# 87-95 Jeep YJ Wrangler Plow Mounts



## 95wranglasaurus

I just replaced ratty homemade plow mounts with some from Stork's Plows. You get the side plates and braces. The steel is 3/8" thick. These have Meyer part numbers:

http://www.storksplows.com/87-95-jeep-wrangler-meyer-conventional-snow-plow-mount-brackets.html

I also used their hardware kit: http://www.storksplows.com/87-95-jeep-wrangler-meyer-bolt-bag-hardware-08559.html

The side plates and braces bolt on and seem plenty strong enough. These parts were used as-is, no adapting except for enlarging existing holes in the frame, but in my case, my lifted Jeep uses a home-built old-style Fisher design push bar that I adapted to the new parts to get the fit right and the angle rams perfectly horizontal. This reduced ground clearance (the center of the pin holes are 9" above the ground), which is OK in my case but if you have a lifted Jeep you'd want to consider adapting the plow to get the right height if you want more ground clearance for off road in the summer.

I've plowed with it once and it worked fine. :salute:


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## gunsworth

Can you post some pics of the mount installed


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## EWSplow

Please post pics.
I recently installed a mount on my YJ. I had to cut up a brand new Boss mount for a TJ and redesign it to fit. If I had to do it again, I'd do it differently.


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## 95wranglasaurus

I'll try to get pics.....it's busy for me right now.


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## 95wranglasaurus

*95 Jeep Wrangler plow mount pics*

You'll see that the angle of the push bar is tipped backwards. This is because the mounts come with 11/16" holes, but the supplied bolts are 5/8". I may re-drill to 3/4" and get new 3/4" bolts. The plow pin height is OK as-is.








[/URL]IMG_5663 by suzcomptime, on Flickr[/IMG]








[/URL]IMG_5662 by suzcomptime, on Flickr[/IMG]








[/URL]IMG_5664 by suzcomptime, on Flickr[/IMG]








[/URL]IMG_5665 by suzcomptime, on Flickr[/IMG]








[/URL]IMG_5667 by suzcomptime, on Flickr[/IMG]


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## theplowmeister

That plow is going to put an aufull lot of shear force on those 2 bolts holding the down brackets... and you have grade 5 bolts there?


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## 95wranglasaurus

theplowmeister;2112702 said:


> That plow is going to put an aufull lot of shear force on those 2 bolts holding the down brackets... and you have grade 5 bolts there?


One website shows 5/8" diameter grade 5 bolts as having 22,000 lbs. shear strength each so two would be 44,000 per side. The Fisher plow pins are 1" diameter and I'm not sure what grade they are, but grade 5 would be 56,000, grade 2 would only be 28,000 per side. When I drilled them for cotter pins they acted like very mild steel.

If I upgrade I'll go with 3/4" bolts for almost 32,000 lbs. each in grade 5, and almost 40,000 in grade 8.


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## theplowmeister

I am not saying bad engineering 

OK I took them to be 1/2 bolts. The force on them will be the force on the plow times the distance from those bolts to the clevis pin (plow A frame/ push beam).


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## 95wranglasaurus

theplowmeister;2112878 said:


> I am not saying bad engineering
> 
> OK I took them to be 1/2 bolts. The force on them will be the force on the plow times the distance from those bolts to the clevis pin (plow A frame/ push beam).


And I'm not saying good engineering, at least as far as the engineering that I personally did. I knew that I was probably going to be in trouble with the homemade set-up that I had and didn't want to go through trying to build something from scratch. I spent a lot of time searching for something pre-made until I stumbled onto these mounts.

I love my YJ's and I knew others did too and were having the same issues finding stuff. That's why I posted, just to show that pre-made plow mount parts were available, and certainly not to show off anything I did.

Anyway, it's all good, I'm glad I got the parts and will update with any pros and cons. I've only plowed with it 3 times, just my own driveway and yard.


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## 95wranglasaurus

I mentioned that some may prefer to build up the plow rather than build down the push bar. Smith Brothers has a page dedicated to Wrangler installations and if you scroll down near the bottom the page you'll see where they modified the plow for a YJ.

http://www.smithbrothersservices.com/meyer-drive-pro-plow-jeep-wrangler-install-picture-page.html


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## EWSplow

I did mine differently. That push beam would be way to low for a boss plow (no chain). My push bar is about center of the front shackles. I think it's 14-1/2" from the ground.


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## Pooch88

*Best Jeep for plowing?*

Wonder if some of the experts out there could help me. I live just west of Toronto, Canada and would like a short vehicle for plowing small apartment properties. We have a F350 plow truck and would like something shorter. I am not experienced on how to beef up a Jeep model for plowing. Any advice?? Around here most plow shops and Jeep themselves tell you not to do it. They say Jeep is not heavy enough for plowing. They recommend pick up trucks instead.

Plowing with a short Jeep vehicle would be ideal for the smaller parking lots.

I would consider looking for an older model if the frame is heavier and better suited for plowing.

Not a rush...... we have gotten by through this mild winter but want to work on a new vehicle for next year!

Thanks


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## jasonv

95wranglasaurus;2112245 said:


> You'll see that the angle of the push bar is tipped backwards. This is because the mounts come with 11/16" holes, but the supplied bolts are 5/8". I may re-drill to 3/4" and get new 3/4" bolts. The plow pin height is OK as-is.


I do NOT mean this as an attack AT ALL, but that is not going to hold up the way you have it.

The attachment point is cantilevered way too far down from the existing brace.

You need a brace from the BOTTOM of the plow mount up to your frame. Something like this;










**NOTE: rather than the way I have drawn the bracket on the picture, you will actually have to either attach it to the INSIDE edge of the frame rail, or work it around the rail like the brackets you bought. Maybe use the same mount point as the little diagonals that you bought?

You should be able to make the pieces using a piece of 2"x2" 90 degree angle steel, which obviously will have to be oriented AWAY from the leaf spring since there won't be any clearance on that side.


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## 95wranglasaurus

jasonv;2118870 said:


> I do NOT mean this as an attack AT ALL, but that is not going to hold up the way you have it.
> 
> The attachment point is cantilevered way too far down from the existing brace.
> 
> You need a brace from the BOTTOM of the plow mount up to your frame. Something like this;
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> **NOTE: rather than the way I have drawn the bracket on the picture, you will actually have to either attach it to the INSIDE edge of the frame rail, or work it around the rail like the brackets you bought. Maybe use the same mount point as the little diagonals that you bought?
> 
> You should be able to make the pieces using a piece of 2"x2" 90 degree angle steel, which obviously will have to be oriented AWAY from the leaf spring since there won't be any clearance on that side.


Thanks for your input. I think I want to have the push bar higher for more ground clearance anyway. I can raise it 4-4.5" easily, which would bring the top of the push bar to the bottom of the sideplates. That would reduce the cantilever effect quite a bit, and I'd re-drill for 3/4" bolts as well. Do you think my existing braces would be OK at that point?


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## jasonv

95wranglasaurus;2119072 said:


> Thanks for your input. I think I want to have the push bar higher for more ground clearance anyway. I can raise it 4-4.5" easily, which would bring the top of the push bar to the bottom of the sideplates. That would reduce the cantilever effect quite a bit, and I'd re-drill for 3/4" bolts as well. Do you think my existing braces would be OK at that point?


I think it wouldn't be as bad, but the lower on the mount you connect the brace, the better. If you look at *any* commercial plow hitch, you will find that the push bars / braces always attach very close to the bottom.

There is actually another problem with what you are proposing; by raising the attachment point on the truck, you need to modify the plow's A-frame an equal amount in order to keep it level. That means that you will be applying more twisting force to the a-frame itself. This can be fine, but you are limited in how far you can drop on that end by the strength of the a-frame in a direction it isn't meant to be strong. Doing this also increases the amount of pressure down on the cutting edge, which can be fine in some circumstances, but may make plowing over softer surfaces (like gravel) a bit more difficult.

If I were making a drop on the plow side (which I have on mine), I wouldn't place the pivot any more than about 4 inches above the center line of the a-frame. Note: I have mine at 3 inches.

What you might want to think about doing, given that you have a "summer" purpose for the vehicle that conflicts with the plow mount, is building a removable section. Given the configuration of the front of a Jeep, it would actually be a fairly *simple* configuration to make.










To to explain that... you build TWO of the RED brackets. One of them welds onto the front frame brackets that you bought -- then cut off the excess of those brackets. You make another similar bracket for farther back, which bolts onto the frame rails RIGHT UP at the frame. At this point, you have FOUR MOUNT POINTS all the way up at the frame.

From the front two mount points, you drop down exactly vertical to the plow mount bracket that you already have. Then you run two more pieces of big metal diagonally to the REAR two mount points that are snuggled up to your bump stops. You use 4 nice big tractor pins to connect the blue piece to the red pieces.

One more thing I would add, which I didn't put in the previous picture because it would too busy to understand the picture, are a couple of extra braces from the diagonals to the plow mount bar. These braces will be to reinforce the mount side-to-side. See the green lines in the below;


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## 95wranglasaurus

Jason,

I appreciate the time and effort you've put in on this.

Now we're getting close to what I consider the ideal, a 4-point hitch enabling me to dis-attach the plow along with most of the plow gear structure, including the head gear/lights, similar in principle to modern plow systems. This is what I kept telling myself I would do when the time came, but winter came first. Thanks for the ideas.


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## rcer

I used the same Meyers side mounts for my new Snow Dogg. Simply replaced the meyers push bar with the Snow Dogg. Then - added angle iron braces back to the frame near the rear of the front leaf spring mount. (95 Wrangler.)
This is almost the same as what was done on the CJ's in the 70's and 80's. Works really well and quite easy to remove all if I need to for the summer. Takes about 15 minutes or so with and impact!
used a Meyers on my 94 wrangler for something like 17 years with this same setup (angle iron braces) Just `built a new setup for the 95 I recently purchased.


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