JimK's Cherokee X-Trail Revival

[JimrC]

Originally Posted by JimK

Thanks Jim. Being so close to each other I imagine our weather and trail conditions are pretty much the same. I'll try to post up whenever I run different tires.

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yup, got a dusting of snow and it's almost gone the same day lol

As for the trails, very similar locally. Got a few rocky places here about 50km away so not too far for a day out. Other than that, it's usually at least a couple of hours drive anywhere what I'd call decent. This hobby makes me miss living in Scotland

Anyways, look forward to any upcoming thoughts on the tires, etc. Cheers

[JimK]

I added some RC4WD tow shackles to the front bumper today. I used Hot Racing shackle mounts to fasten the shackles to the front bumper.



I marked the inside of the bumper with a silver Sharpie. There was no good way to measure the location so I marked the spots as best I could by eye and then popped a small hole through with my body reamer.



I flipped the bumper around and opened the holes up from the front. I left the holes snug enough that I could thread the shackle mounts into the plastic bumper.



I dug through one of my fastener bins and found a couple nuts to screw on from the back side.



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[JimK]

It turns out the holes in the shackle mounts were 2.5mm and the shackle pins are 3mm. I used progressively larger drills to open the holes up so the pins would pass through.



One of the shackle pins wouldn't thread in properly because there was paint in the threads. I chased the threads out with the appropriate tap to remedy that problem.



Both shackles installed and the bumper is ready to go back on the Cherokee.



Bumper back in place with a couple of shiny new tow shackles. I've got another set of tow shackles that I'd like to mount on the back of the Cherokee once I figure out a suitable mounting method?





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[JimK]

Last night I started machining the new front bumper that I designed for the Cherokee.

Here's the CAD design for the bumper.



I'm starting with a 1.25" x 1.25" x 6" piece of aluminum clamped in the vise.



Roughing it out with a 12mm carbide endmill.



Here it is roughed out and ready to be finished.



Here is the first set up machined to its finished size. The two bigger holes in the middle are screw counterbores to mount the bumper mounting posts to the back of the bumper. The two smaller holes will be tapped for screw in tow shackle mounts.



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[JimK]

That last operation to finish up the front of the bumper is drilling the screw clearance holes and a couple tapped holes for the tow shackles.

A carbide coolant through drill is being lasered to determine it's length.



Drilling the holes that will get tapped for the tow shackle mounts.



The first set up is all done. This pictures shows the screw counter bores more clearly and the two smaller holes for the tow shackle mounts.



I sanded out all the tooling marks with some fine emery cloth. It's a little easier to see the shape of the bumper with the surface of the bumper being not as shiny. Next week I'll cut the extra stock off of the back of the bumper and add in a couple spot faces for the metal bumper mount posts to fit into. Once it's all machined I'll get it painted flat black and it will be ready to mount on the Cherokee.



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