Front Porch Renovation

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Glenn-BJ74

Glenn-BJ74

Joined
May 7, 2006
Threads
279
Messages
3,361
Location
Kelowna, BC
This winter I vowed to tackle my disintegrating front porch on my BJ74. It is not completed, but here are a few peeks of the new front profile.

I intend to weld some pipe on either side, just below the headlights and put a deck on top back to the fender corners..
I was able to shorten the porch by about 3.5", so my extension is similar to most other electric winch bumpers - approx. 10".
The worm gear housing hangs low on the PTO so I extended the plate to cover it. I also 'shortened' the PTO skid plate to fit..

P1030205 (Medium).webp


P1030204 (Medium).webp


P1030203 (Medium).webp
 
From what I can tell the motor vehicle act regs a "motor vehicle, except a motorcycle, shall be equipped with a front bumper, and where a replacement bumper has been installed, it shall give substantially the same protection as the bumper originally installed by the manufacturer.

A bumper shall be securely fastened to the vehicle, and the bumper bar or brackets shall not be broken, loose or missing.
A bumper must not have a sharp or ragged edge and must not protrude beyond the side of the vehicle.
The centerline of the bumper must fall within 380 to 560 mm above ground for cars and the lowest part must be 750 mm high or less for trucks weighing 4500 kg or less. The width of the bumper must be at least equal to the track width of the vehicle, and the horizontal surface must be at least 100 mm in width.
The bottom of mine is about 23" or 580 mm ( less than 29.5") and so when completed it will be as wide as the vehicles track - so should be in compliance if that information is correct.

Any other info out there ?
 
I believe the track width line pertains to you. The bumper should cover the front tires, not that I care. My 40 series bumper is a shorty like yours.
 
Masterpull

Today I picked up 100 feet of 3/8' Amsteel with a 7/16' tube thimble and an anodized aluminum fairlead from Masterpull. Masterpull is in Bellingham about 1 km from Harbor Freight. With the Expedition Portal discount the package cost me less than $270 USD.
The 125’ of gnarly 5/16” wire rope I put on in 2006 when I got the truck weighed about 25 lbs, compared to about 3-4 lbs for the new Amsteel.

The Masterpull contact for off road sales is Alex Riedo (360.714.1313).I would recommend them.

Amsteel Blue, Winch Line, Rope, ATV winch lines
Winch Rope, Synthetic Winch Rope, ATV Winch Ropes

amsteel.webp
 
canucksafari said:
Looks good. It will be interesting to hear how this stands up to abrasions versus the old fashion steel rope.
Click to expand...

It does not, steel cable will handle abrasions, amsteel and others like it will not at least not for long. I had amsteel blue on my 4runner and loved the stuff it also as pictured comes with a 10ft abrasion sleeve. I never had issues with it as long as I made sure the sleeve was on any rocks. The new owner has ben using it a lot and has not had an issue......not even using a tree saver just wraping it into a loop:eek:
 
I have a 50ft steel cable on my winch for short pulls and use an Amsteel 100' extension if I need extra line. It's nice and light for the recovery box that's for sure and stays dry and protected until I need it.

Thanks for the link, Glenn (I may check them out for the June raffle....)

:beer:
 
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That will be an interesting comparison over time, the standard wire rope versus the synthetic rope. I know there are a lot of benefits to it, lighter, doesn't kink and bind like the wire rope, floats, more flexible, etc. It is less durable than wire rope to abrasion and I am interested to see how well it stands up to situations where you end up winching a lot off one side of the drum. I know wire rope sucks when you do that, and the layers below tend to bunch up and cause trouble. I guess time will tell.
 
Fantom said:
That will be an interesting comparison over time, the standard wire rope versus the synthetic rope. I know there are a lot of benefits to it, lighter, doesn't kink and bind like the wire rope, floats, more flexible, etc. It is less durable than wire rope to abrasion and I am interested to see how well it stands up to situations where you end up winching a lot off one side of the drum. I know wire rope sucks when you do that, and the layers below tend to bunch up and cause trouble. I guess time will tell.
Click to expand...

I have done a 80ft side load pull with mine before I sold it. I needed to stop parts was through and un spool it and even it out. I was getting close to the cross bolts on the M8000 I had. On a large drum winch like a M12000 or 8274 I do not think this would be an issue. The rope had no problem building up on its self and was easy to unspool by hand I was just worried I would damage it on the cross bolts.
 
Wire rope is cheaper - no question, but winching is hard enough work without having to fight twisted, kinked, gnarly wire rope.

Wire rope does not like to be to be wound up in a tight radius (unless its properly pre-stretched). Its hard to pull the off drum, stiff to pull into position, when its abraded it can have dangerous broken strands that can catch on your gloves.

This upgrade saves about 20 lbs in dead weight, make winching much easier and most important safer. If it last as long as the gnarly crap I took off I will be happy.
 
Glenn-BJ74 said:
...
The centerline of the bumper must fall within 380 to 560 mm above ground for cars and the lowest part must be 750 mm high or less for trucks weighing 4500 kg or less....
Click to expand...

How about vehicles over 4500kg? :hillbilly:

Looks good Glenn, you're totally ready to run down some damned zombies now. :popcorn:

Also - good call on the Amsteel... have been waiting for the excuse myself.
 
synth rope is good for self recovery as the truck is moving not the rope. When winching someone else and the rope is moving its easy to scrape it on a tree/rock etc and abrade it. That said its still the best way to go.

Nice bumper Glenn!
 
I might get another Velcro abrasion guard to put on when the rope is scraping on something ugly.

Pictured above is the 3/8" tube thimble which I replaced with a gusseted 7/16" tube thimble (will not crush down like ordinary thimbles will). Alex at Masterpull said the 3/8' thimble will crush down and you will not be able get a 1" shackle pin through it.
I am not using hooks anymore, just shackles.
 
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Glenn-BJ74 said:
I might get another Velcro abrasion guard to put on when the rope is scraping on something ugly
Click to expand...

I had two for mine as well, one was on all the time (used it as a UV barrier when rolled up. The other was used if I had more than one contact point (ground/tree or otherwise). Worked fine for the few pulls I used it.

When I get a winch on the new truck I plan to install synthetic line again.
 
Gusseted Thimble

here is the difference between a standard tube thimble and gusseted thimble. Don't get the non-gusseted thimble because the standard thimble crushes tight.

thimbles_g1.webp
 
Looks good, much better than the huge landing deck bumpers that came with PTO's. I took mine a step further, I shortened the PTO shaft, enlarged the hole in the cross member since the u-joint now sits in it and got the PTO winch all the way back against the cross member. I also fabb'ed up a winch cage to suit the mods. The whole set up stick out maybe 3-4" past the frame rails. I like it!!
 
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