After bolting on our Ramsey Grille Guard to our Project Cherokee earlier, it is now time to bolt our Warn X8000i winch to it. I looked at the dimensional drawings from both Warn and Ramsey to make sure the Warn winch would bolt right into the Ramsey grille guard. I knew the only problem I would have would be the roller fairlead. Follow along as we bolt our winch onto the Jeep Cherokee.
;)
Step 1: This step is to unbox the winch and get
all the parts and pieces situated. At this point you DO
NOT want to undue the rubber band holding the winch cable to the
drum. Set the instructions aside, find the bolt packet that comes with it.
(Click picture to enlarge)
;)
Step 2: Get the roller fairlead out of the
winch box and test fit it to the grille guard. In this case, the factory
holes are too low, but are the correct spacing for it. So, new holes
will have to be drilled up higher on the winch mount plate portion of the
grille guard. Drill the new holes now.
(click picture to enlarge)
;)
Step 3: After you are done drilling,
mount the roller fairlead to the grille guard using the nuts and bolts
that came with the winch. (Click picture to
enlarge)
;)
Step 4: Now
insert the nuts into the winch slots around the base. The nuts will slide
into the holes. The bolts will then go up from under the base into the
nuts to tighten the winch down. (This
picture is from the TJ winch install
and is here for illustrative purposes
only)
;)
Step 5: Slip the winch power cables
through the grille of the Jeep. This is easily done by removing the grille
of the Jeep and taking the battery out. To do this, simply unscrew the
several philips screws holding it on. Some of these screws are around the
headlight bezels. Then route the cables on the side of the radiator. This
is a tight fit, but is be fine. (Click picture to
enlarge)
;)
Step 6: Run the length of the winch
power cables in the engine bay of the vehicle. The next step is to hook up
the positive and negative ends of the winch cables. If you have an Optima
battery with side posts DO NOT mount the winch cables to
the side posts. The side posts are connected to the top posts by a thin
piece of metal and are not rated for heavy loads the winch can demand.
(Click picture to enlarge)
;)
Step 7: The next thing we did was to
cut the rubber band holding the cable to the drum.
Caution: once the runner band is cut, the cable will
unravel with some force. Use extreme caution and wear a pair of leather
gloves when reaching towards the drum to pull the cable through the roller
fairlead. Once through, get the hook and undo the cotter pin. Put the
cable through and force the cotter pin back in. Make sure you bend the
cotter pin ends well. You are now finished with the
garage part of the install. (Click picture to
enlarge)
;)
Step 8: (The final one) Before you go
out and get yourself stuck, you have to seat the winch cable. At the
factory, the winch cable is loosly wrapped around the drum. If you winch
under load with out first unspooling it and respooling it under load,
the cable could tighten up and damage the wraps underneath it. We
hooked the cable to the front tow hook on a Jeep Sahara and pulled it to
the Cherokee. The TJ was in neutral, this provides ample enough load to
spool the cable in tightly.(Click picture to
enlarge)
NOTE: A winch is a useful tool to extract a stuck vehicle, but can also be very dangerous. Please read your winch owners manual about how to safely and correctly operate your winch. Look for a future tech article on this website coving safe winching practices.
Vehicle owner: Bryan
Penberthy
Words and photos: Bryan
Penberthy
Install performed by: Richard Bayer, Bryan
Penberthy, Dave "The Tortoise" Turchiarelli