So I have a homebrew bumper on my 99 XJ, and I've been toying with the idea of mounting a winch behind it. I've got about 8.5-9'' from the crossmember to the back of the bumper, and it's open on the top and bottom. I'll need to come up with a way to mount it and i'll need suggestions on a winch that will fit in the given space. What do you all think? I have access to a welder, and there's a shop in town that can weld it together for me to make sure it'll be strong enough to hold...here's a couple pics to give you an idea of what i'm playing with.

I've got and installed the JCR Unibody tie-ins so pulling on the bumper with not be an issue at all.

 

Maybe weld in a hitch receiver then you could pull from front and back.

 

I was thinking about that also, but that would mean losing some approach angle so I was hoping to stuff it behind there somewhere it at all possible

 

You only put it out there when you need it. Use the pig tail off a forklift to connect it to the battery. Plus you don't have 100# of weight on the front end constantly. Believe it or not it does put a lot more stress on shocks and springs. There is a guy on here that made a sweet rack to keep it in rear cargo.

 

any pics of it installed??? how far out does it stick off the bumper? that's really my only concern.

 

I just went through this on my homebrew bumper too. I went another route, but I thought about mounting it behind the bumper with the feet facing the front of the Jeep and bolting through the bumper. Then you would probably want a skid plate that mounted to the base of the bumper and went underneath the winch. You could cut a whole through the bumper for the cable and bolt the fairlead to the front.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I have a Warn XD9000i which is an integrated winch. It was too big to go behind the bumper. I think almost any non-integrated winch could work back there as long as you remotely mounted the control box.

What is your bumper made out of? It looks like L from the side shot...or is just cut up C channel on the ends?. How thick is the metal?

 

1/4'' steel channel and the ends after the bends are 1/4'' angle

 

I built the receiver behind the bumper and the receiver actually holds the bumper in place. I then made a winch mounting plate to go into my receiver and Done..

From the pictures, I think you could do the same by making the receiver part of the bumper.

It never comes off unless I need to use it in the rear. I have a custom booster cable that connects in the Winch connector.