How would you outfit this custom LJ?

[jscherb]

I did a few mockups to help me finalize the design.

Clearance under the spare in the rear was my first concern. Tested on both the LJ and the JKU; there's about 1/2" clearance to the spare on the LJ and zero clearance on the JKU, although it does slide into place just scraping the bottom of the JKU spare. Ordinarily I would be running the MORryde HD spare carrier on the JKU which raises the spare more than an inch (stock carrier is on there at the moment), so either way this height for the cradle works.

The control box normally mounts on top of the winch, but it won't clear the spare if mounted there, so I'll mount it like this:

I'm using a Harbor Freight winch mounting channel, it'll be cut shorter to match the length of the winch.

Clearance on the front of either Jeep isn't an issue.

Now that I have the winch here and can do some measurements, it appears that it will be too wide to store vertically - it'll interfere with the headlights. If I had the stock TJ grille with its wider headlight spacing instead of the CJ grille it would probably not interfere with the lights, but with the CJ grille I think it will. I'll finish up the winch mount/cradle and then I can do another round of more accurate mockups to decide whether the vertical storage option makes sense or not. I've got another idea for storing the winch, when I finish the cradle I'll see if that idea makes sense.

 

[jscherb]

I built the winch cradle this morning.

On the back, it clears the spare and the tailgate can still open.

There are a few details left to finish up before the receiver and cradle can go off to powder coat. I've also got to do the wiring so that the winch can work in both front and back, and I plan to sew a weatherproof cover for it, so still some work to be done.

 

[Presto88]

Do you know how much that whole winch & carrier assembly weighs?

 

[jscherb]

Do you know how much that whole winch & carrier assembly weighs?

I didn't know until you asked - I just weighed the winch/cradle/roller fairlead assembly and it's 86 pounds.

 

[jscherb]

When the winch is mounted for use, it sticks pretty far out in front of the Jeep, which may put it in harm's way for daily driving:

Originally I thought I'd be able to add a vertical receiver in the center to store the winch vertically, but it turns out that interferes with the passenger side headlight - the winch is asymmetric - it's longer on the motor side than on the gearbox side, so centered and mounted vertically puts the motor side of the winch in front of the passenger headlight.

But I could install the vertical receiver on the driver's side of the horizontal receiver instead of on top of it, here's a mockup photo. In this position it only infringes slightly on the headlights and I could trim the mounting plate slightly as indicated by the tape lines to reduce the interference a bit. The gearbox on the driver's side will still interfere with the driver's headlight a little, but with the mounting plate trimmed interference should be minimized and acceptable.

What's nice about putting it in this position is that the winch doesn't stick out further than the bumper:

 

[jscherb]

I cut and fit the "storage receiver" this morning but haven't welded it in place yet.

 

[Bobzdar]

You may want to cut the bottom of the vertical mount off flush with the top of the horizontal one, this would let you move the winch to the passenger side 1/4" (like in your above picture with the winch mocked up, instead of it moving to the driver side 1/4" due to the thickness of the metal) and easy access to the retaining pin. As it won't actually be pulling anything in that position there should be no strength issue.

 

[jscherb]

You may want to cut the bottom of the vertical mount off flush with the top of the horizontal one, this would let you move the winch to the passenger side 1/4" (like in your above picture with the winch mocked up, instead of it moving to the driver side 1/4" due to the thickness of the metal) and easy access to the retaining pin. As it won't actually be pulling anything in that position there should be no strength issue.

I didn't want to give up that 1/4" as you say, so I'm ahead of you - the vertical receiver is cut so that the winch can sit exactly in the position it was in the mockup. Since the receiver isn't welded in yet I just now took these two photos to show how it's cut and fitted in place:

Since two sides of the receiver tube are cut, I didn't give up that 1/4" to the side or the 1/4" to the front

 

[Vinman]

Are you concerned about the amount of airflow getting to the radiator with the winch mounted vertically like that?

 

[jscherb]

Are you concerned about the amount of airflow getting to the radiator with the winch mounted vertically like that?

No I'm not. https://expeditionportal.com/forum/...fit-this-custom-lj.46300/page-48#post-2516545

 

[jscherb]

Another potential use for what I've just built - it wouldn't take much to adapt a commercial tow bar to connect to the ring eyes for towing the Jeep...

 

[jscherb]

Finished the fabrication of the receiver and winch cradle this morning.

In this next photo you can see the locking hitch pin, and just behind the winch I put an anti-rattle bolt into the cradle. The bolt has a 3/4" hex head so it fits the Jeep's lug wrench, no extra tools required. When the anti-rattle bolt is snugged down, the cradle doesn't move at all in the receiver.

In the stored position. The locking hitch pin is also visible in this photo, and there's an anti-rattle bolt for this position as well.

The winch is out of harm's way when stored.

The only thing I haven't done yet is added a place to secure the hook. It'll be on the cradle so the winch/cradle is self-contained and can be removed/repositioned without messing with the winch cable.

 

[Vinman]

Looks good?

 

[jscherb]

I've been driving the Jeep around town with the winch in the storage position and I can report that as expected the Jeep runs at normal temperature and due to the anti-rattle bolt, the assembly makes no noise - since you can't really see it from the driver's seat, you don't really know it's there since it's quiet.

I added a u-bolt as a place to park the tow line hook. In this photo I've simulated where the line will go using the Warn pull strap since I haven't removed the shrink wrap from the winch cable yet.

Next I'll do a little metal finishing on the parts and take them to the local powder coat shop.

I've still got to implement the wiring; I've got a design that supports the winch in both the front and rear receivers and can be used with my other Jeeps as well.

 

[Bobzdar]

That's a really slick setup - only reason I brought up cooling is my TJ would get a little hot (not overheating, but hotter than usual to where I'd see the temp gauge go over half way) in the summer with the AC on and a winch installed. As you have the narrower CJ grill and the winch much higher, I thought it might be an issue. I never had any issues with it actually overheating, guess it could have just been my particular Jeep, maybe some mud got in the condenser/radiator area or something that caused it to run a little hotter.