Color Matched Sahara w/lights & M12,000

[fish2live]

So I stayed up lateTuesday night putting on the front Sahara with lights and the Warn M12,000. Not nearly as bad as the rear ARB... I love the way the front turned out with the matching powder coat - including no more chrome on the hoop. Well, not quite matching, but close, and while it's not the perfect match I have a plan to tie it into the truck. I was originally planning on painting the side trim to match the color of truck but now I think I'll paint it to match the "one shade off" ARB front and rear bumpers. This ought to give it a very slight two-tone look, similar to OEM but no where near as much contrast.

The install was pretty simple and the Warn dropped right in. The previous Warn owner already clocked the motor to get the handle in the right position. All I needed to do was cut out a small 1" x 3" of the inside of the Sahara bar to clear the movement of the winch handle from free spool to engaged. I think that is because the M12,000 has a larger diameter gear housing, took all of 3 min to cure that problem.

The Sahara IPF lights hooked right into the factory wiring for the OEM fogs, as did the ARB marker and blinker, lovin' it. A few quick cuts, some connectors and shrink tube and it's all good.
The warn control box isn't on yet. I am going to mount it inside the grill for a cleaner look. The Warn remote plug will just barely fit between the bottom 2 grill slats, so as long as I can get it mounted securely we should be set. I am going to make new 2AWG leads to the motor as well as to the new battery.

In combination with the rear ARB I am overall a very happy camper.

Suspension: Front dropped 3/4" - very noticeable and I new it would happen. Rear dropped 1/4" (from rear ARM install 2 weeks ago). It actually rides decent right now with stock springs and Bilsteins, but, I need to tweak my T-bars and see how that helps. I will and up going Diff Drop, OME T-bars and springs soon - I'm sure...
Cheers....

[ringpinion.biz]

lookin good, time for suspension!

[Trunk Monkey]

So, on the winch, if you clock the gear end so the handle is on the top, does it still fit in the bumper or does the free spool handle hit?

[fish2live]

If you clock it to the top (which I tried in an attempt to not have to slightly cut the bumper) it won't work without more of a major mod/cutting etc. I have it clocked to stright ahead and had a cut that small peice. The benefit might be that I can actually move from free to engaged with OUT taking off that winch top cover plate. If that get's to be a pain I'll put hinges on that top cover.

By the way, you can't clock it in between straight up and straight foward, at least I couldn't get the gears to mesh.

[pint]

Wow, I am jealous! Looking good.

[Trunk Monkey]

I think ARB calls for you to clock it to the back, towards the truck. I'm trying to figure out a good place to put it that you don't have to crawl under the truck or squeeze your hand in to throw the lever. I like that the wiring connections sit on top, makes it easy to get to them. I plan to relocate the solenoid box under the hood.

[fish2live]

Oh- one thing I forgot to mention - braking is about 15% decreased with the added weight of all the gear - 2 bumpers, a winch, extra battery - pushing close to 500#

Not sure if clocking it to the back would work or not... all the clocking is done while the bumper is off so I didn't check that scenario..

Yes, suspention next I think... I'll start with cranking the T-bars though and see if that helps...

[nilopol]

nice job, really looks good!

[r3run33]

very nice i am very jealous with the weight issue that is one of the reasons i'm trying to wait for christo's blueberry. i know the arb probably has better protection etc looks very nice

[fish2live]

I don't know what the ARB front weighs, probably about 130 lbs or so - I can't imagine Slee's would be significantly less, maybe a bit... It's not really the bumper, it's the bumper, extra battery AND the heavy @#$ Warn M12K (about 140#)... all total it's probably 325+ lbs added to the front and another 150 lbs in the rear - the ARB rear is a pig heavy thing...

[jonah tapert]

looks killer
i love the lack of crome.. i wonder how it will hold up ?
its nice to see another 100 in WA. get built ..
let me know when you want to put some suspention under that thing.

[1loudLX]

bumper looks cute color matched

[Trunk Monkey]

Yeah, the M12 is HEAVY. I've thought about going to synthetic line for both weight and safety, but use a winch so infrequently I can't justify the expense or letting it sit and deteriorate.

[fish2live]

Thanks Jonah - yes, suspension next

Hey loud, when are you going to add some strobe lights to match your clear corners and LED's?? ;-)

[1loudLX]

YouTube - Lights

what was that?

[fish2live]

god helps us! actually pretty cool, do you scare the $%$# out of the locals with that circus???

[fish2live]

ok - jacked it up and cranked the T-Bars - easy as pie - gained back the 1" I lost - 6 full turns. 8 turns actually gave me 1.5 inch but that was a bit too much... drives MUCH better now

[fish2live]

Update - Ok - after cranking the T-bars I am liking the ride so much more. I will wait on the OME lift until I need new tires and go to 33" up from my 32". With the motorcycle on the back it sags a bit - but not all that bad.

Also installed the winch control box behind the grill and ran all new 2AWG wires - I like the clean look. Ran out the cable and rewound it tight and all works great.

I also noticed a nice crunch in the upper rear quarter panel after parking too close to an alley downtown - luck me it was on the same panel that the previous owner had repaired and they BOTCHED the paint match job... SO, going to get that repaired and then have all the trim painted to match the bumpers, which are just a tad off from the body...

[fish2live]

oh- and don't forget the fun... sorry, not tech but I couldn't resist

[BMWSTOY]

Looking good - that M1200 is massive even on a huge 100

[3rd Cruiser]

Great looking truck! I left my sahara and rear slee bumper original color, but after seeing yours and others I'm starting to like the mono chrome look more and more.

A couple of comments about future supension upgrades.

I went from bilsteins to OME when I lifted my truck. The OME shocks are a disapointment. Wish I could go back to the bilsteins. When I first got my LC I did not like the side to side sway going around corners and the front end dive on fast off road sections. Going to the Billies solved this. With the OME shocks the side to side motion is back, better then stock but no comparison to the bilstein ride.

Here is my suggestion. Check with Christo, about rear springs that will give you extra carrying capacity while maintaining stock lift. This will cure rear end droop. Add 33" tires.This will give you an inch in lift and you don't need to do anything to suspension to fit them. Drive and enjoy.

If your off road adventures demand more lift, then go with the OME shocks, springs and torsion bars. If not stay with the bilsteins.

[fish2live]

Yes - the M12K IS a PIG of a winch - the 100 is holding it just great though....

I agree on the Bilsteins and I've heard that from others as well... that some people like them much better than the OME. Honestly, with the Billies and T-bars cranked a bit (give me about an 1" over stock in the front - which matches the back for a straight stance) I really like what I've got for now. I wouldn't mind upgrading to a rear spring that can handle a bit more load but I don't need much more of a lift in the rear - maybe 1" at most would be ok... what OME spring would do that (or is there one??)??

[3rd Cruiser]

OME 862 springs will give a slight lift in the rear, but I'm not sure if they will increase weight capacity much over stock. Some on this forum have had good results with air bags for heavy loads .

Check with Slee offroad about the springs. I will be talking to them soon to see if I can de-lift mine a bit to re-install the bilsteins.

[EdsCruisin]

I like this arrangement - might have to try it myself!
I put Firestone Airbags in the rear and it takes very little air to stiffen and/or raise the ride. If you get them, you will find that you don't need to disassemble as much as the instructions say and the overall installation should only take a couple hours.