My experience mounting Western Defender snow plow

[ShadowsPapa]

Mods can move if there's a better spot for this.
I decided to not put this in another thread, or in the "what did you do TO........" thread as it's going to grow as I run into more issues, or make more progress without issues.

I'll start by saying whoever said this could be done in a leasurely afternoon obviously had a fully stock Jeep with plastic bumper, no front receiver, and the earlier brackets were a bit different than those used on the Gladiator with a frame to ground distance of under 22". Maybe the brackets for a lifted JT are different? Doubt if they connect to the frame any differently.
Anyway, here goes!

First - it takes a while to unpack everything, open bags, find instructions and so on.

The first things you'll want to check out are the brackets interfering with the fog light connector at the right frame rail. I had to notch the plow bracket.
There's also a factory wire that's held to the frame by a tie strap that attaches to the frame through a hole via a "christmas tree" you'll need to pop out of that hole - otherwise you'll crush it.

Right side of the right frame rail - pop that wire retainer out of the hole -

LOL - note that Western missed getting this pocket powder coated.
Anyway, here's that wire popped out of the hole so the bracket can sit against the frame rail -

Next is the connector for the fog lights. I tried to position it to avoid the bracket, but it was really tight, so I notched the bracket to give clearance. I want minimal mods to the truck itself -

I wondered why the first two frame bolts didn't want to go in and realized the brackets hit the lower rear edge of the bumper. Great. Now what? And my bumper is even sitting further forward that stock because I used spacers (made by a forum member) to move the bumper away from the winch. Imagine if I didn't have the spacers - the bumper would be farther back by about 3/16" making the interference even worser!

Yellow points to rear of lower part of bumper - red is where I notched the plow bracket to clear the bumper. No way I was going to cut into a bumper I just powder coated!
This is the right side, right bracket -

......and the left plow bracket, left side, yellow points to bumper lower rear edge, red to notch I made in bracket -

So now I have the two main brackets notched to clear the bumper, notched to clear the fog light connector, and that other wire retainer unclipped from the right frame rail. All is good, she'll fit right on now!
Crap, not so fast!
They never figured on a front hitch/receiver. Again,. maybe a lifted Jeep with the other bracket kit would clear, but there's no way this thing is going to fit with a receiver in place.
So I had to get creative (and lost about another hour after losing an hour making the other stuff fit)
I had to cut and grind away part of the receiver for clearance. And that was no fun. Angle grinder cutting welds, cutting part of a brace, making room for the plow bracket cross brace. And - it almost fit but I found a grain of sand on top of the plow brace so had to drop it, wipe it off, and install it again. Yeah, it's that bloody tight!
(And lest you think you might modify your skid plate to go on after all of this - get that idea out of your head now, I laugh at the very thought)

I had to cut this brace back from the receiver tube.

How it looked originally -

Next step is to remove the front bumper so I can drill out holes in the front frame ends to get the flag bolts into the frame and waaaay back to the 3rd bracket hole on each side.

I need to find a place to mount their large fuse holder and where to run the control cable into the cab.
The wiring instructions are actually pretty unclear. And, I find 3 versions, none cover the part number I have.

So there went 1 afternoon and the brackets aren't even fully installed.
I need to pull a heavy steel bumper, fish in the final bolts and put the bumper back, THEN I can say the brackets that go on the truck will be done. I estimate a fair part of a morning, so it's more like a day to get the brackets in place, and keep your grinder handy.
I need to assemble the blade to the brackets, do all the wiring, etc.
This is more like a full weekend project unless you have a plastic bumper and your setup came partially assembled.
I am NOT looking forward to removing that bumper - I was sooo careful putting it on this truck after having it all powder coated.

Sponsored

 

[Rusty PW]

You're retired. You got all the time in the world.
What ever the amount of time you plan for a project. Times that by 3.
You're 1 broken bolt from turning a 1 hour job into a 3 day shit show.
Murphy is a sadist, and he's here.
My ass has bit off more then what I want to chew.

Any of these come to mind yet?
Good luck on this. Hope you don't run into something that makes you want to toe start a shotgun.

 

[Summitsearcher]

Wow, what a workout! Wholly cats!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You're retired. You got all the time in the world.
What ever the amount of time you plan for a project. Times that by 3.

Retired LOL. This project has set me back to the point I may have to stop on it and get some promised work out the door first.

Another half day spent today.............. the mounting hardware is fully installed on the truck, I mounted their 200 amp fuse (after re-working the mounting bracket for my winch solenoid a bit so I could mount the fuse on the same bracket, clear my hood struts, and piggy-back off the winch solenoid battery connection for the plow (hot side of solenoid will supply power for the plow instead of running yet another cable to the battery + terminal)
Then there was time to install the plow's headlights and wiring and let me tell ya - they need to seriously update their documentation, make a lot of corrections, and actually post something that matches what they are selling. Their electrical stuff is a disaster.

I got smart on removing the bumper - no help, neighbor busy and not in great health himself with an iffy back and both knees having been replaced, I wasn't about to ask him to help lift this off, then back on again, so.............

Enlarging the top holes in the front ends of the frame wasn't fun. That's some tough steel.
Didn't help that my drill batteries are getting old and the chuck didn't want to hold on the big bit. They said "drill top holes out to 1 1/16" - that's the diameter of the flanged bolt heads with the stems welded on. The biggest bit I could find was 15/16" and it was not fun.
They said to install things then cut the excess length off the bolt stems. I put the bolts in the holes, marked the stems, then removed and cut the stems and used needle nosed vise grips to feed the bolts back into place. I don't know how you'd cut those off once installed, doable but not fun.
Anyway, got the bumper off the truck and hanging from the gantry crane, backed the truck up about 3 or 4 feet, did the work enlarging the holes, feeding the bolts into place and finally tightening everything on the left and right frame brackets, pulled the truck forward again and eased the bumper back in place. Man, that part was easy as far as getting the bumper off and back on. Smooth as silk and no dings or scratches. It just slipped right back into place.

Those "quick connects" come right off by pulling two pins from each one giving a bit more ground clearance. Not great for ravines and rock crawling where your approach angle is critical, but there's none of that to do in Iowa anyway. More snow than rocks.

I moved the solenoid down a bit and back a bit on my bracket and riveted an extension on it to support the rear bolt for the plow fuse. I wired the plow fuse to the hot side of the winch solenoid.

Next step - the plow electric supply harness. It's a big honkin' connector that will sit between grill and bumper, and feed up basically like the winch cables do and connect to the fuse and to the battery - via the IBS, like the winch does.

There's still these harnesses to install, plus at least one more for the lights that they didn't have in stock but said Western had them on hand. And there's an isolation box that isolates the plow lights from the truck's lighting system, a set of relays that goes with that electronic box and more.

Now, does anyone know where a great place is to feed the plow control cable into the cabin? It has a smaller lead coming off of it that has to connect to a source that's hot only with ign/key on (I'll use the lighter extension cable I have for that source)
I need to find a good place to feed this control cable into the cabin.

 

[Rusty PW]

if you want to feed the cables on the driver side. You can use the hole where the clutch pedal rod would go through the fire wall.

After doing a project like this. People offed become alcoholics. For good reasons.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

if you want to feed the cables on the driver side. You can use the hole where the clutch pedal rod would go through the fire wall.

After doing a project like this. People offed become alcoholics. For good reasons.

That's one idea - about how far down and over is that hole?
Plenty of cable so options may be open as to which side, etc.

 

[Rusty PW]

That's one idea - about how far down and over is that hole?
Plenty of cable so options may be open as to which side, etc.

From the engine side. There is a black plastic plug about 1.5"diameter covering the hole. The hole it's self is just over an inch in diameter. If you take a flash light and point it just to the right of the brake booster, towards the bottom of it. You should see it. From the inside, It's to the left of the brake pedal by about 4"~5". you can knock the plug out from the inside using a long extension. Or from the outside by twisting it if you can get a skinny kid's arm in there.

I ran my cable for my Banks Derringer through that hole. I got a grommet from Ace Hardware for the hole.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

From the engine side. There is a black plastic plug about 1.5"diameter covering the hole. The hole it's self is just over an inch in diameter. If you take a flash light and point it just to the right of the brake booster, towards the bottom of it. You should see it. From the inside, It's to the left of the brake pedal by about 4"~5". you can knock the plug out from the inside using a long extension. Or from the outside by twisting it if you can get a skinny kid's arm in there.

I ran my cable for my Banks Derringer through that hole. I got a grommet from Ace Hardware for the hole.

Great! Thanks - will take a look. I have a small plastic drawer of various grommets so may be able to come up with one that works but looking at this harness with the sheath on it - a grommet won't seal that mesh wire covering very well.

 

[Rusty PW]

I got the biggest grommet Ace had. Still wasn't big enough for a proper fit in the hole on the OD. The ID of the grommet is big too, with enough room for more wiring if needed later on. If the ID is too big for your liking. You can put some rtv in there to seal it up. I've done that on my PW.

 

[Gvsukids]

Mods can move if there's a better spot for this.
I decided to not put this in another thread, or in the "what did you do TO........" thread as it's going to grow as I run into more issues, or make more progress without issues.

Maybe in https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/forums/diy-write-ups-and-videos.29/

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I got the biggest grommet Ace had. Still wasn't big enough for a proper fit in the hole on the OD. The ID of the grommet is big too, with enough room for more wiring if needed later on. If the ID is too big for your liking. You can put some rtv in there to seal it up. I've done that on my PW.

Russ nailed it.

I was able to reach the plastic plug with a pair of pliers and pull. Granted, mine is a gasser so there was very little in the way. I could touch it with my hand, I could see it, but I wasn't able to get enough grip with my worn out fingers - pliers did the job easily. And - on the inside, the hole was basically next to where the MOPAR brake controller sits.
The plug has two tabs, one on each side, that sit horizontally. It has pieces that index it into the notches in the hole, and a small "clip" on each side that hold it in place. It's not really in there that hard, at least mine wasn't, and putting it back in, I noted the rubber seal around the edge of the plug didn't contact the firewall well so doesn't seal all that great. Luckily it's a bit above the 30" water mark LOL.

I pulled the plug, measured the small connector on the end of my plow's control cable, and used a brad point bit to drill a 15/32" hole dead center in the plastic plug. JUST enough to get the connector through.
I slid a grommet over the cable at a point just behind the plastic connector and before the larger protective sheath started and slid the connector through the 15/32" hole in the plug. I then worked the grommet in place in the hole in the plug and pulled the cable through the grommet. Fairly snug fit.

On the inside, since the cable came through near the MOPAR trailer brake controller, I routed the cable along the same path the brake controller knob/control cable was routed to the center switch cluster and strapped it in place. I guess it's not easily seen here - ignore my security bypass cable, I've left that in place for quick access to diagnostics in case this beast misfires again.

For now, I've put the plastic connector the hand-held plow control connects to where it's easily accessed and yet out of site when in the truck or looking inside. I'll probably secure it in place somewhere down there at some point but my idea was to get things routed and working before cold weather since this is all in an unheated garage - and outside. Ooops, too late! it's 30 degrees out and more of the same coming.

The control cable includes a reddish 18 or 20 gauge wire pigtail that's supposed to be connected to a source of ACC/IGN only power. That's easy - my 12v outlet extension had a tap for power in it and is hanging back of the glove box unused!
So I carefully pried off the switch cluster so I could route that wire behind it, across over to the glove box area.

There's the end of the ACC/IGN wire they want connected to the truck. Ignore my 12v outlet fancy well-thought-out location - I thought it might be handy to have it accessible for our trip to FL and back. I'll figure out where to mount it - eventually............ I guess..........

And there's the power tap that came with the extension for the 12v outlet. Well, it's sold as a power tap, I used it only as an extension after I lengthened it a couple of years ago, and never used this tap - until now. Man, that's handy! It's fused, no reason to tap into any factory wires.
There also a ground - still unused, should I need it in the future. I finished stripping the plow's ACC wire and secured it into the power tap (set screw type connection) using anti-ox compound for kicks.

It's hard to see in this picture but now that I had determined how much of the cable was to be in the cab and was ready to secure things, it's time to seal that cable in the grommet. For a round wire or cable that wouldn't be needed, but the sheath they use is irregular and a bit rough and not perfectly round. So I pulled the cable into the engine bay about 1/2" or so, doped black silicone sealer around the cable and pushed it back into the grommet. That should seal it into the grommet better. It's a snug fit anyway so it should be fine.

By the way - someone earlier asked how long that cable was - I think it's long enough to run into the truck sitting behind you.............. this is just plain stupid. There's like 3' or so extra I had to coil up under the hood and figure out what to do with it all. Maybe someday after the warranty is up I'll cut that extra crap out of it. I can't see ANY truck, I mean ANY, that would need this sort of length!
Heck, you could sit in the back end of the box and run the control!

The end that doesn't go into the cab for the controller connection goes to a connector that ends up near the battery. That connector is part of the cable that supplies battery power to the winch hydraulics themselves. So this cable has to be wound up, then routed over to the battery. There's another connector in this same cable that needs to plug into the headlight harness I have yet to receive.
This is that connector. So the cable has to cross the engine bay and end up here.

There it is, plugged in..............

.......after crossing the engine bay............

Some day when I'm ambitious, I may pull the cover off that wire channel that runs along the top of the firewall and see if there's room inside it for this cable as well. For now, the plow control cable it just strapped to it using extreme use cable ties.

More later in my next episode. It might be warming up a bit out of the 30s since the sun is shining. I now have to finish assembling the plow - and that's being tough because the cylinders are retracted and not cooperating. I found out that yes, the instructions ARE for plow installers, not consumers! I found documents stating as much as they say "when delivering to the customer" and that sort of thing. One is even titled "Mechanics Guide" and refers to the mechanic or installer and prepping the plow for install and delivery to the customer.
No wonder these look like they are aimed at engineers and not a user or consumer.
Not only that, they are not even inclusive of their current cables and connections and technology. Western, get with the program - update your documents! You are doubling up on things and no one wants to CUT and TAP into factory wires these days.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

More progress -

I forgot to mention earlier that because of how tight things were getting the two winch cables run up to the battery, reaching to secure said cables and with very little room left I did something I wish I had done when installing the winch cables - I removed the air box.
Man, that took the work out of running the fat, inflexible power lead for the plow. That thing must be made with only 8 thick strands because it's stiff - that sheath they use doesn't help, and it's got a second smaller wire included in it. Similar for the ground, but it was a bit more forgiving. The air box out of the way made it a whole lot easier, and I could actually reach my winch cables and add some more ties to those to help hold them away from the belt idler. The cables all run up between the belt idler and the EHPS pump mounded to the chassis under the air box.
Power and ground for the winch, power and ground for the plow - both of the plow cables have a second wire with them.

I had to assemble the plow - putting the blade onto the rest of it, connecting the ends of the cylinders, putting a big pivot bushing in place, and more. They don't make that part of it easy! You have to unhook the trip springs and lay the blade down and work the frame nose into place and that makes getting the trip pads and such into place really hard because the bottom part you need to get to is covered by the tipped blade. But blade standing up then you can't reach the top part and a bolt has to go all the way through.

But with the help of my gantry crane once again, I got 'er done.

Tip - when driving up to mount the plow, don't come at it from a hill nose down as when the truck moves forward, the rear drops a bit and the front of the truck comes up a bit. My bad......
The ground from my shop approach (shown) to the rear of the truck is very up-hill (recycled asphalt, sort of like fine gravel)

The camera makes it look like things aren't lined up - but they lined up perfectly (save for height)
The biggest problem was that the blade cylinder was not in a float or lowered position so things were at weird angles the very first time, so a jack was used to even things out the first time.

Plow mounted, things latched in place and cable connected (don't have the light cables yet - backordered)
Time to go through the hydraulic exercises to work out air and normalize things and add the final fluid (they come with fluid, but just enough to get going, from the factory)
So I press the power button on the remote - NOTHING. Ignition is on, yup, no power to remote. Nothing happens, nothing works.
I triple check all connections - it's all perfect. Then I realize that the plow operation is tied into the light system. Without the cable and things hooked to my headlights and the plow headlights, the plow won't operate (to prevent you from being stupid on the highway at night I guess - no plow lights, no plow operation)
Crap, not what!
I couldn't even unhook the plow without it dropped! Can't finish it up.
So what are they doing to prevent operation of the plow without the proper light system?
I dug until I found schematics and found how they did it. Good thing I know how to handle schematics and was able to understand their theory of operation documents and figured out how to power the control. I was not a happy camper until I composed myself, decided I WAS going to figure it out even if I had to build some sort of circuit to make it happen. Luckily, it wasn't bad at all!
I made a jumper to go into the 4 position connector where the headlight harness and headlight controls would connect and powered up the plow controller.
Success! I got it operating with my cheat.
I was able to lift, lower, left, right, and checked the fluid and added as needed. With it operational, it was also very easy to lower it into float mode, shut off the controller in that mode, drop the stand to the ground and pull two pins and drive away from the plow.

The weight of the plow fully connected, lifted, supported by the truck, dropped the front of the truck about 1" - ironically, back to where my truck was sitting with the original springs and the weight of the bumper, winch and receiver on the front.

I measure from the center of the wheel hub to the black trim ridge on the fender. Stock the truck was 21.5
With steel bumper, winch, receiver, etc on the front it dropped down to 20.5
With the Synergy springs under the front, it was back up to 21.5 - 21.75
Plow on, it was down to 20.5.
Of course the weight of a plow has a lot more impact than a winch or a bumper because they sit so far forward of the front axle, so 100 pounds of plow weight has a lot more impact than 100 pounds of bumper weight. You feel it.
But for height, with the plow on, it's no worse than it was for several weeks when I added the winch, bumper and receiver before replacing the front springs.

Plow raised - my jumper in the harness worked!

Plow attached, but before I figured out the cheat to power the control without headlight harnesses. Can't lower or raise plow at this point - this is how it came, not up, not down, sort of in the middle.

Plow parked after washing off all the dirt, leaves and crud it had settled into the low spots of the back from sitting on their lot most of this year (they are strapped flat face down to a pallet for transport)

Now when the headlight harnesses arrive, back to the engine bay. I'll have to find a way to access the connectors to the headlights as the new harness goes between the factory Jeep headlight connections and the headlights, and I have to identify the turn signal and park light power wires in the truck. Not sure what it takes to access the headlight connectors at the back of the lights. I guess I'll find out. Also will need the front light schematics to show the wire colors from the looks of the Western docs I found so far.
But at least I can use it now!



Heaven help anyone who decides to hit the front of this truck now with the 2" receiver, the plow mount and the steel bumper, Bulldog winch plate and winch up front...........

Brackets that hold the plow mount bar to the frame - 3 bolts each side - (one you can't see inside that square hole area)

There's a lot of meat up front - steel bumper, just below that the Curt receiver and just below that the plow mount bar which is actually a bit stronger than the receiver.

 

[WILDHOBO]

What at huge project. Very nicely done.

 

[Gatorized]

Heaven help anyone who decides to hit the front of this truck now with the 2" receiver, the plow mount and the steel bumper, Bulldog winch plate and winch up front...........

There's a lot of meat up front - steel bumper, just below that the Curt receiver and just below that the plow mount bar which is actually a bit stronger than the receiver.

do the arms extending past the bumper remove - looks like they would be a problem in a collision. Particularly with your shins when walking around your truck!

 

[Rainman519]

Well done SP, well done.......

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