Winch Bumpers

[Mudder]

So I am looking for a front and back winch bumper. I found some Smitty built ones on amaazon. $410 for a front and back and a D ring. Both the front and back ones have D-rings but my question is amazon ssays it won't fit my truck, is that a good or bad thing? Or could I just modify it so it will work? I'm new to winchs and I haven't learned welding yet. Any help would be great. Here is the link to the item. ANd if you know amazon you just scroll down a little bit and it says what a good "package" deal is. Oh and the winch I may be mounting is a Warn 9.5ti.

http://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-76...8&qid=1388037401&sr=8-4&keywords=Winch+bumper

 

[TCinVA]

Check out Marlin, Trail Gear and All Pro, they all make nice winch bumpers for Toyotas. Tube style bumpers from them are less than that amazon one.

 

[liljlandon]

Those are for jeeps. Lots of modification required to get one to fit. Sadly, Toyota bumpers aren't mass produced and the price reflects that.

 

[Mudder]

I knew they were jeeps but just didn't know what it'd take to get it to fit. Thank you for the input.

 

[KLF]

I also suggest you stay away from Smittybuilt. I had one of their rear bumpers on my pickup, and although it was pretty sturdy (I was rear-ended 3 times and it never bent), the paint job was terrible, and they are very prone to rusting. The steel was just awful, even after I carefully cleaned, primed, and painted it with good Rustoleum, it still rusted. I gave up, gave it away when I tore my truck apart. I've since made my own rear bumper.

 

[jynx]

If you want a plate style then search WARN bumpers on amazon. CBI makes them as well, not on amazon.

Tube will be cheaper than plate most of the time.

And if you aren't a welder or have some fab skills then stick with bumpers that are made for your truck. If you have the tools and skills you can make anything fit, but if you were in that boat you'd just do like KLF said and build your own.

 

[KLF]

I'll post these photos here for ideas. I bought my front bumper from Front Range Off Road 11 years ago. I really like this bumper, he custom made the mounts to accommodate my 1" body lift. I was in Colorado that summer buying a truck for my wife and driving it home, so I picked up the bumper in person, avoided the shipping cost. Unfortunately they stopped make it, not sure why.

Shots of the bumper after I got it home:

After I painted it, and added a winch (Warn HS9500):

Had to do some minor clearancing on the front grille:

Later I swapped out the steel cable for some synthetic line and a nylon fairlead:

This bumper took a solid direct hit from an RX330 that was sliding down a hill backwards in an ice storm that winter (2003):

As you can see, the "wing" of the bumper bent in, there was some minor tweaking of the fender and hood, and the marker light got busted. If it weren't for that bumper, I'm sure there would have been heavy damage and my truck would have been totaled by the insurance company. All I had to do was use my winch to pull the bumper back out straight, and replace the marker. Now that the bumper is off, I'm gonna add some gussets behind the wings, and I may add some tube on top kinda like the ARB.

 

[KLF]

My rear bumper story:

I bought this "core" on pirate back in 2007, I stumbled on an ad where a guy in GA was selling it. He had it made for his Tacoma, then changed his mind before they got to adding the frame mounts. $150 later and it was at my door. I couldn't buy the steel for that price. The welds are very well done.

The main portion started with 5"x2"x3/16" box section. The tow points go all the way through and are very strong. I bought some 3/8" plate and some 1" tube at a local welding shop for the frame mounts. I had to cut a "notch" in the middle so the bumper wouldn't cover the license plate, but I added a bunch of 1/4" gussets inside before I put the plate on to cover the notch. I used my new Makita metal-cutting saw to do all the straight cuts, it worked really well:

The frame mounts also go all the way through and are welded on both sides, very strong. The tube stiffeners add rigidity. I had to notch the roll pan on the bed to clear the mounts, but it was getting painted anyway.

Finished up the grinding to clean up the welds, and shot a quick coat of primer on it for now, this is how it looks today:

I may try to convert it to an air tank once I get the OBA system hooked up. I also may try to add a swingout for the spare, I don't like the factory chain winch thingy for an oversized tire, I guess I don't trust it to hold that much weight forever. For now I will probably get it sand blasted then use my HVLP gun to shoot a few coats of Rustoleum satin black on it, at the same time I paint the front bumper.

 

[Mudder]

Wow those are some Hefty bumpers. Thank you for the ideas on how to design a bumper.

 

[KLF]

Trying to find an appropriate sticker for the rear bumper, something like "Go ahead and tailgate... I dare ya".

 

[Mudder]

Input

So here is a front and rear bumper I designed and was wondering if I could get some input. The first one should be a top view of the front bumper (both will have D-shackle mounts just didn’t show them) and the other is a front view of the bumper. Sorry that it is super neat had to use paints and suck at making straight lines with their tool or curves.
The two red lines are the winch mounting plate
The black line that doesn’t form a triangle is the front of the bumper
The brown line would be another rod on the back side of the skid plate
The other coloured lines are just bracing mounts.

The Rear bumper is fairly simple but I’m worried about the amount of welds. And the two triangles on the end would be wrapped around the side of my 89 pickup.

As I said any input would be great and sorry for the bad drawings.

 

[jynx]

Here is a picture of the one that is going on my 90. It was supposed to fit, but they sent me the wrong one and the guy decided to be a D-bag about it, so I am going to mod it to fit the way I wanted. You can see my rough outline of my proposed mod.



Here is my rear. It is a WARN that I picked up off of CL for a awesome price. It was brand new with all hardware and I just scuffed it up and painted it to match the wheels and future front.