Homemade Winch Bumper V2.0

[Starboard M]

Homemade Winch Bumper V1.0
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=968021

Over the last couple of years my Jeep has progressed to the point where I am now starting to be limited by the front approach angle, and my rather large monstrosity of a front winch bumper. At the time I built it, I felt I was cutting edge by cutting the plastic grill out and managed to suck the winch almost 2’’ closer than anything I had seen and especially anything store bought.

However, it has reached the point where I cannot take this bumper any more, for both small issues I have with it and how much it hurts my approach angle.

Major Issue 1:Steering box reinforcement
I have always been plagued with steering box issues. Several years ago before I knew better and didn’t have my outer frame rail reinforced I managed to pull all three of my steering box bolt through the frame resulting in one heck of a 16 hour day on the trail. Next came last year when I broke one of the tabs off of the steering box which ended my wheeling trip within the first hour.
Lower rear bolt:

This year I managed to sheer a grade 8 bolt in Moab (thankfully on the last day on the last obstacle on the last trail) and decided Ive had enough.

Hells Revenge, Escalator:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...09803#!/video/video.php?v=421526299889&ref=mf



Major Issue 2: Approach Angle
While at the time I thought I did a pretty good job and maintaining a good approach angle, as I became more willing to try harder trails and harder lines I soon realized that my bumper was always dragging or being hit on one thing or another.

Here you can see just how far it stuck out. 6’’ from the face of the grill to the face of the winch, and 8’’ to the shackle mounts.

And here is an example of why even that is to much

How to build a winch bumper without sacrificing approach angle and strengthening the steering box mounts
What Im doing is nothing new, Im actually copying several different people, just with my own little twist. This however, is not a bumper for the weak hearted or one afraid of a little body modification.

Step one was to remove the V1.0 bumper, and remove the entire front clip including radiator. This might be a good time to also mention that while my Jeep originally came with AC it has since been removed so the condenser is no longer there.

Ive seen pictures of cracked unibodies all the time, but figured that only happens to people other than myself. Well, turns out a unibody starts to break down if you try and turn anything larger than the stock sized tires.
Crack #1 located just behind the rearmost steering box bolt

Crack #2 located on the inner side of the framerail

While building V1.0 bumper I assumed that the stock frame sleeves through the frame were strong enough to support the steering box. This turned out to not be the case as it turns out I managed to crush the framerail by almost ½’’ and bend my Custom4x4 inner steering box brace.

If you take anything away from this thread, just remember that the stock sleeves are not strong enough for hard wheeling!



Onto the fun stuff!

Take your sawzall and make that first cut. Remember, the first one is always the hardest. Your goal is to remove the front crossmember that is exactly in the wrong spot for tucking a winch back as far as possible .

I was actually surprised at how little the framerails moved after that first cut. For a Jeep that has been wheeled fairly regularly and up until recently didn’t have a rollcage, they only separated ¼’’ at most.


Remove that entire crossmember, making sure to keep the rubber bushings the radiator mounts with.

I ended up removing the sides of the crossmember that overlap the framerails by simply drilling out the spot welds and grinding a couple of the welds on top. Originally I thought it would be stronger if I kept “caps” intact but I realized that I can redo them bigger and better.


Just for a little FYI, the stock steering box sleeves do not just fall out. They are held on by a lot of little spot welds and voodoo magic. Try as I might, I couldn’t get them out, and finally gave up in fear of messing the frame rail up more than I already had.
Here are some picture of the inside of the framerail, both drivers side and passenger side. Looks like the threaded holes that the stock sway bar uses are actually the same part as the lower steering box sleeves. The upper hole was on its own, and the bolt that the factory and a lot of aftermarket tow hooks use is its own bracket/sleeve assembly.

DS

(Note: Jeep originally came with factory ATF lubricated drivers side framerail to cut down on rust)

PS

Both brackets share the three nuts, looks like the drivers side has the sleeves welded onto it. Also note on the passenger side how the back bolt hole is in fact its own bracket.

If someone has figure out how to take those blasted things out, let us know, but I was unable to short of taking a plasma cutter to my Jeep and decided to just work around them.


Since this bumper build basically started because of my last wheeling trip and sheering a steering box bolt in half, I decided to work on fixing that as the first step of reconstruction.

 

[Starboard M]

Apparently none of my local steel supply stores carry ½’’ ID, 1/8’’ or ¼’’ wall tube I had to make due with two pieces and fit one inside the other. Slightly ghetto, but it works and I don’t see why I wont be just as strong as one solid piece.

With those made I drilled the rail and stock sleeves to ¾’’ which actually took far less time and effort than I originally thought.

Sleeves in, and they all lined up first time!

With the steering box in place the next step was trying to figure out how to fit 10 lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag. It just wasn’t happening.

My friend Foster, who you have seen in Winch Bumper V1.0, my front 44 build, my boatsides and cage and my dash, suggested I rotate the clutch side of the winch. I had never heard of this, but a trip to Pirate I found a couple people who had done this all with fine results.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363495&highlight=clocking+warn+winch

It seems that the Warns with the solenoids off the winch body you can rotate the side with the handle to either free spool or rotate in. This opened my options for winch mounting to almost limitless possibilities.

Normal Warn XD9k with cable removed, stock clocking

Remove the allen bolts around the housing and then entire assembly comes off. Its especially a sun gear with a lot of other gears rotating around in the case.

All back together again, clocked two bolt positions. It has since been rotated 90* from where it is in this picture.

With the front crossmember removed, put the front clip and radiator back on, and figure out where you want to mount the winch. Everything is within a ½’’ of everything else, so getting it all mocked up right is rather pivotal to how the rest of the bumper goes together.

After doing some mockup I then made some frame plates that extended all the way to my homemade front frame stiffeners as well as incorporated the steering box sleeves on the drivers side. Made out of 3/16’’ plate

You can also make out the beginning of the shackle mounts in between the tube holes.

Finally, you get to do some tubework! Ive seen pictures of what looks like people using a tube roller, or doing a lot of small bends to get the top tube to follow the body line but I decided that that was to much effort and I don’t have enough skill to do that. So I did a strait tube between the frame rails, with bends to get the tube around the side of the Jeep.

The inner frame brackets were next, and I was disappointed I couldn’t go farther back. I was limited by the engine for both getting a grinder in there to get all the paint off and also getting a welder in there. These were made out of 1/8’’ plate.

Next came the end caps which tied the inner and outer plates together and also wouldn’t allow water or mud to go into the framerail. It was rolled for clearance with the shackle mount.

 

[Starboard M]

The top plate was a little trickier because I also had to incorporate a radiator mount into it somehow. If you have ever seen the stock mount, it’s a rubber bushing in a dimpled hole. Well, since we have dimple dies, why not go all out and do exactly what the factory did!

Bushing fitting perfectly in the dimpled hole.

Lower mount was fairly strait forward, with just a couple bends.

With the outer framerail plate being 3/16’’, and the inner being 1/8’’, we felt the steering box sleeves needed more reinforcement and so I made a second piece of 1/8’’ to further support the sleeves. Dimples were used to move the plate from the earlier welds from the sleeves to the inner plate without having to drill excessively large holes and reducing the strength of the plate.

The bottom tube was the bane of my existence. The way I designed the bumper the bottom tube met the upper tube as the upper was both angled into the body and starting to wrap around the side of the Jeep. It was probably the most complicated notch I have had to do to date (which isn’t saying all that much), and Im glad its done.

I had to use the ol grind to fit method of notching and it took forever. Pile left over at the end.

One of the biggest issues I had with my old bumper was the fact that the shackle hangers stuck out so far in the front, and I was constantly hitting them on things. With this build I sucked them into the face of the bumper so they don’t stick out any further than the tubes. I used the 3/16’’ frame plate as the main structure with 5/16’’ plate on the inside and ¼’’ plate on the outside to get enough thickness that I felt comfortable pulling with. Here you can see the 3/16’’ and 5/16’’ together.

Next step was to get the winch mount welded up, and unfortunately I had to span the framerails with ¼’’ plate. While it wasn’t all that much weight I was hoping I could do it better, but I didn’t have much luck with other options.

I had to clearance the mount so the steering box could fit back in.

 

[Starboard M]

The End….?
And so ends the “detailed” build thread. At this point I had been working on this bumper and my friends Jeep for almost two weeks, and at the end I was operating on 40 hours strait with no sleep trying to get done for a wheeling trip. I may be young and stupid, but my brain was not operating at 100% and I sort of stopped taking pictures of the progress and actually ended up passing out on a step in the garage.

For now you can admire the finished product with both a strait on shot, and one from the side (although im hopelessly stuck).

Updates will happen later this week when I get back to school, but for now that’s it!

 

[XJensen]

looking good Matt. Any idea how much angle you gained?

 

[joe_peters]

Not a fan of tube bumpers on an XJ, but that bumper looks good--real good!

 

[fuzzydog]

Good looking bumper, it should definitely do the job for you.

You mention a D44 build - I searched but could not find. Link?

 

[Starboard M]

looking good Matt. Any idea how much angle you gained?

I dont know about angle, but as a compairison my original bumper stuck out 8'' from the grill, while this one is around 3''. A stock bumper sticks out 3'' as well so I gained the same as a stock bumper right at the frame mounts.

Good looking bumper, it should definitely do the job for you.

You mention a D44 build - I searched but could not find. Link?

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=993467


Once I get pictures uploaded I will have some more updates. :sad1:

 

[in4aride]

very cool! i know this sounds dumb, but at the BOTTOM of the bumper how far does it stick out compared to stock?

 

[xjsport96]

That bumper looks sick.

 

[northwestxj]

Nice job man, looks really good. A couple things:

I know you saw my bumper build thread because you posted in it, but one thing that I really like about mine is the three holes I put above the fairlead to watch the line spool. It's been really nice to have those to try to keep your line neat, I can't imagine how bad mine would get without them. Maybe something to consider.

Also, for future reference, you don't need to completely take off the clutch side of the winch to re-clock it. You just need to take out the bolts and pull it slightly out (maybe 1/2") and then turn it (two bolt holes at a time) and put the bolts back in. As you pull it out, you can feel when the gears clear and it will turn. This is what Warn told me to do a long time ago when I had an ARB bumper.

Great job on the bumper! You'll love your new approach angle. :thumbup: It's also nice that you were able to keep your clutch fan because you cut out the stock crossmember. I had to ditch mine for clearence reasons, and run dual electrics.

 

[Starboard M]

very cool! i know this sounds dumb, but at the BOTTOM of the bumper how far does it stick out compared to stock?

Using this picture as a referance, I would say it sticks out about 2'' from the stock frame. Maybe 2.5'' from the crossmember?

Nice job man, looks really good. A couple things:

I know you saw my bumper build thread because you posted in it, but one thing that I really like about mine is the three holes I put above the fairlead to watch the line spool. It's been really nice to have those to try to keep your line neat, I can't imagine how bad mine would get without them. Maybe something to consider.

Great job on the bumper! You'll love your new approach angle. :thumbup: It's also nice that you were able to keep your clutch fan because you cut out the stock crossmember. I had to ditch mine for clearence reasons, and run dual electrics.

I have not actually put any cable on the winch yet, so I cant say for sure how well I will like how Ive done my mount. I am trying to figure out if I want to buy some synthetic rope or if I want to actually afford to eat for the next two months and just use my wire cable I have now. Once I get one of them spooled on, Im hoping Ill be able to see the cable from the top, but time will tell.

I like how my cooling system works with the stock fans, and I didnt want to fix something that wasnt broke so I figure out a way to get the stock fans to work. It was a tight squeeze but it all fits. Just barely.


Updates:

Here you can see the steering box bolts as well as the tube tying the bumper back into the frame.

Shackle mount made with a3/16'' frame plate sandwiched with 5/16'' on the inside and 1/4'' on the outside

Top of the bumper. 1/8'' dimpled plate

Passenger side. Note the extra beefy shackle hanger again, as well as just a few of the many plug welds that hold this bumper on

Close up of the middle plate. Two dimpled holes on the outside, fairlead mount and 4'' hole which is used to access the winch control

Theres the winch access point. BTW, if you want to hate life, try drilling a 4'' hole into mild metal sometime.

Bottom of the 1/4'' winch plate. Welded to both frame rails and the front tube work

Comparisons

New bumper, less than 3'' from the grill

Old bumper. 6'' to the face of the bumper and 8'' to the shackle mounts

Stock bumper on a 99. 3'' to the face of the bumper and about 4.5'' to the bumperet things

So I gained 5'' of clearance over the old bumper, and basically went back to a bumper that sticks out no further than a stock bumper. :highfive:

 

[Starboard M]

And finally, some more wheeling pictures just to prove my Jeep does actually go wheeling.

 

[northwestxj]

Looks awesome man, nice work!

 

[POSJ]

Nice skills man, what happened to the old one?

 

[Weasel]

nice, never could figure out why people stuck them all the way out front.

I cut my winch line back to 50 feet as the full 100 got way to full on the spool and too close to the engine pulleys. Extra 50 feet is an extension.

I started clocking my spool lever but it was too long and I didn't want to cut a huge hole in the bumper for it. So I made a pin that locks the winch in permanently.

 

[asp]

Sweet bumper, very sleek. One question: Do you have to pull the radiator to pull the winch?

 

[Starboard M]

Sweet bumper, very sleek. One question: Do you have to pull the radiator to pull the winch?

Yes, you have to pull the front clip to get the winch in and out, but how often do you do that?


I think I might have to pull everything apart to wire the winch and spool the wire on, but Ill figure that out when that time comes.

 

[asp]

Yes, you have to pull the front clip to get the winch in and out, but how often do you do that?


I think I might have to pull everything apart to wire the winch and spool the wire on, but Ill figure that out when that time comes.

Hopefully not often, but that's something that would iritate me if I had to do it. The name of the game is to be more-offroadable, which your design certainly is. I just can't decide if I would be willing to sacrifice serviceability too.

Where are you going to mount the solenoid box? If you mount the solenoid box up near the battery or hung off the unibody rail you shouldn't have to pull it all apart. String the winch line in from the front and anchor it. Push the button and make sure it wraps neatly while watching from the engine-side. Hell, I'll bet you could even just tie a clove hitch if you're going to run synthetic line.

 

[jakeWI]

real good looking bumper!