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TJM Stealth winch install on Demello bumper

7K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  m3pedro 
#1 ·
Getting ready to get my final peices so I can be ready for the harder trails I wanna do this year....including the Rubicon.

Next up was a winch.....decided on a TJM 9000lbs. Stealth winch kit. Great price....great winch from all the reviews I read....and wireless controller to boot!

Only think I hated was the Chrome hawse fairlead....so I immediately sanded it and painted it flat black....until I can get some money for a black anodized version....maybe I'll just send this one out for anodizing...anyway....back to the install.

Here is everything inside the box.

Cables, cutoff switch, winch w/synthetic rope, Fiarlead, mil spec hook, control box and control box "cables" made from copper plate.



So at this point I take my bumper off......only to quickly find out a few serious issues......the control box will not fit on top of the winch in the "stock" designed location....I guess I have to fabricate a mount for it....which means the control box "cables" would be too short.

At this point I drove to the autoparts store....and found some nice cheap pre-made short battery cables! Sweet.....no soldering.

here the cables I bought. Should of bought all shorties....ow well.



So I dug around in my scrap metal bin and found a perfect peice of steel. I used the stock control box as a template and drilled the mounting holes on my drill press.

I carefully test fitted it and found the perfect place that would clear the any car parts and that would be perfectly accessible from the hole in the front of the bumper.....This way I can easily reach inside my bumper and attached the WIRED remote control.

Here you can see the plate and were I grinded down to bare metal on the bumper getting ready to weld the plate on.



Used my 90 degree magnet to hold it in place so I can tack weld it and double check fitment and access from the front.



Here it is after welding....



Not a bad weld, considering the thickness of the bumper metal....it's at the limit of my Miller MIG 130xp welder....



After it cooled off I sprayed it with my favorite flat black high temp paint.

Here is the finished mount.



Next problem to tackle was to remove this AC line mount....using my hand I re-bent the tube so it would stay as close as possible to the car.



I took a piece of thick scrap rubber and I zip tied it to the alum. line to prevent any rubbing on the metal brace from one day putting a hole in the line.



Did the same thing on the lower part of the line just in case it touches the body....why not....



Next up was the cut-off switch (used to kill any power going to the winch and draining your battery).

I read a few installs on the post and many people were putting this inside the engine bay.....which seamed like not ideal since you would have to open your hood to turn it on to be able to run the winch. So I decided to mount it on the other side of the winch. Which on my Damello bumper is easily accessible via a large hole/cutout in front of the bumper.

Now in my laziness.....instead of drilling and bolting the cutoff plate....I just welded it in place.....if one day I ever need to replace it....I just cut the welds off.....no biggie. This way it's solidly mounted! :bigthumb:

Welded on and painted.



Next up I wired it up per the instructions...



Put the protective cover on....



Here is the finished install.....




Getting the bolts to thread for the actual winch was a *****....after struggling for awhile I managed to tighten everything up and locktight it.


Very important.....BEFORE boltiing your bumper on....I attached the battery cables and tested out the winch.....this way if I did anything wrong I wouldn't have wasted time putting it on and removing it etc....



Seeing a nice blue light was awesome! I attached the WIRED remote....spooled out a few feet (not too much as you should have load on the cable if your going to spool in alot) engaged the clutch and hit the button.....BUZZZZZ magic! the winch pulled in the cable! Sucess!!!



Next up I disconnected the WIRED remote and grabbed the WIRELESS remote.....

like magic from across my drive way the winch came alive and spooled in....SWEET!



I attached the very nice Hook they included in the kit....and voila!

Finished!



Just in the nick of time as it started to get dark....took my 4 hours ....welding, fabricating and everything.

Can't wait to go out and test it out this weekend.....

One more thing to check off the list.

NEXT up is a full set of bud Built skids......then I will be ready to start hitting the trails hard!:rocker:
 
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#2 ·
Nice write up. It looks good!! :bigthumb:
 
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