Changing gears to the front bumper, finally got to use my new bender and compressor. I spent at least an hour staring at the front end trying to figure out the winch situation and I'm happy with where it turned out. These jeeps actually have the bolt pattern and cutout for a factory winch option that was bolted up behind the front frame rail. That said, those winches must have been smaller because it would have taken quite a bit of trimming to fit my 9500lb winch back there.
What I ended up doing was integrating a front crossmember frame stiffener into the bumper and tying it all back to the frame via the original bumper mounting locations. The winch bolts through the front crossmember of the jeep, then through the 1/8" back bumper plate, then into the winch; the back bumper plate runs from frame rail to frame rail. Two 1/4" plates come forward from the factory bumper mounting locations, they're the same height as the frame rails. Two tube gussets on the driver and passenger side tie the front crossmember of the jeep to the factory bumper mounting locations in the frame rails via the bumper. From there you can see the front tubes (all DOM 1.75"x0.120") of the bumper, minus the bottom tube because I ran out. I intend to plate the passenger and driver sides of the top of the bumper, potentially dimple died with some spots for lights maybe. The front will also be plated/dimpled around the winch with some D-ring points.
Mounting the winch this way let me tuck it as far back as I could without a lot of cutting, it also keeps the engagement knob/switch accessible. The tubes on the bumper are tucked as tight as I can get them, so tight I'll have to remove the engagement knob/switch off of the front of the winch to drop it out the bottom.
I thought about a short "stinger" but right now I'm leaning against it... I think it'll look clean without and what's the point on this vehicle?
Has anyone ever mounted the winch control box under the hood? I don't plan to use it often and I think it'd look clean to hide it under the hood and if it's needed you just prop the hood open a bit while in use.
It's all just tacked together for now, I'm kind of stuck as I need some tubing and sheet metal.
![20230406_121831.jpg 20230406_121831.jpg](https://www.rme4x4.com/data/attachments/118/118650-5ea31987a5291420da60ad154ba63b83.jpg)