First that b/s aluminum steering box spacer exploded made a farmer replacement


I bolted the mounts on (These I bought damn ebay and laziness) to mock things up


I used 5 x 3 x 1/4" Tube for the body, extremely beef. I notched it from the bottom up to the inside of the top, for the unibody mounts to go through. I then placed it on the mounts and tacked it all arond, and ran a bead on the front.



Then unbolted mounts and finish welded mounts through the tube.



Trimmed excess mount, and fabbin' up tow points.



After some final welding, and grinder touch up.



Capped the ends


And Shackle hangin' like a boss.


I'll paint it Tmrw, after a couple nites in the shop I'm to drunk and sunburned from the welder, and need to rest up for work. Sorry for the pic quality, I have a nextel for a camera but I tried. I also lost a few that would make it flow a little better . O well. Thanks for lookin at my first build thread.

 

All done, turned out great! I threw a strap around a big tree and gave it a good jerk in 4LO, nothing moved lol.

 

That looks nice!! and it seemed pretty easy.

 

Thanks man! It was pretty easy to do. All anyone would need is the skill and access to a set of torches, a welder, grinder, and drill. I'm very happy with it. The XJ is the perfect offroader's platform, so easy to design stuff for.

 

What kind of welder did you use? do you think i could weld tow points like yours to 1/4" steel with a 140 mig? it can weld up to 1/4" steel, so I wonder if it can weld thicker steel to 1/4" steel. Nice bumper by the way. It looks good and very sturdy.

 

vice nice and didnt seem complicated

 

I don't know off the top of my head but is a large 220V Miller MIG. A 140 won't be enough for 1/4" steel, it just doesn't have the power. I weak tow point is a dangerous one! My shackle mounts actually are 1/2" steel squares with the 1/4" plate of the frame mounts in the middle, linked straight to the frame. I suggest finding a bigger welder, you'll need a LOT of heat to penetrate 1/4"

 

Hi.

Don't take this as a jab at you - it isn't one - but if you have to ask then you may not be up to welding that up with your 140.

Beveling your pieces and multi pass welding might do the trick for you, but Dan has some good advice. Find a bigger welder and maybe someone to weld it for you.

You can always practice on scrap steel to build up your experience.

Hope this helps you.

 

That looks almost too easy! Now you have me thinking that I should build one. If I do I will likely add a hitch tube so that I can use it as a winch mount or to move trailers around.

Thanks for the thread.

 

Hitch is in the works My aunt's boyfriend got rear ended in his pickup and left hit 2" hitch receiver in my scrap pile.

 

All good points. The squares that fatten the tow points out on my bumper I actually cut about 3/8" short, leaving room between them and the face of the bumper to weld them to the protruding frame mount, and them multi-passed them to the face of the bumber. These squares are on both sides of each mount, as I want this to be extremely beefy. The bumper would rip the bolts through the frame before the tow point failed. The main point here is make tow point overkill, because the last thing you want is one of these hitting somebody at 200mph. People die.