Hello all! While I'm experienced in the world of online forums, this is one of my first posts here on CF. I have enjoyed reading several threads covering some of your builds and they all have some great info (and I've subscribed to many so keep them updated! lol).

But, to my questions...

I recently acquired a 99 Limited (gold) and it's currently all stock. At this point I am not really interested in doing any sort of lift on it (maybe sometime down the road but not right now). What I am interested in doing, sometime in the near future, are these:

Put a beefier front bumper on it that will provide some additional protection as well as provide some place(s) to mount lights. I was first thinking of just going with a brush/grille guard but I read in threads that some of you suggested not going that route as, as they said, they are cheaper and will not really protect that much. On the flip side, I'm not looking to spend a boat load of money and won't really be going on any serious off road rock climbing, etc. I live in Arkansas and will mostly be driving it to our cabin in the national forest or up on one of our farms. What is a good replacement front bumper, if that's what you suggest, for the 99 XJ?

I've also seen some of the rides with a basket on the top and lights mounted to that. If I went that route, what basket would you recommend?

Of course, the other option is getting a LED light bar and mounting it at the front of the roof, above the windshield. Any suggestions for a particular brand and/or what size fits just right up there? I suppose this might work in conjunction with the above mentioned roof basket. I would also like to put some small ones on the back that I can turn on so I can see when closing a gate after putting through, etc.

And upgrading the headlights is something I'll probably do as one of the first projects. As folks with real world experience, what do you suggest? I've seen the nice looking LEDs (like the Truck-Lites) but also read that they don't get warm enough to keep snow from sticking to them if it's coming down while driving (which I may very well be now and then).

I do appreciate your time and help. And I do realize that some of the answers may just be some of you pointing me to specific posts or threads here (or elsewhere). I am looking for specific brands and models, if possible, that you have experience with as online searches (in general) yield, in some cases, a wide variety of responses.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to the responses!

 

All of the questions you have can be found by simply searching google...

 

Google will yield thousands of results, yes. However, many if not most are retailer websites trying to sell their products and is not the opinions or experiences of real-world users who have determined this is a good product and that isn't.

But thanks for your help. I apologize if my post was inappropriate.

 

Lots of questions but lacking a little information.

Do you want the bumper purely for a place to mount lights?

If so I suggest you just get an 52" LED light from Amazon, This is a great combo for $100

(4) small LED's $29.99

A friend has these and has had a couple of small sets, he said these rock in comparison.

(1) 52" LED $68.25

Yes its cheap, but man does it give off more light than you ever need unless you are doing the Baha.

And you can get pillar brackets from here for one set of the lights;
http://detoursusa.com/a-pillar-brackets.php

You can make brackets for the 52" if the ones that come with won't work.

As far as headlights, I got a set of Rampage Housings and I am happy with them

along with a set of Hella 80w/100w H4 bulbs (55w/65w is stock)

or these 90w/130w

And a Putco wiring harness to get the juice to the bulbs.

As far as roof baskets, what do you plan on putting up in it, what weight that might be in it will effect your choices.

 

OK, great information -- thanks for that.

My thought on the bumper is a combination of protection and a place to mount some lights for when I'm off road. We are in whitetail deer country around here and the hour and 20 minute drive to the cabin (one way) is on a highway notorious for vehicles hitting deer all...the...time. I'd like something to give more protection than the stock does without being too ridiculous. There may not be such a thing -- I suppose to get adequate protection it may require a serious bumper structure. I suppose a grille guard may be the better route to go but unless I get one that will actually protect the front of the rig and not just crumple if I do hit a deer then I don't want to spend the money on it solely for looks. Of course, as anyone I'd hope to never hit one which would make it mostly for mounting some lights.

As far as the roof baskets, it wouldn't have anything heavy in it. In fact, mostly I was just coming up with ideas on places to mount lights. I've seen some over the years that were used to mount lights across the front and even on the sides pointing out the sides, as well as on the rear. As I'm typing my response I'm thinking the answer to this one is...if I go this route it won't really matter which one I get as long as it fits. I may have answered m own question here.

Sorry if I was too vague earlier. I see I had left some details out. Thanks for those links -- it's helpful knowing that someone has had good experience with those items you linked to.

 

As far as a basket, go out to your jeep and measure what size you think would look nice, I think I came up with 44-46" Wide, and 54-72" long

Maybe something like this

Here is my my daughters jeep with a small roof basket probably 42"x42" (its not here to measure), it was free so the price was right, not terrible looking.





If you are going to carry a lot of weight at any time look at one with gutter mounts, otherwise you can just use brackets that go to your current cross bars.

In regards to bumpers, I always suggest doing it right the first time, so decide if you want a winch eventually, get one with a decent approach angles, and MAKE SURE you get one that extends from the stock bumper mounts to the unibody. (3 bolts vs. 5,6,8 bolts)

Get this



Not this



There is so many companies with different types and budgets it is hard to suggest one, so just start google searching and maybe post up a few you are considering and get feedback on those.

 

Great info all around. I wouldn't have thought about or known about the bumper needing to extend back onto the unibody structure. Thanks for the help.

 

A good front bumper can be 600 to a grand plus,As far as a led light bar you got a few options on mounts between a 40 inch and a 50 inch.Brands http://olympusoffroad.3dcartstores.com/ and http://www.inspired-engineering.com/default.asp are the cheaper ones i trust to run.

 

Excellent. Those Inspired especially look good and the price is right. Thanks for sharing!

 

Welcome to the forum!


You have several options for what you want for inexpensive bumper check here for a couple http://www.roxolidtrailarmor.com/Off...ont-Bumper.php


He has several additions for the bumper and the quality is good I have one of his older Crawler series of rear bumpers NA now but very good guy to work with.


The D-Rings are a great point for getting pulled out front and rear and one I would suggest,


Here are a couple of photos of my rack (w back-up/work light) and front bumper I bought used on craigslist but works well for me. I did add some to it after I bought it.

 

I think you mentioned SNOW concerns,

In regards to the light water resistant look for IP68 rating for the best seal, although IP67 should be sufficient, but does not seem to always be the case.

http://www.dsmt.com/resources/ip-rating-chart

 

Thank you. You all are providing information that I will refer to regularly as I outfit my XJ as I want.

 

Jonesboro Ar checking in. Just got my first XJ. Here's the night I picked her up with my 5.0