 3 weeks due to the suspension install.

I am a big fan of tube bumpers, partially because I personally think they look better, and because they are generally lighter. I also like my stingers. I had one on my old Tacoma, so I decided to put one on my XJ also. No, I have never used a stinger for its intended purpose, and I hope I never have to, that being said, I still like the way they look. I realize that not everyone likes tube bumpers, thats fine, beacuse I dont like plate bumpers. To each his own. And yes, I tied into the steering box bolts, and added a few more on the passenger side frame rails. 10 bolts in total for the mounting duties.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the pictures...











I decided my old XR8 winch needed a re-vamp, so I replaced all of the rusted bolts with stainless, cleaned and re-greased the inside, and painted the cross bars and engage/dis-engage handle. I also bought from Viking Winch Line 100 feet of new Amsteel Blue, red synthetic winch line to replace my old skin shredding, kinked up steel cable. And replaced the roller fairlead with a aluminum hawse from Viking.



While I was at it, I got a wireless winch controller from Milemarker, and installed that also.



Here, you can see where I mounted it on my steering column. Just flip the switch, and its an instant wireless system!




I am going to leave the outer/corner tubes open for now, as I may tie into my sliders eventually and make tube fenders. I used 1 3/4 HREW for the tube, 1/4" for the mounts, and 3/8 plate for the front/face plate. The winch plate area is also 1/4"

Finished the bumper off with a set of Hella 700FF's, that have been converted to HID. The lights on top are two Hella 4000 pencil beams (inner two) and Hella 4000 Euro Driving Beam (outer two), all converted to HID. Yep. They are bright. :sunshine:

I may eventually add some bracing on the stinger tubes just incase I ever do have to use it while wheeling, because although it is pretty strong as it is, it probably would'nt hold up (or hold me up) in a front roll over.

Let me know what you think. ~James

Oh yeah, this is how I bought the Jeep exactly three months ago today. Its been a busy (and expensive) 12 weeks!

Before:




After:

That's a damn good lookin' rig you got there!





on a side note, they couldn't have put the weights on the inside of the wheel? Or stick on weights maybe?

LOL... I mounted and balanced them myself. I am going to go with Dynabeads, this was just a temporary thing. Thanks!

How hard is that stuff to find i germany?looks great!

stumpXJ said:

LOL... I mounted and balanced them myself. I am going to go with Dynabeads, this was just a temporary thing. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Well props for mounting and balancing them yourself! You got a machine or what?

Wheel weights are just one of those things that drive me crazy when I see them!

Jim, yeah on the military base here they have a huge 8 bay garage that anyone can use (they call it the "auto hobby shop"), including all the tools and equipment you could ever need. There are 5 lifts too... I was a mechanic in the states for 9 years before coming here, so I already knew how to use the machines. They make you take a retarded training course if you dont have a previous experience. I wish I could have used the lifts to install the suspension, that would have made life a lot easier.... but I did it in my driveway since it took several days and I couldnt tie up of the bay/lift for that long. Anyway, maybe I will paint the weights till the dynabeads get here... They do stick out like sore thumbs. uke:

bcmaxx, you dont find this stuff in Germany. I ordered from the states and had it all shipped here. I am here with the military, so I have a "US" address, but it comes to me in Germany. We can only get stuff here via US postal service, and they have a 70 pound weight limit for each box. The guys at Clayton Offroad were SUPER cool about shipping me the stuff via USPS. Thanks to Clayton's!!

~James

Thats a sweet looking XJ man.

Did you make that swich pannel on your dash too?

That Dash is awesome, good work!

yeah, the stock dash just wasnt doing it for me, so I reconfigured it.





Just a piece of aluminum sheet, I cut out the holes for my monitor and scan gauge with my little milling machine I have in my shop, then made room for my switches and 12volt sockets. It honestly took me a LOT longer to do it than it would seem (and more than I should have spent on it). I probably have 8-10 hours in it....lol

the big hole to the left is where I am putting my switches for the ARB's when I get them in. That spot used to house the rear wiper/washer switch, but I moved it to the other side next to the defroster switch.

Thanks!

dang all that in 3 months? very impressive. took me almost 3 years for mine to be that bad ass. That is one of the best custom stinger bumpers i have ever seen. no joke very good job. stingers are bad ass and they way to go. I have on as shwell.

very cool build. not a fan of stingers, but in this case, it looks much more balanced. Are the corners of the bumper actually touching the turn signals or does it make it past the outside corner of it? Hard to tell from the angle of the pic.

yeah man, nice work on that bumper and the rest of the entire XJ. I like the custom dash work. Good stuff!

Thanks for the compliments guys! Woody, yeah the tubing is about 2 inches past the corner marker lights, and about an inch from the front turn signals. Kind of hard to tell in the pictures.

Thanks again! James

whats under the tarp?

Not a tarp per se, its the cover for my roof top tent. I do a lot of camping. I dont have any pictures of it deployed on my Jeep, but here are a few from my old Toyota which the Jeep just replaced due to frame damage.







Note the similarity in the front bumpers...

~James

that camping set up is sweet!

Big thumbs up on the dash.

Thanks guys!

~James