Hidden Warn 8000

[FONT=&quot]I always liked the look of the Factory winch kits, with the winch mounted up against the front cross member, hidden by the bumper skin.

After a couple of years of wishing, this winter I bought a Warn 8000 and spent many cool evenings piecing this thing together on my DD XJ.
I had built a stout towing base plate when I bought the Cherokee four years ago so it could be towed behind our motorhomes. The base plate became the foundation of this installation.
The photos below begin with the base plate construction.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwade/sets/72157604557867782/

In the six months since I finished it, no one has noticed it until it was pointed out to them.[/FONT]

saw this included on the other thread about winches.

well done, very clean, looks stout and keeps the stock feel/look of the vehicle... a sleeper if you will.

I like that, I wont lie.
But at the same time with all the engery spent in figure that out, I like the look of aftermarket bumpers enough to want one.

Very cool you came up with that though!

hha why did you want to hide your winch? im proud of mine

emr1101 said:

Why did you want to hide your winch?
I’m proud of mine

Click to expand...

[FONT=&quot]
1. Friends have had their winches stolen off their bumpers. No one even knows I have one. Since it is a DD and gets parked everywhere, I try not to advertise.

2. I really prefer the stock look for this rig since it is a DD and we since we tow and use it while traveling. I have owned several off-road only vehicles that looked the part. The goal of this XJ is to look as stock as possible while being a good GP vehicle, on and off-road.

3. It was the challenge. It would have been so much easier to build a conventional winch bumper.[/FONT]

Turned out gret. You have a lot of other things going on there than just a hidden winch bumper. You incorporated the front skid, the recover points, and I spy some type of electical hookup.

Yeah thats badass. I love hidden winches. I actually have plans for that as well, but not with the factory bumper.

Good work!

yeah you should go ahead and sell that to me