Front valance/crossmember

Sorry about the vague title, but I’m not sure of the correct nomenclature for the part I’m referring to.

As part of my recent upgrades to my 2001 AC, I’m about to install a winch in my Addicted Offroad bumper. However, based on the diagrams, I am not going to have enough clearance between the bottom of the winch pocket and the (for lack of a better term) crossmember which runs below the headlights and grille.



Unfortunately, this is a single piece which also serves as the lower headlight surround on each side.



Although I really don’t want to, I think I’m going to need to remove a section of this for the winch to fit. However, that section is also attached to the radiator in the center (right where I need the space):




I am not sure if the crossmember is serving as a radiator support, or if the radiator is simply shoring up the long run of relatively thin metal.

If it’s not a necessary radiator support, the most sophisticated solution would be to cut it at each end by the headlights and have a body guy round the corners to match the headlight contour, then paint, but I really don’t know if I want to take it that far. I could also just cut what I need and fashion some kind of rubber end cap to clean up the edges, and be done with it.

So, Is that radiator support critical? Are there options I haven’t thought of? Open for suggestions if anyone’s done something similar before.

 

Well, this didn’t quite stir up the discussion I’d hoped (I realize it’s a pretty specific situation). Does anyone at least know what that part is called? I cannot find reference to it in any parts diagram in can find. It looks like some of the later years (or maybe double cabs) have the headlight surrounds as separate pieces without the cross member. If I could get those to bolt up, that would be perfect.

 

So I was just out at my truck trying to fit a fan, it seems like that “cross member” is mainly attached at the center, to help support the oem bumper, I didn’t look how or if it’s attached somewhere closer to the headlights.
Is there not enough clearance to get it installed? Or not enough clearance period, even if you mount the winch on the bumper, off the truck? What is in the way, the winch or the controller?

 

Panel or filler panel.


Access Cab P# for an 05-06:
53931B PANEL, FRONT END, RH
53903-0C030 W(RESIN BUMPER)
53903-0C040 W(STEEL BUMPER)

53932B PANEL, FRONT END, LH
53904-0C010 W(RESIN BUMPER)
53904-0C020 W(STEEL BUMPER)

04 DC:
53931B PANEL, FRONT END, RH
53903-0C050
53932B PANEL, FRONT END, LH
53904-0C030

 

I’m doing a controller relocate, so it’s the actually body of the winch I’m trying to clear. Even if that crossmember disappears, I may have to relieve the bottom of the grille slightly to make it fit.

Winch will sit in the pocket for it just behind the main hoop.

 

Hell yeah! Thanks!

 

And it’s still a no go if you removed the bumper and mounted it?

 

I see what you’re asking now. Correct - the space between the crossmember and the floor of the pocket is less than the total height of the winch body.

 

Hahah your damn paint is soo shiny I keep getting confused what I’m looking at.
Sooooo you can “clock” the winch and basically move the shift lever forward and that might give you the clearance you need, I’d hate for you to chop shit up if you don’t need to. Maybe email them as see what they say?

 

Yeah, it’s really hard to get good photos of the issue. From looking at the diagram, even without the lever in play (and I agree with you on the clocking) it’s going to be extremely close, at best.

Going to get on it Friday. My plan is to remove the whole valance, drop the winch in, then see what I have to remove.

 

From the top, how is that centered between the mounting bolts? Dead center or askew to the front or back? That might be your saving grace.

 

I’ll grab a photo tomorrow, but it’s pretty centered. It’s my guess that Addicted Offroad spec’d the bumper out based off of a model like the one pictured above without any cross piece, and designed it to fit almost flush with the grille. If I can make the parts Assassin listed mount up, that would be an easy fix.

 

Well, I got into things today. I will provide a spoiler alert and say that things did not end well.

Poked around and found that the valance is held in by the center support as well as bolts around each headlight. Accessing the bolts was no problem, but I did have to remove the marker lights and unbolt the headlights to gain enough clearance to lift the valance out:







Entire piece removed:


Center support was still in the way, so I drilled out the rivets and removed it:


So hell yeah, things were falling into place, so I figured I’d just drop the winch in there as a mock-up and finish things up tomorrow.

…and it’s too damn wide. All the time spent stressing about height, I NEVER thought to check the width clearance. The winch pocket on the bumper is angled outward from the bottom, with the narrowest point being about 22 inches.


I need 24.25 to fit the winch. This leaves me with a few options, all of which have drawbacks.

1) Return the winch, attempt to source something smaller. Most logical solution. However, I was anticipating doing a solenoid relocation to keep the height down, and already removed the control pack. So I’m dealing with opened and modified electrical parts, along with several smashed boxes. (Yes, I acted like a 14-year-old at Christmas when I was opening things up). I can ask, but I wouldn’t blame them a bit if they won’t accept a return.

2) Shave the winch sides. I need about an inch at most on each side (maybe less as the angled pocket gets wider with as height increases.). The exterior of the winch sides look to be plastic cladding. If it’s deep enough, I could relieve the area with a file in order to make it fit. Of course, I won’t know how deep it is until I go too far, at which point I’m in even deeper quicksand.

3) Cut half-moon holes in the sides of the winch pocket to allow for fitment. They’d likely never be visible to anyone else. However, I’ll know they’re there, which will drive me crazy. Also, I don’t have much confidence that I can carry that out without butchering the bumper supports, which are presumably there for a reason.

Right now, I’m taking option 4, which is drinking heavily. For now, I’ve put everything back together how it was (minus the center support) so I’m at least back to square one. If anyone has thoughts, let me know.

 

Update - one step forward and two steps back. This thing is still kicking my ass.

So after a beverage or two since the last episode, I cooled down a little and came to the conclusion that shaving the winch or cutting the bumper were both terrible ideas. I did some more research and found that the Warn Evo line was narrow enough to fit. The Evo is their Chinese line, and as much as I wanted to stay with the American-built Zeon, it was clear that it wouldn’t fit. So I ordered up an Evo 8S and am working on offloading the Zeon locally. Which brings us to today…

Pulled everything apart again and mocked things up with the Evo. It dropped right in like it was custom made to fit. Sweet!





Eyeballed things and thought that there was a chance that maybe, just maybe, I could get away with using the existing valance. A little massaging later…



Fits, but it’s tiiiiiiiight:



Then checked the clutch lever and saw that I couldn’t manipulate it without it impinging against the valance:





Not the end of the world though. I can probably relieve that area just enough with a Dremel that it’s workable but practically invisible. Barring that, I can still attempt to use the filler pieces that fit the ‘05, so I’ve at least got options. More work to do, but surmountable.

I finger tightened the mounting bolts just to make sure things were in the proper place, and realized that the winch was very tight against the front of the pocket:





That last image is the mounting hole for the fairlead. As you can see, there is NO clearance between the winch body and the bumper to allow for a nut or bolt head. I can’t figure out how I’m going to secure the fairlead to the front of the bumper.

There is room for the winch to move back (toward the firewall) on the mounting plate. This would solve the fairlead issues, but will require drilling new mounting holes and create more interference with the clutch lever.

I’m more than a little frustrated right now with what I’d hoped would be a straightforward install. I suppose I could run without a fairlead at all (and truthfully I don’t anticipate doing a lot of heavy winching) but I know that’s sub-optimal, at best. If anyone has any MacGyver ideas, I’m all ears.

 

I realized that there’s enough room behind the winch to allow me to clock the clutch handle 90 degrees to the rear, which effectively solves my vertical clearance problems. Will be a bit of a hassle to operate, but should be doable under the limited use I expect to see.



Just need to figure out the fairlead part and I may have this licked.

 

Success!

Certainly not the textbook solution, but I decided to drill countersinks in the face of the winch body to allow for clearance of the fairlead not. There was a good deal of metal to work with on the front.

Used a paint pen to mark the area to be cut:




Rough idea of the depth needed:



I found some jam nuts at Lowe’s that were slightly thinner and used those in order to minimize the depth as much as possible.

What I need to clear once the fairlead was mounted:





I then commenced drilling. If someone has access to commercial machining tools, this should be a simple and clean process. I do not, and made do with a cordless drill and undersized bits. While ultimately effective, the results looked like a hog’s butt sewed up with barbed wire, as my old shop teacher used to say. I purposefully did not take pictures, as I am trying to forget the image.

However, it worked:



I didn’t have a millimeter to spare in terms of getting the mounting holes aligned:



The only other complication was that with the fairlead installed, the channel that holds the mounting bolt nut inside the winch was nigh-near inaccessible:



Go go, Gadget Grappler!



So, in the end, a HUGE pain in the ass, but I largely got the results I wanted. Will bolt everything back together in a few days. I still have the headlight fill pieces on order - if they fit, I may still swap the center crossmember out in order to be able to clock the clutch lever back to the 12:00 position. Happy to have this much done, at least.

 

@TravisJr
Did you receive or find install instructions for your front bumper? My tube bumper showed up yesterday and I’d like to get a better idea of what needs to be done

 

No instructions, but pretty straightforward. You will need to remove the entire front bumper assembly. Once that’s done, you will need to get rid of the end caps welded to the ends of the frame rails:





This just takes some grinder work on the welds. After that, you (or your designee) will need to weld the supplied crossmember to the frame rails. This will get gusseted with the supplied plates. Bumper assembly mounts to that. I don’t have any photos, but can snap some underneath if that helps.

 

Not perfect, but if you zoom in on these you can make out the crossmember and boxing/gusseting:

 

Awesome thank you, does that weld in cross memeber sit at the front of the rails or actually inside? And my other question was where exactly those other plates get welded in at along the frame.

 

That makes more sense

 

Let me know if you need any specific close ups or measurements. I’m no Ansel Adams, but I can probably get a shot of what you need.

 

@TravisJr
Do you have a tow package? How did you deal with this line? Just weld new tabs on the supplied cross member?

 

Check my photo above with the circles drawn on the frame mounts. I think that’s the same area you’re showing on yours. I don’t think I have that same line configuration. Let me know if it’s a different spot and I can check.