WK Build Begins

[PassRunnerZJ]

Looks really sharp, too bad Hi-Lift doesn't do a WK red. I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.

[Matt]

Dang Tom, she's a bute.

Clean and capable!

[ZigsRig]

Very Nice!

[Z]

I went with a PowerTank (C02 tank) for my On Board Air, so I needed some way to secure it in the cargo area. I also wanted to gain a little extra height in the cargo area, so I removed the factory cargo floor insert:



I got a 1/2" x 4' x 4' piece of plywood for a new subfloor and also ordered color-matched, factory fit cargo area carpet to cover the subfloor (the factory fit carpet came in handy when tracing out the cuts necessary on the plywood):



I ordered a mounting bracket from PowerTank, but still needed a mount for the bracket. I wanted to be able to easily remove the bracket when it wasn't wheeling season, so I created a base plate and L Bracket on which the PowerTank mounting bracket would be secured. I drilled and tapped mounting holes in the base plate and drilled corresponding holes in the L Bracket. The L Bracket is held onto the base plate via 4 wing nuts. The base plate is secured to the plywood subfloor via wood screws. The subfloor is secured to the cargo floor via bolts pushed through holes drilled in the cargo floor.



The L bracket can be attached to the base plate in either a standing orientation or prone orientation (I can close the cargo cover with the PowerTank in the prone position):





And here's the finished product:

[ArloGuthroJeep]

Nice job Tom...Nice and clean

[Z]

The first part of my front bumper build is now done. Well, almost - I have some cleanup and painting to do, but it's pretty much done.

To review: I want a winch bumper but wanted to make the front of the bumper as shallow as possible so as not to degrade the approach angle.

The basic idea for this portion of the build is to replace the existing front crossmember with a winch plate. Here are the highlights and lessons learned from the build.

Pic of the stock front, before mods.


Pic of the cut crossmember. Before we started cutting we tack welded some angle iron to keep the two sides together.


Next we welded 7" wide by 9" tall vertical plates - highlighted in green. You can't see in this picture, but the crossmember cuts were designed to cut off a corner of the inner tow hook mounts - the yellow highlight shows that the plate abuts and is welded to the tow hook mount. The tow hook mount spans from the extreme lower, outer portion of the subframe. We'll tie into the extreme upper, center portion of the subframe later so it seems like we're spreading the forces over a large portion of the subframe. The blue highlight shows that we're still keeping the two sides tacked together with angle iron.



Here we've welded on a Warn "Foot Down" Universal Winch Mount. We cut a few inches off each side of the mount to fit in this space. We also had to drill 2 new holes for the T Max winch. On the left side we've also welded on a wing to tie the vertical plate and horizontal winch plate into the top center of the subframe.

Front View:


Top View:


Here's a front view of the finished project. We cut the vertical plates down from 9" high to 7" high - and added some angle iron on the back. We should have kept the back of the vertical plates at 9" (or maybe 8") - more on this later.


Here's a top view of the finished project. The tabs highlighted in green are for clips that secure the bottom of the grill. The tab highlighted in yellow is for the air temperature sensor. The top of grill supports, highlighted in red, had to be reformed a bit, you can see some hammer marks from beating them into submission.


Here's a top shot with winch attached and the cut cross member for comparison:


Here's a front shot with the winch attached. Remember when I said we should have left the rear of the vertical plates at a height of 9" - when we tried to initially insert the winch we couldn't get it around the lower angle iron. So we had to cut a portion of the horizontal piece of the angle iron to give us a winch window. If we had left the rear of the vertical plates at 9", we probably wouldn't have had to cut the angle iron. We don't know if the angle iron is really necessary, but it seems like a good idea.


The stock bumper fascia fits over this mount - I don't have a good shot yet with the bumper fascia on. Again, this is phase 1 of a 2 phase build. I will eventually create a new bumper skin from sheet metal and metal plate (probably not until spring 2009).

[Derek33]

incredible! Everything is so clean.

[BigDaveZJ]

Looking awesome Tom!!

[Matt]

Very nice work Tom.

[SuicideTireZJ]

Wow, that thing is gorgeous! Great fab work to you and Bob.

[fpkites]

Wow - that should most definitely be applicable to ZJs (at least) - looking great Tom!

[Foxmotorsport]

looks awesome

[nierace]

Thats some real nice work, can I drop my WJ off at your place ?!

Can't wait to see the end product for the bumper.

[fpkites]

Get yer fuggin ass out here to the western states and you might have a chance Nicky

[ArloGuthroJeep]

Nice job Tom, this'll give me a good starting point for when I do mine. Any particular reason you mounted the winch upside down?

[D-FRESH WJ]

thats what i was thinkin when i built mine .. i jus went with another idea.... its lookin good man keep it up!!!!!

[dp96zj]

Wow that's sweet! Great idea and a great location to keep it tucked away.

The WK's look like they have about 4 more inches between the grill and radiator... sure wish the ZJ's came like that!

[piku303]

you should really consider getting this patented and selling it. great design.

[Z]

Thanks guys. Ryan - I wanted to make a mount that would be as difficult to install a winch in as possible. Installing even this relatively light weight winch is a bitch!

Seriously - the winch plate replaced the stock deck quite nicely. Also it puts the fairlead in the right spot. If I had created a right-side up mount the fairlead would be 7 inches lower, which I think is too low (or I would have had to cut the grill which would ruin the look I was going for). It just provides the right look. I wish someone would come up with remote wiring for winch solenoids. The remote pack would fit great behind the grill, on top of the winch plate, but there's no (clean) way to access the damned solenoid pack. Still thinking on solenoid placement.

Piku - this isn't an original idea. AEV created this solution for the Commander and WK. They have a really nice plate custom fabbed for this purpose. Unfortunately AEV doesn't sell the plate individually - you have to ship them your WK or Commander, pay them $8K or whatever and you get back a read-for-the-trail vehicle that also includes this mod. So, Bob T. and I created our own solution.

By the way, I've decided I really need the angle iron in the lower back - not for the winch mount but to tie the two tow hooks together in event of an off-center side pull.

[JohnBoulderCO]

Very cool! Very clean, I like it.

[MoonWorks]

Looks good...and looks like a lot of time went into all of your work. You don't see many WK's getting built so it's nice to see something that's not the "norm".

[elmer_fud]

Thanks guys. Ryan - I wanted to make a mount that would be as difficult to install a winch in as possible. Installing even this relatively light weight winch is a bitch!

Seriously - the winch plate replaced the stock deck quite nicely. Also it puts the fairlead in the right spot. If I had created a right-side up mount the fairlead would be 7 inches lower, which I think is too low (or I would have had to cut the grill which would ruin the look I was going for). It just provides the right look. I wish someone would come up with remote wiring for winch solenoids. The remote pack would fit great behind the grill, on top of the winch plate, but there's no (clean) way to access the damned solenoid pack. Still thinking on solenoid placement.

Piku - this isn't an original idea. AEV created this solution for the Commander and WK. They have a really nice plate custom fabbed for this purpose. Unfortunately AEV doesn't sell the plate individually - you have to ship them your WK or Commander, pay them $8K or whatever and you get back a read-for-the-trail vehicle that also includes this mod. So, Bob T. and I created our own solution.

By the way, I've decided I really need the angle iron in the lower back - not for the winch mount but to tie the two tow hooks together in event of an off-center side pull.

for the wiring for the winch control, maybe you could you connect it, then splice some sort of connector into the remote wire and put it in a convenient place. Maybe you could use some sort of trailer wiring connector or something similar that would hold up well.

Otherwise, Nice looking jeep. You have made it functional while still looking good

[Z]

for the wiring for the winch control, maybe you could you connect it, then splice some sort of connector into the remote wire and put it in a convenient place. Maybe you could use some sort of trailer wiring connector or something similar that would hold up well.

Otherwise, Nice looking jeep. You have made it functional while still looking good

Wow - what a great idea! It's just wiring - just change connectors. I really like that idea. Gotta think about that - thanks!

[ATL ZJ]

incredible! Everything is so clean.

Except for the passenger side vertical weld. Looks porous at the top.

[Z]

Except for the passenger side vertical weld. Looks porous at the top.

Yeah. You weren't supposed to notice that. We marked one cut line in the crossmember and then changed our minds and marked a second cut line without noting which line to cut. The wrong line was cut first (you can see it in the second picture), so Bob had to stitch that cut back together. There's also a (stock) hole in that vicinity that you may be seeing.