96-04 Elite Off Road Plate bumper

i'm no longer partners with relentlesstaco

 

gotcha. i just took a look at your site and im impressed. nice work

 

thanks man, its comin together

 

The site does look awesome.

 

Even though I have no money, I would be interested in seeing a rear plate bumper for the first gens.

Site looks great BTW.

 

thanks man!

ya i'm working on it right now, i've got the bumper off of my roomates 02 tacoma and were working on the frame mounts and then we'll start piecing the plates together, so hopefully i can get it done in a couple weeks

 

Can't wait to see it, love what you have done so far.

 

Thanks man, there will be quite a few new products coming from me soon and they are going to be sick

 

A few weeks ago 1welder asked me if I had wired up my solenoid. Well, I finally got to that project. For those considering mounting a winch in their Elite Off-Road plate bumper, some consideration must be taken on where to mount to controller box for the winch because it will not fit inside the bumper.

To compound the problem, the four cables that connect the solenoid box to the winch are not very long, about 15" long on my Smittybilt XRC8 winch. I had considered extending the lengths of these cables so I could mount this box under the hood somewhere. But my buddy advised against that. Primarily because in an emergency you don't want to have to open the hood to plug in the winch controller cable. Heeding his advice, we looked at other options. Mounting behind the grill seemed to provide the best alternative location.

These first two pics show the rough positioning of the box with the grill, clear corner/blinker lights and colored beauty plates removed. The cables are a bit haphazard at this point. Note that one of the horns was removed also but we were later able to remount it.




These next two pics show the final position of the box with the cables tucked out of the way.




Note we were able to mount the 2nd horn after all, though a little skewed.

Here is what it looks like after reattaching the grill.




You'll note the zip ties holding the box up against the backside of the grill. This is more that enough to hold it firmly to the grill so I can easily plug the controller into the box. I did remove one of the small structural cross-ties in the grill so there was clearance to easily access the plug on the box.

I may at some point consider something more permanent. Like a couple of L-brackets mounted to the top of the bumper itself. For now though, going to see how this works out.

 

Nicely done, Digiratus!

One other thing to think about for you others, you need to also take care that the control box is hard to access by thieves. I've heard a few of these grow legs every now and then

 

looks good man. now i have to figure out how to do this with a satoshi

 

OK, I have been following theses bumpers since the beginning and really like them, couple questions though, are the slat above the fairlead area and the two holes on each side of the winch for appearance only? With some winches will you need this access?

Also, are the 4" light holes "tubed"? Is it just a cut out or is there an actual tube welded in?

Thanks!

 

The large round holes are for access. On mine, the one to the right gives access to a lever on the winch that either engages it or puts it into freespooling mode. The slat above the fairlead is so I can see the rope wraps on the winch spool. The fog light openings are short (~2.5") tubes.

 

thanks for answering his questions digiratus, nicly done with the solenoid box, is there not enough room on the driver side of the winch? seems like that bottom plate should have enough room for you to fit that thing next to it maybe.

but ya exactly what he said, the holes can be moved and positioned in different places if you prefer, everything is 100% customizable to what ever a person's preference is.

 

oh and any of you want decal's??
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/elite-off-road/124462-elite-off-road-decals.html

 

There are three main considerations in mounting the box. The length of the provided cables, mounting the box itself to something solid so it wont move around and positioning it so the port for the controller is easily accessible.

IIRC there is a structural, vertical plate to the right and left of the winch. That plate clears the end of the winch with maybe 1.5-2" to spare on either side. Not enough room for that solenoid box.

Not sure if it would be possible or feasable to fit the solenoid components under there with only its backing plate (remove the cover of the box). I would also be a little concerned about the solenoid and its components being exposed to the elements if the cover was removed.

Have you seen others mount their box to the side, next to the winch?

 

not that i know of, i've only been making them for a few months now so its all new to me too haha i was just wondering if there was any room on the side or not

 

I mounted my control box up in the engine compartment, on the passenger side closest to the cab. Had to run longer cables (original cables on this used winch were pretty torn up anyway). I'll take some pictures and throw them up here.

If you need to extend winch cables, I can highly recommend Polar Wire (http://www.polarwire.com/). They sell by the foot right off their website, the wire is super flexible (bendier than welding cable), is gas and oil resistant, 105C resistant, low temperature resistant, etc. Very nice stuff, and very reasonably priced! They sell crimp fittings and multi post battery terminals as well. Make sure you use a big enough wire for your winch - stock size or one larger if you are going over 10ft total! Voltage drop from small wires will suck the power right out of a winch.

-Sam

 

good info!

 

Hey Tim, good to hook up with you today. Thanks for hauling those rims. Keep up the great work.