Winch and Bumper Questions

Hello Everyone, I finally saved up some cash for a new front bumper and a winch mount. I have looked at some of the well known names for bumpers and I really havent been too impressed. I want to get a nice Warn XD9000i self recovery winch but I am open to suggestions. Its going on an 01, XJ, with 33" tires ARB lockers, and a RE 5.5 lift. I want a basic, low profile front bumper which keeps good ground clearance, has some shackle mounts on front and doesn't have any brush grill guards. Anyone point me in a good direction or websites? personal opinions highly regarded, thanks so much for the help! Matt

jcr

X2. I plan on getting a JCR front and rear bumper pretty soon. I'm hoping they will have the black friday sale again this year.

Detours Backbone. You get to retain your stock bumper, and it'll retain your factory approach angle (great combination once you trim the front bumper):

http://detoursusa.com/xjbackbone.php

May be a bit of a wait, but definitely the route I'd go if I wanted a permanently mounted winch.

The other option I considered was the Rigid FbW:

http://www.rigidco.com/

I ultimately am buying Rigid's FbG as I do not want a winch bumper.

As the others have said, JCR is a good option too. The only reason I'd lean toward the Detours over either the JCR or Rigid is because the stock bumper and bumper caps are a bit of a sacrificial insurance policy - if you hit something, they'll absorb energy and reduce the risk of more serious damage to the rest of the vehicle. This benefit is of debatable value depending upon how and where you wheel, as some people do want the bumper to be able to bear a significant load, though not a significant impact (in which case the JCR and Rigid options would be great).

My only fear with the FbG and FbW is the possibility of a low-speed frontal impact turning into a bent "frame".

I have the rigidco FBW w/ winch hoop and it is awesome. The build quality is like no other and the guy is awesome to deal with. The best part is that due to the extreme engineering involved with the mounting system it weighs only like 80 pounds and you can remove the bumper itself and the winch stays in place. It also has a ton of mounting points to the uni body which is very important IMO when utilizing a winch on an XJ. He even built in a steering box support system that utilizes the CRok inner brace and the bumpers outer frame rail mounting system. IMO this is the best design currently available for an XJ and it looks awesome to boot. I get compliments all the time on my front bumper.

JCR offroad bumper and smittybuilt XRC 8. Winch is a little slow but has never let me down. $300 winch but works fine!

I don't understand the obsession with the park bench winch bumpers.

If you can fab, stick it behind the front crossmember. There are a ton of threads on Pirate4x4 on this and some around here as well. Here's my version on my MJ...



If you can't fab, see if one of the vendors here will make a bumper for you that sucks the winch back as far as possible (includes notching out the grill). I got mine for $650 shipped from AJs that I ran on my old XJ. The only problem was I had to wait 6 months to get it.

check out www.bpifab.com . Local to Denver and Tim produces a great solid bumper. Protrudes a bit but mounts high and tight. BPI used to produce the bumpers for Poison Spyder back in the day.

Hey guys, thanks for all the recommendations! Now, how about some winch recommendations, synthetic line vs cable, 8500 vs 9000 vs 9500, etc. What do you got for me?