Question regarding my WJ front bumper

[adamwj 0]

I have a question regarding my front bumper and what my options are. (I know theksmith is a WEALTH of knowledge when it comes to anything JEEP, and especially WJ, and even more so an 03!)

 

Anyways, i've got an 03 WJ w/ a 4.0 in it. Recently started offroading it, since then it's a weekly thing, often multiple times a week. So few days ago was in a mud puddle nearby, having fun, pulled out and i guess pulled the left side of my bumper off, the clips broke. No worries, i put it back in and it fit snug, just until i could figure out a solution. Well went on a trail ride monday and long story short, ripped the whole thing off, grill and all!

 

So after doing that i figured i would just go with an off-road bumper with more clearance. Shortly after i realized that the bumper was not the only thing causing clearance for me, but the actual frame is at the front of the wheel well as well. I was going to have a local shop nearby that i deal with often fab a bumper for me, and he said we could cut the piece right in front of the wheel well, giving it more clearance, and only bumpering as wide as the grill, well last night i was looking and noticed besides the frame being there, there is my windshield washer fluid tank right in front of the driver front, and on the passenger side is the horn, if i remember correctly.

 

So obviously i can still have a bumper fabricated to fit and still possibly give more clearance, however my question is what are my options? Just trying to explore all aspects before making a move.

 

Here is a picture of the front and some explaination as to what i mean.

 

 

Thank you in advance!

[theksmith 3,589]

as far as washer bottle, the most common thing to do is swap to a ZJ bottle like this (if you have room due to running an aftermarket air filter):

 

 

some people have used a heat gun to soften the plastic of the lower portion of the ZJ bottle and then been able to mount it back here:

 

 

full writeups on the first way can be found on JeepForum.com and MallCrawlin.com

 

as far as horns, there's plenty of places inside the engine bay to relocate those too.

 

as far as bumpers, there's trailready, arb, kennesaw mountain, custom4x4fabrication (i think all those kinda suck), then there's the new kids on the block iceland offroad which has a really slick bumper but no radiator support, and then kevins offroad is selling protofab bumpers that look nice, and my favorite and only bumper i'm considering short of a complete custom one is LSRGreg's bumper. PM him on here or JF or MC and ask him about getting it directly, or you can get it through kevins offroad.

 

good luck!

[adamwj 0]

I posted yesterday from work but guess it never went through. Great thank you very much for the response, i'll look into a ZJ bottle, but i guess first thing would be a cold air, i'm just a little iffy because i go into mud allot as well. i haven't seen what snorkles look like for our jeep, are they pretty minimal inside the engine compartment? just a tube heading out, right? Last few days i've been debating on what lift i'm gonna go with, been looking at the clayton 6" long arms, but hearing about some other brand, forgot name already...but stating 4 1/2 feet of flex and for like half the price.

 

http://www.jcfabanddesign.com/ is the shop i was talking about nearby, apparently they make amazing fab work, so i'll see what they can do for front and rear bumpers, skid plate, and rock guards.

 

Anyways, have a wonderful X-Mas and thanks again for helping. Great community here

[theksmith 3,589]

FYI i got around to posting how i did the washer bottle thing...

http://www.offroadpassport.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2269&postcount=108

[adamwj 0]

oh sweet - thanks, i think i'm still going to go with the ZJ bottle just because of the extra fluid, does your sensor fit in there ok? i find myself in mud, allot, haha. so often i'm using fluid to get the mud off my windshield, and when we're gone all day, the mud, and dust, can really be a pain to get off, i don't wanna run out of fluid, y'know?

[theksmith 3,589]

i saw another guy's post of the ZJ bottle working back in corner next to the master cylinder and so i know it can be done, i just need to play with it more myself - because i agree, running out of fluid sucks

[masterjohnson 0]

I have a question regarding my front bumper and what my options are. (I know theksmith is a WEALTH of knowledge when it comes to anything JEEP, and especially WJ, and even more so an 03!)

 

Anyways, i've got an 03 WJ w/ a 4.0 in it. Recently started offroading it, since then it's a weekly thing, often multiple times a week. So few days ago was in a mud puddle nearby, having fun, pulled out and i guess pulled the left side of my bumper off, the clips broke. No worries, i put it back in and it fit snug, just until i could figure out a solution. Well went on a trail ride monday and long story short, ripped the whole thing off, grill and all!

 

So after doing that i figured i would just go with an off-road bumper with more clearance. Shortly after i realized that the bumper was not the only thing causing clearance for me, but the actual frame is at the front of the wheel well as well. I was going to have a local shop nearby that i deal with often fab a bumper guard for me, and he said we could cut the piece right in front of the wheel well, giving it more clearance, and only bumpering as wide as the grill, well last night i was looking and noticed besides the frame being there, there is my windshield washer fluid tank right in front of the driver front, and on the passenger side is the horn, if i remember correctly.

 

So obviously i can still have a bumper fabricated to fit and still possibly give more clearance, however my question is what are my options? Just trying to explore all aspects before making a move.

 

Here is a picture of the front and some explaination as to what i mean.

 

 

Thank you in advance!

 

hi buddy! sorry for banging this old thread but i am just interested how did you end up with your project? can i see the type of offroad bumper that you installed? i got interested because you said your aiming for high clearance bumpers. i just wanna install one on mine, i will just invest off road bumpers than than a bumper guard. Protection first!

[jburns 1]

With the arb bumper that I put on my 04 I didn't have to move anything. I would have liked the lsr because of the skid plate it had for the radiator though. The arb cost me @ 900 I think when I got it

[tsconver 0]

you do not want to cut any of that off unless absolutely neccessay as it is a unibody and all of that material is there for a purpose. A wrong cut could significantly weaken the structural integrity.