Bump in the night = new bumper

[mattman555]

Here is the 3/8 line I'm looking at... I liked it had protection at the start and end.. and it's accouterment looked pretty heavy duty.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M58C1AO/_encoding=UTF8?tag=ihco-20

 

[mattman555]

A new Slee Short bus bumper arrived today! That was pretty quick shipping from Colorado to NoWhere AZ!

 

[-Spike-]

How much was the shipping? Someone else on the 80 board was freaking about a $500 shipping fee...

 

[mattman555]

How much was the shipping? Someone else on the 80 board was freaking about a $500 shipping fee...

$250 to ship curbside to Show Low

I found a shipper to do it for $150 but slee wasn't too keen on other shipping services out side of UPS.

 

[mattman555]

This weekend I spent a few hours installing the Slee shortbus bumper and the Smittybilt 97495 XRC Winch. My goal was to drop as much weight off the bumper+winch so I could manage to complete the install by myself. To drop some weight I decided to remove the steel winch cable and go with a 3/8" x 95' BLACK Synthetic Winch Line Cable (syn-line). I must say the synthetic line is SO much lighter. Getting the steel cable off was quite a chore, esp. with the winch not mounted. So, I placed the winch in the back of my Ridgeline, used two ratchet straps to the tie downs, and free spooled the steel line off the winch. This free spool was super tight and it took a lot of effort to remove the line.

The initial bolting down of the winch to the short bus bumper was easy and I chose a left handed mount for the winch solenoid. The way I mounted the bumper to the TLC was by using a combination of ropes and a 2K come along manual winch I had. This combo worked perfectly. I moved the TLC into position and used the winch to raise it into position. I kept it tied on during the entire install, which came in handy.

As I started to position the bumper on to the TLC I noticed the left handed winch solenoid mount was running into the TLC causing the bumper to not fully go into position. With the bumper still on the come along I remounted the solenoid to the outmost position and the bumper slid in with out any issues.

After I installed all the bolts I was off to install the winch line. I put a strap around a tree and laid out the syn-line down my cul-de-sac, which was at a slight incline. With some help I put the TLC in neutral to tightly spool the line.

All done!

Here are two pics from the install and thanks to those who posted up!

 

[Chrismanjs]

This weekend I spent a few hours installing the Slee shortbus bumper and the Smittybilt 97495 XRC Winch. My goal was to drop as much weight off the bumper+winch so I could manage to complete the install by myself. To drop some weight I decided to remove the steel winch cable and go with a 3/8" x 95' BLACK Synthetic Winch Line Cable (syn-line). I must say the synthetic line is SO much lighter. Getting the steel cable off was quite a chore, esp. with the winch not mounted. So, I placed the winch in the back of my Ridgeline, used two ratchet straps to the tie downs, and free spooled the steel line off the winch. This free spool was super tight and it took a lot of effort to remove the line.

The initial bolting down of the winch to the short bus bumper was easy and I chose a left handed mount for the winch solenoid. The way I mounted the bumper to the TLC was by using a combination of ropes and a 2K come along manual winch I had. This combo worked perfectly. I moved the TLC into position and used the winch to raise it into position. I kept it tied on during the entire install, which came in handy.

As I started to position the bumper on to the TLC I noticed the left handed winch solenoid mount was running into the TLC causing the bumper to not fully go into position. With the bumper still on the come along I remounted the solenoid to the outmost position and the bumper slid in with out any issues.

After I installed all the bolts I was off to install the winch line. I put a strap around a tree and laid out the syn-line down my cul-de-sac, which was at a slight incline. With some help I put the TLC in neutral to tightly spool the line.

All done!

Here are two pics from the install and thanks to those who posted up!


View attachment 1572827

View attachment 1572828

Looks great!

 

[mattman555]

Here are just a few more pics around the mounting of the 97495 Smittybilt XRC winch to the Slee Shortbus for the 80

When using the mounting bracket that came with the XRC the hole set furthest away from the TLC needs to be used. If one uses the the original mount point (shown with red circles below) the solenoid will surely run into the TLC not allowing the bumper to be in the proper position. Unfortunately, when using this mount point the solenoid semi-blocks the lower accessory mount point on the Slee Shortbus. I was still able to get my light into this hole it was just a pain to tighten it up. Additionally, I'm sure the nut and bolt would rub against the solenoid.

Another minor issue is the clutch/free spool handle makes contact with the TLC. I haven't adjusted it yet, but if it becomes an issue I'll just bend the TLC grill or shave off part of the handle.

 

[Funner]

Here are just a few more pics around the mounting of the 97495 Smittybilt XRC winch to the Slee Shortbus for the 80

When using the mounting bracket that came with the XRC the hole set furthest away from the TLC needs to be used. If one uses the the original mount point (shown with red circles below) the solenoid will surely run into the TLC not allowing the bumper to be in the proper position. Unfortunately, when using this mount point the solenoid semi-blocks the lower accessory mount point on the Slee Shortbus. I was still able to get my light into this hole it was just a pain to tighten it up. Additionally, I'm sure the nut and bolt would rub against the solenoid.

View attachment 1574810

Another minor issue is the clutch/free spool handle makes contact with the TLC. I haven't adjusted it yet, but if it becomes an issue I'll just bend the TLC grill or shave off part of the handle.

View attachment 1574811

I think you can just clock the right side of the winch to change the position of the handle. I rotated my HF winch 90 degrees to get the handle in a better position. We don’t bend our TLC on purpose!!! Hopefully there’s room to do this instead.

Clocking Smittybilt XRC8 winch - TTORA Forum