🛠️ Member Build Overtrail Upgrades

[Bluegill]

That bumper is hardcore for sure. I'd do that bumper on a 2024 GX550 that I picked up as a lease return in 2027 with 35,000 miles for $44,000. I'm just not at the point where I want to get out the sawzall and dremel to get that much approach. Remember, you still have to drag the ass over those rocks.

 

[Bluegill]

All buttoned up and waiting on my back, hands, legs, and - surprisingly - my toes to recover. Getting old sucks.

 

[Bluegill]

Installation instructions are up on JW Off Road's website:

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Very helpful as I had no idea what some of the brackets were for that are included in the boxes. One pair of brackets is for tying the bumper to the stock recovery point bolt holes. I guess the other pair of brackets is for mounting the 3" cube lights in the spaces on the bumper. I didn't realize that and I drilled my own mounting holes to mount my lights.

 

[Bluegill]

Well, that was fun.

Installed the JW Offroad bumper yesterday and put the truck back together this morning.

As usual, all the little plastic fasteners are a pain but patience pays - I only destroyed one of the little pop-pull pins unfastening the passenger side wheel well liner. Putting the wheel well liner and fender trim back into place was a real puzzle figuring out how all the plastic sections and tabs line up but it all came together. You know it's wrong when stuff is out of alignment and it's right when everything lines up and fits together nice & snug.

The winch solenoid did fit mounted on top of the winch in the normal place. It barely touches the black plastic ribbed piece directly above it, but it fits. Since I'll have no easy access to the solenoid, I plugged in the long wire lead for the winch controller and ran it up to the back of the driver's side engine bay. There is just enough to sit in the driver's seat and use the controller, or a few feet of slack to stand by the truck and use the controller. I may have to get an extension wire. The ON/OFF switch on top of the solenoid next to the winch controller connection plug can be switched with a screwdriver poked through the white slats in the front fascia. Not ideal but that's a hidden winch setup for you.

I ran all the wires for the Rigid cube lights and the winch up to the battery area but I'll have to make the connections another day, I have a super bowl party to get ready for now.

Careful - there are some sharp edges in there!

Here it is with the whole front fascia removed

Plastic cover slides off the aluminum crash bar

Aluminum crash bar removes with 4 purple 17mm bolts on each side (2 on top, 2 on bottom)

I tried to slide the aluminum crash bar off after removing the bolts but it was still attached with a few plastic tabs and small screws/bolts underneath by the skid plate. The skid plate doesn't need to come off but (on my Overtrail) there is a thin metal plate connecting the plastic bumper to the skid plate and a plastic tray underneath. All this stuff comes off.

Stock front recovery points unbolt & remove (17mm). We'll be using these 2 bolts and the bolt holes to install 2 small lower bumper mounting pieces in a bit.

Aluminum crash bar removed, we will re-use 2 of the purple bolts at these locations (there are captive nuts on the other side). The bumper comes with grade 8 nuts & bolts for the other mounting holes.

First need to ream out the 2 slotted holes with a 1/2" bit, only need to remove shavings of metal (I'm on the left slotted hole, there is 1 more to the right)

Time to mount the bumper.
Open the pod bay doors, Hal

 

[Bluegill]

Jacked the whole bumper assembly up into place, fit very well, everything lined up perfectly. There is a bit of play side to side so you can get it centered just right.

One major problem - this lower mounting bracket on the central section of my bumper was bent. Remember all the damage from shipping? I didn't realize until this point that this bracket was bent up (on the left). Those 2 surfaces in the red circle should mate up perfectly flat.

I used my brain to figure out a solution - bolted both of the JW Offfroad-supplied lower mounting brackets to this bent bracket to act as a lever and used the truck's bottle jack to straighten out the bent portion.

Worked like a champ!

I'm impressed with the number of bolts holding this bumper to the truck - my old Land Rover bumpers had 4 bolts per side. This bumper has 2 on top, 4 on the vertical face, and 2 more underneath for a total of 8 if I did the math right. Here are the 2 on top:

Inside the "box"

Sidebar - I ordered replacement white LED fog lights and turn-assist lights and this was the perfect time to install the bulbs.

There's the stock bulbs under the blue connectors

The Hyuga replacement is on the left. Very nicely made, the base is metal.

After about an hour of figuring out how all the finicky tabs and plastic liners go back together, we're back in business. I still need to trim the lower wheel well liner where it hangs down a few inches below the new bumper.

 

[GX550Key]

Sweetest ride on here.

 

[S SUBERI]

Nice job! Looks awesome and you did it all yourself. Impressive.

 

[AtomicEric]

Looks great. Curious if there is any difference in wind or driving noise? Thanks for posting all the images of the install. Will be a guide book for many to come.

 

[Bluegill]

I've driven about 20 feet out of the garage and back in. Will trim the low-hanging wheel well liners tomorrow and need to get power to the winch and install the winch hook. I installed the hook but it just hangs down because I have no power to winch and can't pull it in tight. I have a carabiner on there to keep the loop on the end of the line from falling back in behind the fairlead.

I also have the rear tailgate lights to install (the two white, red, and yellow LEDs that face to the rear when the tailgate is up) and a sew-on steering wheel cover. Plus I need to make 2 more custom quick-release mounting brackets for my new 180-degree awning. I'm also hoping my Westcott Designs rock rails/running boards come in this week. I have a nice, long off road trip planned this coming weekend. I want to really exercise this suspension and the tires and the lockers.

 

[AtomicEric]

I can't wait to hear and see photos from the weekend trip and GX testing!

 

[Bluegill]

Just talked to Westcott Designs....my rock sliders won't be available until next week, what a bummer. I need to be able to stand on them to get stuff on & off the roof rack!

 

[Snooperstyle]

Just talked to Westcott Designs....my rock sliders won't be available until next week, what a bummer. I need to be able to stand on them to get stuff on & off the roof rack!

I have gotten in the habit of bringing along a small aluminum step ladder. Works like a charm and is better than standing on sliders anyways. My two cents!

 

[Snooperstyle]

In other news, received my JW Offroad front bumper yesterday. Finally. No damage. Was packed waaaaay better than yours although I still could see it getting damaged since he didn’t use a crate or super heavy cardboard on the pressure points. Guess I got lucky that the UPS people felt like being gentle this time. I’ve gotten the winch mounted and one light. Haven’t done the solenoid yet. The light holes/mounts are super tedious. I also need to find some sort of spacer to put forward of the winch so it won’t slip forward under extreme load, since it seems to have to be mounted as far rearward as possible to keep the free spool lever from hitting the steel on the bumper. Any ideas on that?? As far as I have gotten. Your guide is sooooooo appreciated! And I know I’ll be using your info here to get it all installed. Thank you for being the guinea pig!

 

[Bluegill]

After doing all this work, I'd recommend installing the wings on the central winch tray, installing the bumper, then dropping in the winch. That plastic part that is barely touching the top of my solenoid is removeable with just a few easy screws so you could literally drop the winch right into the tray (see photo below). This would make handling the whole thing easier. Using my floor jack was remarkably easy to get the winch into place but getting the winch on my rolling dolly and then getting the dolly over my jack absolutely broke my back!

That's a good point about the winch possibly sliding forward in the tray. I torqued down my 4 winch mounting bolts pretty damn tight with a hefty half-inch breaker bar wrench but who knows if that will withstand many thousands of pounds of pull. My freespool lever would jam into the steel plate too if it moves forward.

Can you find a couple pieces of steel to act as spacers, maybe two thick round or square chunks that you could set in between the forward winch feet and the inner front bumper plate steel? You could drill small pilot holes and put two metal screws in from the front side to keep the pieces in place (see red arrows in photo). Paint the screw heads black. Kind of ghetto but I'm just shootin' from the hip here.

 

[Bluegill]

I have gotten in the habit of bringing along a small aluminum step ladder. Works like a charm and is better than standing on sliders anyways. My two cents!

I installed two big grab handles on both sides of my rack and I use them to hold onto while I step on the rear door sill and then the rear tire, or just stand on the front door sill. Not ideal. I like the idea of a side ladder that would set and semi-lock in place like YellowLab mentioned in another thread.

 

[Snooperstyle]

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What is the black piece in these two pics with three holes in it and only two holes with bolts in them?

 

[BackRdRnr]

Great looking install and great exterior appearance. thanks for the install pics.

 

[Bluegill]

What is the black piece in these two pics with three holes in it and only two holes with bolts in them?

That piece is the top piece that previously bolted in the aluminum crash bar - see the red circle below:

There are 2 bolt holes on the right side of this bracket and the crash bar used the left hole (see red arrow below). The new bumper uses the right hole (see blue arrow below):

Here is the photo from below with the bumper installed - the blue arrow points to the same blue arrow from above in the previous photo. The stud that sticks out (green arrow) is a centering peg that helped center the crash bar and the new bumper. No bolts were on the centering peg previously or currently with the new bumper.

 

[Snooperstyle]

Super helpful!! Thank you!

 

[Bluegill]

I should also mention that I had all sorts of dash lights and warnings after I installed this bumper. The two connectors that you have to separate are the passenger side main harness connecting all the modern electronic magic in the front fascia to the rest of the truck, and on the driver's side it's just the front camera connector, plus the washer fluid line. My issue was that I had to start the truck to turn the wheels to make room to get at the passenger side harness and the washer fluid line. I also had to start the truck to pull it fully into the garage for the night so I could finish it up the next morning. But as I suspected, all the warning lights went off on their own after a couple drive cycles of a few miles, so no harm done.