Crossmember Beef Tech

[RockControlXJ]

Over the past couple years i've worked on quite a few trail ready XJ's/Zj's. I've seen a lot of good mods and a lot of S@#t. One of the area's that has always seemed weak on a cherokee is where the bumpers mount. When it came time for my own personal Driver/Beater i decided to go all out and address a few things

1. The bumper bolts to sheetmetal. NO GOOD
2. Steering boxes are bolted to sheetmetal. NOT GONNA FLY
3. There is nowhere strong enough to attach recovery equip on the front (or rear) of an XJ.

Heres what i decided to do,

Get rid of the front crossmember, its pure crap

I used a spot weld bit to remove the member, make sure to leave somthing straight to attach the new member to. I used the old spot weld locations.

grind your spot welds flat and fit some material to replace what you've hacked. A 2"x5" box will fall right in, but i decided to make mine more complicated so i could fit a winch in without killing my approach angle.

Use at least .25" wall box tube. Remember you will be welding a bumper, winch mount, and D-rings to this, not to mention its holding the front of the truck together.

I also strapped the top and bottom of the crossmember with some 1/8" plate

Now i wanted my steering box to be stronger as well. What better way than to tie it into a box tube crossmember with some 1/4" plate

now since the stock radiator mounts are part of the original crossmember, you'll have to fabricate those too. Heres my solution

Finish weld everything and bolt the front of your truck together and it'll look somthing like this

The front crossmember is now a solid point to attach a real bumper.

 

[RockControlXJ]

My bumper ended up looking like this. The crossmember took me about 12 hours to do, so it can be a weekend job. Don't worry about the front of the truck sagging this is the 2nd truck i've done this mod to and i havent had an issue with it. Heres the list of major tools i used

4.5" angle grinder
Sawzall
Cordless drill
Cheepo Costco welder
Wrenches, screwdrivers, etc (to unbolt grill and radiator)

If your carefull you don't have to remove any of your accesories or even discharge your AC. This is a simple project but take care to make sure everything is square and lines up properly. If your not a confident welder DO NOT TACKLE THIS JOB. The results could be disasterous. Feel free to hit me up with any questions i have a few more pics i could post if need be. Hope this helps someone,

Brian

 

[tealcherokee]

very very nice.....ill be doing something similar

 

[ILLXJ]

Very nice. I wish I could do something like that. JIM.

 

[Matt S.]

Not sayin it isnt strong. But, I do question its strength for this reason only. You still welded that crossmember to small area of sheet metal. I have seen bumbers have more surface area than that. I would have at least tried to extended it in a few more inches and throw some rosette welds in there. Not saying its going to happen, but those welds that run horizontal on top of the "frame" have made that point more likly to bend than before hand.

Deffinatly a GREAT idea though!!!!

Edit: now that my eyes are a little more open, I see some rosettes. I really like what you did, it just seems kinda half way there to a really really extra strong front end.

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

I like what you did too, but I would have extended sheet down both outsides of the "frame rails" all the way back and encompasing the large hole that most tow hook arrangements use. I would also have plated the insides of the frame rails back to that hole just like the JKS SBS system does. If one were to transplant a V8 in their rig, this crossmember design might allow fitting of a more square radiator like most v-8's use too. Just a thought. Jeff

 

[Zebaru]

Since we are talking about extending the front end plating - here is where I am on my project. Not as pretty as some others I have seen, but you will get the idea...

Inside, outside, bottom, and top all plated in 3/16" both sides all the way back to the motor mounts. The sides are tied together with sleeving through the existing holes. On the drivers side this is the three steering box holes, the big one, and the one the stock hooks go to. On the pass side, I used the big one, the stock hook, and had to drill a couple others so there is only four. Rosettes here and there, but probably not as many as you guys would like to see. I tied the inside plates to the motor mounts with a couple of 1" or so welds, but I am still not sure whether that was a good idea or not...

No crossmember yet, but I will probably be using some combination of tube and angle to tie the sides together.

 

[Goatman]

I really like it. That crossmember is a real problem that not many have addressed yet. I agree with a couple of comments that you could have extended the plate down the sides of the framerails a little further, but with the extra strength of your new crossmember I don't know how big a deal that is.

I've had cracks and broken the spot welds at the top of the stock crossmember, and fabbed T shape pieces to weld over it for a fix. I also added a section of tubing between the bumper mount tabs across and directly in front of the stock crossmember. Currently, my stock crossmember is smashed and torn all the way in half from rocks, so it needs a complete rebuild. I've been getting some fan hitting the shroud when all crossed up in the front and climbing under a load, which is likely from that crossmember being totally trashed.

 

[hackedxj]

I agree that the stock cross member is junk and usually poorly welded . I believe by the stock crossmember not holding the end of the frame rail securely causes or adds to alot of the frame breaks behind the steering box.
After tearing my crossmember loose on a rock, I replaced it with 3x4 angle 3/16 thick. I used two pieces the lenght of the cross member. I mounted the angle with the 4 inch flanges horizontal so I just had to drill holes to set the radiator on top of the angle, on the bottom side the 4 inch flange reaches almost back to the steering box. The 3 inch flanges meet perfectly in the middle to make a six inch tall cross member.When I built my winch bumper I added a skid from the bottom front edge of the new cross member angling up to the bumper.
The front definately feels more rigid when steering in tight spots and it's nice to be able to slam down on rock and not worry about it.