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Custom 4X4
Front Bumper By Steve Chang & Chris Geiger 
Recovery equipment is one of the most important parts of any
rig intended for off-road use, and a front bumper that integrates
tow points and a winch mount is one of the most popular members of
this group. When I committed to this upgrade, I found that there is
a multitude of products available for the Cherokee that fill this
niche, including solutions from ARB, Bulletproof, Custom 4X4
Fabrication, Durango 4X4, Grand Cherokee Connection, Olympic 4X4
Products, Road Armor, TJM, and Tomken Machine, to mention some of
the more prominent manufacturers. I decided that the important
things to me are high quality design and construction, provisions
for the Warn HS9500 winch, reasonable cost, mounting points for
shackles, minimal obstruction of the radiator because of the
already problematic engine cooling typical of Cherokees, and
reasonable weight. Having found an extremely good deal on the
new Warn HS9500 winch, I bought one before researching any of
the bumpers, and was then stuck with
the task of finding a bumper that would accommodate its unusually
long motor body. Given a choice, I would have bought the HS9500i
instead, which has am integrated solenoid pack as opposed to the
remote pack that comes with the HS9500. Since the price of a bumper
will vary significantly with tax and shipping, the approximate
costs of the above listed bumpers with a shackle mount or a front
receiver hitch option are summarized in Table
1.
The Olympic and Tomken bumpers are the only
two that seemed to have questionable design merits or construction
quality. The Olympic bumper is priced very reasonably but the fact
that it only attaches by the same six bolts that fasten the stock
bumper to the frame puts its ability to withstand recovery loads in
doubt. In addition, a tow hook reinforcement bracket and shackle
mounts would have to be bought separately for this bumper. The
bumper made by Tomken Machine has no inherent provisions for a
winch or tow points, requiring instead that an additional winch
pallet and a hitch shackle be purchased separately to service these
functions, only one of which can occupy the single center mounted
receiver hitch at a time.
Even though I personally
witnessed the ludicrous high quality of the Bulletproof bumpers
when I visited their production shop, and their unconditional
lifetime warranty is extremely attractive, the price and sheer
weight of their bumper is just as imposing. More expensive yet is
the basic Road Armor product and the polished aluminum TJM T15.
Information about the three TJM products was very elusive, even
after two separate requests for a catalog from TJM and two months
of waiting. The TJM company website contains no photographs of the
Cherokee bumpers, though Desert Rat of Arizona publishes a web page
that shows very small pictures of various T13, T15 and 17 vehicle
applications, including one of the Cherokee T15, but does not list
any specifications. Obviously, I was not going to spend $400 to
$700 on a part that had so few available
details.
The Durango product looks like a heavily
armored rock bumper with pre-runner bars welded to it, with the
winch mount perched on the on top face of the bumper rather than on
the inside. This arrangement not only appears to be very heavy, but
also places the winch directly in front of the radiator.
Admittedly, I did not call Durango to ask about the true weight of
this bumper due to a complete lack of
interest.
The ARB Bull Bar is a very popular among the
Cherokee owners, having a solid reputation for being strong and
durable. The only funny thing about it is the upside-down winch
mounting scheme which requires one to reach up underneath the
bumper to reach freespool clutch handle. However, most owners of
this bumper claim that this access issue is not an impediment to
use at all.
Originally, the Custom 4X4 bumper could not
accommodate the HS9500/HS9500i. The motor body of this winch is
longer that that of the XD9000/XD9000i, for which the bumper was
designed specifically, and so causes an interference problem with
the side of the winch tray. This was the only problem with a very
well-made bumper that would have otherwise had everything else I
was looking for. The winch tray, which provides the bulk of the
structural strength of the bumper, is made of 1/4” steel and
attaches solidly to the frame rails in the stock bumper and tow
hook reinforcement bracket locations. The shackle mounts attach
directly to this structure. To remedy the winch fitment problem,
Mike at Custom 4X4 was incredibly willing to custom cut a bumper
that would still center the fairlead on the spool, even though this
would mean that the fairlead slot would be slightly off center.
Amazingly, he did would not charge me a cent extra for the modified
version! Since I had my choices pared down to this and the ARB bar,
which cost $200 more, the decision was easy to make. I received my
Custom 4X4 front winch bumper three weeks
later.
The parts lists for the winch and the bumper
are as follows:
The
Warn HS9500 Winch package:1 Winch with 5/16”x100’ Wire Rope 1 Solenoid Box 1 Roller Fairlead 1 Remote Control 1 Hook 1 Hook Strap 1 Hardware Kit: all of the screws, nuts, and washers necessary for installation.
 
The bumper assembly consists
of the bumper itself and two mounting brackets. These parts can be
removed either individually or as an assembly. If there already
exists front tow hooks on the vehicle, they will also have to be
removed along with the tow hook reinforcement brackets. I chose to
remove the bumper from the brackets first to gain better access to
the bracket bolts and since the brackets can support the loose
bumper shell, though somewhat precariously. Removing it piecewise
like this makes the process an easy one-person job. Four T-50 Torx
bolts, two per side, fasten the stock bumper shell to the bumper
brackets and six hex head bolts, three per side, secure the bumper
bracket to the frame rails. An additional bolt farther back along
the rails must also be removed to free each tow hook reinforcement
bracket. The four clip nuts from the front frame rail flanges can
be removed easily with a screwdriver. It is a good idea to soak the
frame bolts with WD-40 or penetrating oil at least a day before,
since they screw into weldnuts inside the frame. Many people have
broken the weld nuts off inside the frame and had to drill or cut
into the frame rails to access the loose
nuts. 
Since the design intent of the air dam is questionable, and it
was always an ugly eyesore to me anyways, I removed it by pinching
the back of the plastic rivets that attach it to the fender flares.
Later, I trimmed the fender flares right beneath their lowest
mounting points to match the lower line of the new bumper. I used
an angle grinder to do the cutting, but in retrospect, it would
have been just as easy to use a heavy pair of scissors or tin snips
to cut through the relatively soft plastic. Finally, there are two
metal tabs that are easily bent up and out of the way to clean up
the area beneath.
2. Installing the Mounting
Arms and Angle Brackets 
The mounting arms attach to the sides of the
frame rail with one 1/2”-13 bolt and three M10x1.5 per side,
the front two of which also fasten through the angle brackets. The
angle brackets themselves also screw into the frame rail caps with
another two M10x1.5 screws per side. I had a problem with the
bottommost frame-rail-to-mounting-arm holes not lining up. Given
the approximately 3/32” of interference, drilling the holes
out an additional 3/16” in diameter was unacceptable, so I
slotted the holes by drilling sideways and cleaned up the holes
with a file. This process took me the better part of an hour to
finish. The instructions suggest that the bolts be left loose until
the bumper is completely assembled so that it can be easily
aligned, but since I removed the absolute minimum amount of
material to make the holes line up, there was absolutely no play in
the fit.
3. Installing the Winch Tray and Shackle
Mounts 
The winch tray attaches to the two mounting
arms with eight 1/2”-13 bolts. The mounting arms turned out
to be fairly well aligned with each other, and there was easily
enough slop in the bolt holes to align the tray to the lower grill
line. As shown in the photograph, I used a floor jack to hold the
entire assembly in place while I tightened up the bolts. The
respective nuts have to be held inside a cavity in the winch tray,
so there is no room for long sockets here. The instructions
recommend that the bolts be kept loose until the bumper face is
installed, but since its alignment is completely determined by the
winch tray, and its placement would restrict access to the tray
bolts, there is no reason not to tighten the bolts down at this
point.
This is also the best time to install the
shackle mounts, since the winch will severely limit access to the
fours points at which they are secured to the winch
tray.
4. Installing the
Winch
The winch bolts to the winch
tray with four bolts on the bottom of the winch and the tray. At
this point, I had very difficult time trying to find an appropriate
place for the solenoid pack, since the cables that lead from the
pack to the winch are very short and stiff and the connector for
the remote control has to be easily accessible. I finally decided
to zip-tie the box to the front fascia, directly behind the bumper
with the remote control connector facing the front of the vehicle.
To do this, I had to cut a hole in the front of the solenoid pack
to reroute the winch cables forward. These problems can be
completely avoided with the HS9500i which has an integrated
solenoid pack that sits on top of the winch.
Unlike the winch cables, the
battery cables are extremely long. I routed these cables around the
fan shroud and looped them behind the battery and back forward to
the screws on the battery terminals to take up the slack. There is
also a small ground wire from the solenoid box for the low-current
side of the solenoid switches that can be attached to any point on
the frame.
5. Installing the Bumper Face and
FairleadFour button head socket screws fasten the bumper face to the top of the winch tray, and two bolts sandwich the fairlead, the bumper face, and the winch tray together at the front. There were no difficulties with this step. 6. Installing the Corner Braces When installing the corner braces, I once again had a misalignment problem with the holes, though this time it involved only parts from Custom 4X4. However, the geometry of this problem, unlike that with the mounting arm, allowed me to match drill the holes to quickly and easily get past this issue. 7. Attaching the Shackles After a two weeks of driving with the shackles attached, I noticed that the pins were slowly vibrating loose. To remedy this, I backed the pins out about half a thread from being locked down, and zip-tied them in this position to prevent them from both binding shut and vibrating out. Conclusion 
The installation was more
difficult than I would have liked, but I am very happy with the
final product. One issue to consider is the lost of lift height
with this heavy combination. My 3” Skyjacker lift lost a
little over 1/2”, though this was easily correctable with a
coil spring spacer. The 1/8” bumper shell feels plenty sturdy
when I jump up and down on it, and the winch tray superstructure,
along with the incorporated shackle and winch mounts, feel
virtually indestructible. Two weeks after I installed he
winch/bumper combination, I have yet to get into a situation to
need either recovery provision, but I have confidence that the
system will hold up under any conceivable situation that I plan on
surviving with an intact Jeep.
One interesting limitation
of the winch is that, according to the owner’s manual, it is
not to be submerged. Recent rain storms here have given me the
opportunity to find puddles deep enough to cause my forward wake to
wash over the hood, so this restriction has become a concern of
mine. After taking apart the solenoid box, which seems to be the
most vulnerable to water damage given its open construction, it
looks to be made of only a few large components for which
replacements should conceptually be easy to find through any large
electronics distributor.
Contact
Information:
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