M715 bumper

[johnwaynejeep2]

I got my welder in yesterday and as soon as I repair my tailgate wiring, I'm gonna start designing/building a bumper/brushguard/winch mount. I like the M715 bumper and brushguard but I can't find any decent front and side pics of it. Does anyone have good pics of the M715 grill from the side and front so I can get an idea of how to build it?

Bumper mounts: For mounts I think I'm gonna use 1/4in plate steel and mount them to the outside frame rails with 3 bolts. Anyone with first hand experience; will this be strong enough for a 7000lb winch and bumper?

My welder is gonna get a work out, I'm also planning on making a rear bumper, skid plates, rock sliders, roof rack and a tool carrier in the cargo area. Then the body work starts. I'll take lots of pics.

Any ideas, first hand experience, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[matt thompson]

what kinda welder did ya get?....7,000lb winch on a M715, that things gona be workin hard!

[johnwaynejeep2]

I've never seen a stock winch (non-PTO that is) on an M715. My buddy has a 7k winch he's gonna sell me cheap. I wanna make a simple bumper at home and I wanna change out my Grill also. I like the fact that the M715 uses no grill so I wanna model my bumper/winch mount/brush guard after the M715 setup. I know the winch is gonna be working pretty hard but for the money I figure it'll work till I can get a 12000lb later on in life.

I got a 90A 120V Mig from Harbor Freight (max of .030 flux core wire). I plan on tac welding the bumper setup together and then taking it in to have it final welded by a company with a larger welder. I'll do all the body work with my welder but mainly I'm gonna use the welder to tac together large items and then have it welded permanent by someone else.

I found a magazine earlier today with some pretty good pics of the M715 bumper, I got a good pic of the fender flares too. I'll probably steal that idea too.

[gmarblestone]

You are just putting a replica m715 bumper on an 85 GW right? So teh 7000 might not be as bad as a m715 :)

what kinda welder did ya get?....7,000lb winch on a M715, that things gona be workin hard!

[matt thompson]

You are just putting a replica m715 bumper on an 85 GW right? So teh 7000 might not be as bad as a m715 :)


ooooohhhh....right I see...still 7000lb will be workin with any fsj, I'm sure it will work alright for a while though.

[Grantshire]

Go to the M715zone website and do a search for brushguards. There is a guy on the West Coast building a few (2 for me) ad he has posted some great pictures.

[johnwaynejeep2]

After looking at the M715 a little more I'm thinking I'm gonna model the front of my 85 GW after the M715 like "gmarblestone" said. I'm also gonna use the flat fender flares from the M715 cause I really like those and they look easy as pie to make out of sheet steal.

Thanks for the input ya'all
Robert

[matt thompson]

show us pics when your done. m715ing your wag.

[Bob Barry]

Bumper mounts: For mounts I think I'm gonna use 1/4in plate steel and mount them to the outside frame rails with 3 bolts. Anyone with first hand experience; will this be strong enough for a 7000lb winch and bumper?

There are two 7/16" threaded holes in the side of the framerail for the stock bumper-brace, and one 7/16" threaded hole in the front of the crossmember. I used all three to mount my bumper:

http://www.drbob.tqhosting.com/cherokee/winch18.jpg

There are more pics at:

http://www.drbob.tqhosting.com/cherokee/1978_chero_bumper.html

The difficulty of adding any more bolts is that the frame is fully boxed and triangulated at that point, making access to the inside of the framerail very difficult without cutting it up. They seem to have held up just fine with grade-8 bolts in there.

[johnwaynejeep2]

Thanks for the input Bob. I'll definitely use these mount points to save time, it looks like it will be easy to achieve the perfect height with these locations also. Plus, I figure the less I drill into the frame the better.

Right now I'm de-rusting the cargo area. I figure about 4 more days of work and I'll be able to remove the bumpers, start measuring and start scowering the local steel recyclers for bumper fodder.

[FSJ Guy]

Those two 7/16" threaded holes are also the mounting points for the old Ramsey hidden winch mount. If it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for a huge *ss bumper.

(The Ramsey hidden winch mount is also attached elsewhere, too!)

[David Allen Racing]

I have tons of pics of my M715 on my site http://www.davidallenracing.com/M715.htm Although, I don't have the winch set up on mine, all it is, is bolt on frame extentions that move the bumper out.

[skeletor]

while on this subject how did they attach the shackles to the frame on the non winch bumpers?

[David Allen Racing]

while on this subject how did they attach the shackles to the frame on the non winch bumpers?

http://www.davidallenracing.com/DSC03245.jpg
http://www.davidallenracing.com/DSC03287.jpg

There are bosses welded through the ends of the frames that the shackle pins slide through.