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Opa’s HA build

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TheOpa

TheOpa

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I ran the wires to the battery inside the frame and wire tied them to the brake line about 16” in from the bumper, then went straight up between the battery and the air intake. After much research here, I ordered the Warn solenoid winch disconnect kit but it won’t be here until the end of next week so for now the wires are just tied off temporarily up next to the battery.

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There are a lot of people in this forum with more experience with this stuff then I have, so I’m sure by now someone will look at those two pics and notice that I missed something. I cleaned everything thing up, started putting tools away etc, then moved the winch box off my workbench to make some room. I had one of those “what the … !!” Moments when I found the negative wire still sitting there in the box.

Pro tip: you will save a few minutes installation time if you pull the red and black wires to the battery at the same time. 😂😂
There is less opportunity for cursing if you do it right the first time though and sometimes practicing your curse word library is part of the fun so, you know, feel free to choose your own path. 😎
 
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From the front of the grill it is about 10 3/4” to the front of the winch guard hoop. Sticks out far enough to look nice and be effective, but not too far. Really, really like this Pritchett Canyon bumper over the stock one. Not a great side pic but it’s pouring rain outside today so maybe some better pics tomorrow.

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I like the factory LED fog lights and really wanted to reuse them, but am not really sure they don’t need to be surrounded in plastic or some similar enclosure like they were on the stock bumper. Am I wrong about that? Can I fab up my own skid plate and just attach these to it without an enclosure?

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Finally something new!
I had my winch sitting in the new bumper for a few weeks while I waited for a Warn disconnect to arrive. Then I couldn’t find a good place to install the switch to energize the disconnect solenoid and since I picked my JT off the lot, I didn’t get the benefit of having the factory aux switches. So another delay occurred while I waited for a Voswitch J300 to arrive. Last weekend finally provided an opportunity to hook it all up.
 

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Voswitch J300. After lots of forum thread education, I decided to go this route because the switches fit in the factory install spot and for now, 6 switches will do. There are lots of pics and videos on this, so I’ll just post a few because without pics it didn’t happen, right?

i routed the wires underneath so it would look clean.

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I also removed the windshield washer tank to route the wires underneath/behind it on their way to the battery. Because I had a bad experience with a coil wire that rubbed bare and welded itself to the firewall of my CJ7, I’m slightly paranoid of wires running near the engine, so I screwed a couple cable guides to the top of the firewall and ran the wires up there.

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I like to be able to disconnect things easily if I need to so I used a bullet connector to connect the trigger switch from the Voswitch control box to the Jeep’s fuse box.

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I was impressed with just about everything Voswitch until I mounted the switches in the dash. I’m using the light from my phone to backlight the switches and the little tray next to it, and if you look around the edges of both you can clearly see light shining through the gaps where they don’t fit tightly. I know they are screwed in place and this is a little bit picky, but the rest of the Jeep interior has some tight fitting panels and this just doesn’t seem to be the level of quality I would have appreciated.

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Lastly, here is a pic of the Warn solenoid mounted on a bracket that I fabricated out of a piece of steel shelf support. One of these days soon it will come back out of there and get painted, but it won’t be this day.
I didn’t go into a tremendous amount of detail because this has been documented elsewhere by others to great lengths. I do wish to acknowledge how well others have documented this install and how helpful it was to me. I’m happy to add pics or details to answer any questions though if anyone has any.

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New parts received yesterday! Who doesn’t love the day when something we ordered actually arrives?
In this case it is the Baja Designs Squadron SAE fog lights. Now I can’t wait for the weekend to arrive so I can select a good location under the bumper and get them mounted. A size comparison pic next to the factory LED fog lights is below. I’ll put a quick post over in the lighting section so it’s easier to find if someone in the future is researching these lights unless I see that there is already something there when I search.
‘Size matters’ to me for things hanging under the bumper so in this case I think smaller is better for the overall diameter because the light output and beam pattern are still an improvement over stock, and it was important to me to have the SAE approval.

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The Superwinch SX10 dropped in there with no issues. I’m not crazy about the look of the wires from the control box to the winch motor and battery. I’ll spend some time this evening searching builds to see if I can find some remote mounting options others have tried. Also would appreciate any advice on that if you have remote mounted your control box and want to share any pros and cons.

Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 74D16C15-327C-4DCB-8AB1-E4526547E9FF


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 74D16C15-327C-4DCB-8AB1-E4526547E9FF


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 74D16C15-327C-4DCB-8AB1-E4526547E9FF


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 74D16C15-327C-4DCB-8AB1-E4526547E9FF
Having the same bumper and winch I too had this look when I first received the winch. I took the winch wires and ajusted them 180 degrees to point down instead of loop up. Its a very tight fit up against the grill but it looks 100x better in my opinion.

Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153426[1]


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153437[1]


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153451[1]
 
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Having the same bumper and winch I too had this look when I first received the winch. I took the winch wires and ajusted them 180 degrees to point down instead of loop up. Its a very tight fit up against the grill but it looks 100x better in my opinion.

Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153451[1]


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153451[1]


Jeep Gladiator Opa’s HA build 20220619_153451[1]
That is indeed 100x better! Pop the control box off the top of the winch and just reroute the wires? It’s that easy?
 

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That is indeed 100x better! Pop the control box off the top of the winch and just reroute the wires? It’s that easy?
So I mocked the bumper and winch up on the Jeep first and that's when I noticed that the wires looped up and way to visible for my liking. I was able to access the backside of the winch before final install and just loosened the backing nuts on the wires and rotated everything to point down or sideways instead of up. I didn't have to remove the control box. If you attempt to reposition the wires now with it in its current position you might need to remove the controll box.
 
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It’s been a long time since I posted anything. I have made several changes so I’ll see if I can get caught up. Friday after work I picked up my new wheels and tires. I had the stock 20” wheels with 35x12.50 Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT’s, but have been wanting to switch to polished aluminum. I like the look of American Racing Outlaw II’s but it was a little too much for me in a 20” wheel, so I got a set of those and took the opportunity to drop to a 17” wheel. I have been really happy with the MT’s, so I wrapped the AR wheels in new Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT’s in a 35x10R17 size. Love the look, the ride, and feel good about the wheels and tires both being made in USA.
The stock wheel and tire set up was 110 lbs, the new wheel tire combo is 90 pounds. Some additional comparison info is below, but first, here is the new look.

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