Texas BS Thread

The bumper itself is not difficult. You will need a hand to get the new bumper mounted since the winch will need to be mounted in the bumper first.
The hardest part I had with mine was relocating the winch solenoid under the hood and making a bracket to hold it. Depending where yours is going can make your install easier.
Light bar is easy. Wire the relay to a switch, then to power and let there be light. Skids should be easy as well, and I'm sure a helping hand would be a huge time saver to get them mounted.

 

One other thing. I would not pay a shop to instal those items. They are all fairly easy items to do but the whole job will be time consuming to do it all right.

 

The bumper swap looks "simple" enough but its the wiring that worries me. I have a blue sea 100 amp breaker and blue sea 12 spot fuse box.

 

How are you mounting your solenoid for the winch? Even with that blue sea box for accesories the power wire for the winch really needs to go right to the battery.
I just got 3 wires to go from the winch to the solenoid box. I hooked them up to the same contact points when it was mounted to the winch. Then ground the winch to the frame(I grounded to a bumper mount) and then run the power wire to the frame.
Your light bar is easy to do.
Switch will have a ground wire and a power wire going to the relay. Then the relay will have a power wire to the battery and then hook up the power wire from the light. Last will be to ground the light as well.

 

The 100 amp breaker is probably not enough for the winch. I have popped a 100 amp fuse the first time using the winch. It came with a 160 amp fuse but used a different one and running a 150 amp fuse. I have a 200 as back up incase I need it.

 

Very true. I sure hope its already painted or powder coated. That was a chore to do mine.

 

im only running light bar and fog lights for now off of the blue sea set up. Im going to run warn m8000-s winch directly off of the battery. I have a heavy duty cherry picker I can use to help with the bumper and yeah its already powder coated and ready to bolt on. Just going to take me some time to run all the wires and set every up.
Do you think I can run a ARB compressor for air off of the blue sea set up or will I have to run it to the battery also?

 

I'm not sure about the compressor. Depending on the size of power wire you have going to the fuse block and if it will hold a large enough amp fuse will be your determining factors.

 

I use a 30 amp fuse for my compressor. But its not a ARB so I'm not much help

 

I did a little searching and it appears the ARB should use a 30amp fuse or really close to it. I would say if you at least 4 gauge wire to your fuse block and it can hold the correct size fuse then you are set. I thought they would take a much larger fuse than 30 but I guess I was wrong.
I might be able to help with your bumper install in a week or 2 but can't commit to anything yet.

 

Start my welding classes tomorrow.

 

What's going on folks. Figured I'd drop a line or two here since I will be relocating in a couple months from AZ. Moving to the Roanoke area. Anyone know of any places that are hiring? I will have my associates from Universal Tech. Institute (doesn't mean much these days unfortunately, but it's a start). I am looking for anything really, but mostly interested in something to do with turning a wrench, and yes I was turning wrenches before the school. Anyways, I look forward to getting to know a new crowd and thanks for any leads in advance.

 

I don't remember the last time I was up this early...I hope everybody feels bad for me and shows me sympathy

 

I am up to get my rear brakes changed this morning, I hate waking up at 6.

 

Been getting up at 5:30 last couple days So I can carpool with the wife. And that's sleeping in compared to normal...

 

Why?!

 

truck still making noise and cant find where its coming from ugh

 

Some winches under 80-90% load can exceed 300 amps, the best bet is to make a kill switch for the controls. I've tried to find a 350A solenoid to mount under the hood and use 12V to close it with a switch so the winch is dead until I want to run it but I got tired of looking and said F it heh.

 

Tex, if I don't get my bumper on n the next few week ill take you up on your offer if it still stands

 

Let me know in a few weeks and we will see how my schedule looks.