I was looking at my '97 XJ front bumper and saw the infamous black ball in there. Im thinking about getting a new rough country front bumper and I'm wondering if anyone knows where i could relocate it?

 

When I did the smittybilt bumper on mine I just turkey tied it to the fender support right behind the factory location.

 

Ok. Thats a good idea. How is your smittybilt?

 

Love it. Hangs a bit low for my taste, but I can live with it. Used the winch all day yesterday to do trail maintinence and it held well. Install wasn't too bad, but its a heavy *** bumper.

 

thats good. Im leankng towards rough country because its a tad cheaper. My xj is bone stock now. Do you think one of them steel bumpers will effect its stance significantly without a lift kit?

 

Bolt it

 

Or screw it actually. Use the same hardware that it was attached to the bumper with.

 

and you think i should just mount it right to where id mount the bumper?

 

Waynerd, I used your pic...



Here's where I mounted mine, behind the crossmember of the uniframe. Used some self tappers. Never an issue. You'll need to replace some line.

 

I had to install 3/4" spacers to get the stance back, but that only took a couple hours. Have you looked at ajs off-road? Their slickrock is a really nice number though a bit more expensive. Had I realized they were still in business I would have gone with that. Only downside is their mount. You either have to trim the fender mount or their bracket.

 

mines a '97. Would i still have to trim the fender?

 

For the aj off-road bracket you would. The problem is with the plate that mounts to the frame.

 

Look closely. It's mounted to the triangular support brace for the fender. Doesn't interfere with the bumper mounting. There are plastic nutserts in the reservior that the screws would go into that held it on the bumper. Instead of it being mounted to the bumper just drill holes through the strait piece where the horn is mounted and put the screws through the brace and into the nutserts on the vacuum reservior. Really you could mount it anywhere using the same method.