I used the Raptor liner in the bed of my F100 almost ten years ago now. It has not held up well in my opinion. It scratches and chips far easier than the real spray-in bedliners.
The thickness of the steel in these bumpers will probably help though. In this application I would expect scratches but probably not chipping/flaking since the steel won't be denting easily.
Scratches I'm not too worried about. Chipping or flaking would be less than ideal. I won't be loading stuff in and out of them and I don't usually hit things so hopefully the finish will hold up pretty well. We shall see.
Today I got the bumpers mounted. I also got the winch installed and wired. 100% happy with how this turned out.
The winch is a fairly cheap Chinese made winch off of Amazon. It had very good reviews and is rated at 13k pounds. More than enough for what I wanted it for. It has enough power to pull the XJ across the concrete with all 4 tires locked. Should do nicely for dragging a Cherokee through Southeastern mud and clay.
I don't like having the relay box for the winch mounted on top of the winch. It looks cluttered to me and I didn't want it blocking airflow to the radiator. On the Samurai I relocated it under the hood. Unfortunately the XJ doesn't have the space under the hood for it, but there was just barely enough room to tuck it down in the bumper beside the winch. Pretty happy with how that worked out even though it did mean drilling 4 mounting holes in my nice new bumper.
Tight squeeze.
Looks like a completely different vehicle.
More to come.
Looks great!
I had a issue with the winch install. There was no circuit protection and there was no way to turn it off, so the wireless remote was always active unless you removed the battery from the remote. The remote will stay in the glove box but I could foresee a major problem if something got stuffed on top of the remote and the winch powered in until the weakest link failed. 13k pounds might just bend the bumper.
Today I installed a 300 amp circuit breaker. It is mounted to a small bracket that is captured by the battery hold down. It will stay in the off position unless the winch is needed. Problem solved.
While I was at it, I installed circuit protection in the charging circuit for the aux battery. Figuring a short could happen from either end, I installed two of them at either battery. This iwll let me isolate the system from either end as well as keep the wiring from going up in smoke should something happen.
One under the hood.
One at the battery in the back.
More to come as it happens.
A while back I made the decision to not put 6" of lift and 35" tires under the Cherokee. Unfortunately that is going to cause some issues with my planned routes over the next couple of years. The Georgia Traverse and the Kentucky Adventure Tour both have some fairly deep water crossings. Watching the videos, some of them are 30+" deep and that's deep enough for me to worry about sucking water into the engine, not to mention the floorboards.
I spent some time Sunday going through and adjusting all the doors. I'm fairly confident that the seals will keep the worst of the water out as long as the Jeep keeps moving.
In the interest of keeping the rods at the factory length and not finding out if a 4.0L will compress water, today I installed a snorkel. This was the best looking kit that didn't look like Home Depot plumbing parts and was less than $400. Happily, it was also less than $100.
Start by drilling 4 holes in the immaculate, rust free and OEM fender. 
The kit comes with a template to mark these out.
Next drill a really big hole in the fender. Strangely enough, the template does not lay out this hole, so some careful measuring was done.
I was less than happy to drill the pilot hole for the hole saw and have water come running out of the fender. Guess what occupies the entire fender where the ducting for the snorkel runs. Yep, the windshield washer bottle. Not just the windshield either, the back window washer also pumps out of this bottle. Now I get to buy a generic washer bottle and figure out where to mount it. berkeley.
To make a long story short, it's installed and plumbed into the factory air box. If it sucks water now, I'll have to be wearing scuba gear.
After the install I took it for a spin to see how noisy it was. I figured the wind blowing around it would be super annoying. Much to my surprise, it's pretty much silent. Big +1 to Amazon cheap XJ snorkel kit.
More to come as it happens.
Solved the windshield washer problem. There was just enough room to mount a couple of bag type reservoirs on the fender by the brake master. Digging the hoses out of the wiring harness cost me some blood but they work and that's good enough.
Awesome build so far! I admittedly went way too far with a 2001 XJ build a few years ago and painted the whole thing in raptor liner, JCR bumpers (awesome btw), and the lift with bigger tires. In many ways I wish I had kept it stock but in every way I wish I had never sold it. It was one of the best for wheeling and even preferred it over the TJ Rubicon I replaced it with. Good luck as the build progresses.
In reply to JAdams :
My plans for off road capabilites are a set of 31x10.5x15 tires instead of the 30x9.5x15s that are on it. More for the width than the height. A set of Fox shocks, rears should be here this week, a set of rear spring helpers to get rid of the sag in the back end, and a set of Ox locking diffs in both axles. That's about it.
It's going to be driving all over the country so street behavior is actually more important than off road capability. I can always use the winch to drag it through the worst spots.
These are almost too pretty to stick in the mud and muck.
Look into the Crown replacement rear leaf springs instead of adding helper springs. They make an HD version that may be better suited for the added weight in the rear of yours.
I spent the morning playing musical tires. My son blew up his Xterra last week. He had just mounted 31x10.5x15 Falken Wildpeaks. I bought them from him and mounted them on the Cherokee. The 30x9.5x15 Falkens that were on the Cherokee went on the Samurai and the 6 year old 29" Kuhmo ATs from the Samurai went on the Xterra to be sold on down the road.
I think this will be the perfect size tire. They just barely rub the sway bar at full lock and will actually tuck inside the fenders on the rear. The lift springs for the rear showed up today so I'm going to try to get them installed tomorrow.
If anyone wants a 2000 Xterra with a blown engine, give me a shout. I think it lost the oil pump and wiped the bearings.
1" of width and 1" of heighth makes a surprising difference.
Looks good!
LS in the Xterra? 
In reply to noddaz :
He actually looked into that. I think it's more money than he wants to spend.
So, the middle son went out and bought himself a XJ to replace the Xterra. It had the lift tied up today so the springs and shocks didn't happen.
I moved on to the spare tire carrier instead and got this much of it built between helping the eldest son install a furnace in his camper.
Pivot spindle welded up and bolted to the bumper. Yes, that's a common 1" trailer spindle.
It will be using the trailer bearings, cap and seals as well. I couldn't build the parts for what a kit cost, so I just ordered one.
The rack itself is welded up out of 1"x2" steel and follows the shape of the bumper.
The top part will get cut off once I figure out where the tire is going to mount. The latch should be coming in tomorrow so I can finish it up.
More to come.
When going the 'cheap' winch route, did you consider the decently well liked harbor freight offerings?
In reply to onemanarmy :
I did. They have really good reviews from the off road crowd, but I didn't buy their winch for a few reasons.
1. Their synthetic rope winch has an enormous relay box that would be difficult to relocate. I don't like the relays mounted on top of the winch. I think it looks bad. It also would block air flow to the radiator and XJs are cooling challenged to start with.
2. Their local store is a cesspool. It's small and and usually packed. I don't like going in there on a good day. Much less with the situation as it is now. Yes I could have ordered it, but...
3. The Badlands winch was $200 more than the X Bull. The X Bull also came with a 3 year warranty instead of 90 days.
We will have to see how it holds up. The inexpensive Rugged Ridge winch on the Samurai is still going strong after 7 years. Hopefully this one will do the same.
Besides, the orange color is growing on me.
Tire mount located and mostly built. Also mounted the jack.
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:In reply to onemanarmy :
I did. They have really good reviews from the off road crowd, but I didn't buy their winch for a few reasons.
1. Their synthetic rope winch has an enormous relay box that would be difficult to relocate. I don't like the relays mounted on top of the winch. I think it looks bad. It also would block air flow to the radiator and XJs are cooling challenged to start with.
2. Their local store is a cesspool. It's small and and usually packed. I don't like going in there on a good day. Much less with the situation as it is now. Yes I could have ordered it, but...
3. The Badlands winch was $200 more than the X Bull. The X Bull also came with a 3 year warranty instead of 90 days.
We will have to see how it holds up. The inexpensive Rugged Ridge winch on the Samurai is still going strong after 7 years. Hopefully this one will do the same.
Besides, the orange color is growing on me.
Yea, I get it. HF stores look and smell like China.
I would like to state that cutting 1/4" steel plate with a 6" hole saw is not fun. Even my 2hp mill didn't like turning it.
I got that cut and marked out the wheel lug pattern and tacked a couple of bolts in place. I have lug nuts on the way and tomorrow I'll mount the wheel and weld the bolts in place permanently.
It should work out fairly well but I think I'm going to have to reinforce the bumper a little bit. The weight is causing it to flex. I will take some 3/16" plate and box that end in back to the mount.
That and helping my son change the bent tie rod on his XJ was enough for this afternoon.
More to come.
Bumper looks great. Think you'll add a gas can mount back there too?
I always forget how small Cherokees are until I see a nicely lifted one and realize that it's only on 31s. They're so well-proportioned that they hide their size well.
In reply to thatsnowinnebago (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks for the compliment!
I will probably carry at least one 5 gallon can of fuel. Fuel stops out west can be stretched out pretty far and running out of gas wouldn't be much fun. Not sure where the can will get mounted yet. Odds are high it will go on the rear tire carrier. I'm trying to keep most of the weight as low as possible incase I install a roof top tent.
In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :
Hi. Intrigued by the DIY spindle carrier mount. Can you provide more detail on the carrier pipe diameter and bearings (what's inside the piece of pipe)? i might like to try this on my xterra when i build my rear bumper. Thanks, great build.
In reply to gherndon :
I can't take credit for it. After pricing a hub to cut down, plus spindle and bearings, I bought a kit. The parts to build it were close to $40. The kit was $52. For $12, I let them do the machine work. The spindle, bearings, cap, and seal are standard 1" trailer stuff. The tube looks to be a peice of schedule 80 pipe that was machined for the bearings.
This is the kit.
EMS Offroad Tire Carrier Hinge
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