btw, mfbarnes@barnes, you might want to sand and paint where you cut the bumper. its already rusting away, imagin what it'll be like in a few months or years...

 

took the best out there and put on my twist . I wanted a stock looking front end which included the required front license plate (the area that look like a dent on the bottom of the grill is just the flash) I wanted easy access to the winch but didn't want to block the rad. with the soleniod to avoid a over heating issue . I moved the soleniod beside the battery I ran new cables from the solenoid to the battery and winch. Auto part stores carry a large selection of battery cables with the right ends to hook up the battery to the soleniod and the soleniod to the winch. I used a trailer 4 wire wiring harness (removed 1 wire as its not needed) from the soleniod to the controlled hook up. I placed the trailer wire 4 plug hook up connection behind the grill to make the removal of the grill easier and place the controlled connection through the grill inserts to finish it off.


Hope this gives others ideas on making mods your own.


Thanks to all for the direction and I hope this helps someone else with thier project.

 

That looks really good man! what kind of winch is that?

 

Some time ago I read a winch shoot out article. The article listed Warn, Ramsey with chicago winches coming in 3rd place. The article list only 9k winches but I reasearched Chicago and found the 10k on sale. Since I only go off road about 10% of the time it was just right and with the price I couldn't go wrong. $399 includes winch plate. Just had to cut the plate to fit the frame.

Made a brachet so that the fairlead fit inside, the plate covered up the whole thing and the fairlead isolater keeps everthing quite while driving.

I replaced to plastic skid with Mopar metal one, cutting was needed to fit and use the winch but covers the electric swaybar disconnect just right. Moved the bumber out 3/4" with 4 washers on each tow hook bolt and everything lined up as if it was made for it.

Hope this gives you some idea's on how to do this mod yourself.

 

That looks really good man, you can't even tell you have a winch! and that is a killer price on the winch too, I'll have to research them as well. I was actually thinking about getting the SmittyBuilt 8K winch for $299, but 399 for something much better sounds like a better deal. Heard anything about the SmittyBuilt ones? I've heard they are really MileMarker ones, but I do not know for sure. but 399 for a 10k one, that sounds awesome! where did you get it?

 

thanks for the comments. Took some time and a lot of grinding. Something my wife wasn't too sure about. hell its my ride I'll do what I want if she lets me. If the stealership can steal from me than I can mess it up on my own.

I pm'ed you the place I bought it from as they don't support this forum.

Not sure if its on sale or not but they do have th 8k on sale for $299 now, I've been thinking that i would get the 8k for the receiver hitch as I don't see how to put one out back. I have the room now with the banks exhaust but my hitch gets in the way. I may have to wait until a rear bumber with winch mount and hitch become available or I get the courage to make one myself. I'm just learning to weld. The fairlead plate bracket took 4 attempts to get it just right.

It came out the way I wanted, I just took my time, measured twice to fit each piece before i started cutting or drilling.

 

That looks great, It is a wierd feeling taking a sawzall to your new ride. Mine fits into the top of the bumper and came out ok . I used the champion 8000# from Cosco it was $299.00 including the plate and roller fairlead.

 

I ended up pulling it back apart and having it sprayed with Bed Liner (Line-X)

 

I couldn't bring myself to use the sawsall. I used a grinder with a cutting blade. Had more control and melted the plastic when it was time to cut the actural bumper. Just measure and re-measure. take your time. It will come out the way you want it to.

 

You guys are braver than me. When I decide to add a winch, I'll probably use an after market bumper.