Nothing crazy or anything just a simple desine(1st bumper build). Made of 1.5 inch tubing. Using a lincon welder and a harbor freight pipe bender. Any thoughts or things I could do better would be appreciated! I do plan on adding in recovery points later also.

Pictures say a thousand words.(sorry about quality taken with phone, I also dont know why some pics are big and some are little ha)

Enjoy!



Tack welded and mounting brackets






My winch



side view with stinger

all grinded down(added two more supports inside stinger)

Finished!

Just a little playin around!

 

Its a good first try.

But it looks like you used 1/8" for the mounting plates...no good. its gonna fold like a prius the first time you try to use it for anything more than a cup holder.

But the basic design is ok...keep practicing...and when your ready..invest in a good bender to reduce the kinks in the tube.

can you get me one of those super heavy duty winches?!

 

Yes that is one thing I messed up on, Used to small of metal for the mounting brackets. I dont really think ill take this bumper any farther. Ill get bored and fab up a new one sooner or later, when I really start to wheel hard and need that winch haha

 

You could probably make one of the winches at home. Take pringles can and write WINCH on it

Overall, I think it's a pretty decent start, though wouldn't you maybe want to provide some better protection for the winch?

 

when you say protection are you meaning the place that most have in front of the winch, that the wire runs threw the oval shaped hole? Sorry don't know what that's called. And yes in the future it will have one just didn't have a winch to make the plate with correct mesurments.

 

looks like that HF bender did a number on the tube but simple is good

 

Nice. I plan on doing something similar

 

it did especialy turning around by the fenders. Bent the tube funny on the stinger, but the bend on the stinger is diffrent. I like it!

 

Looks like you nearly flattened the tubing in the bends! But props for even attempting! That more than Ive done!

 

Yeahh on the stinger that's what looks flat the sides arnt too bad, I like the look it gave the stinger tho!

 

nice design and a nice first try

i think ill have to agree with the winch is going to need more protection and no not just the fairlead (plate the rope runs threw)

on the bends just becarefull a flat spot = weak spot and the stinger looks like it was bent by hand and just kinked in the center

bends are no fault of your own of course the HF bender isnt worth its weight in scrap honestly

the only other thing i see to be a problem has been mentioned which would be the mounting plate thickness

as far as bending the tubing goes if your going to set out to build just one bumper dont buy a bender just buy a pre bent kit like jeeptubes.com sells Mark will work with you on a custom order if youd like to change it up and itll cost less then the cost of tube and a bender in the long run

just my 2 cents however as any fellow fabricator/knucklehead would say try and try again its all in the experience

 

Thanks for the advice never though about pre ordering it. I think ill have to stick with fabricating it myself tho. I love having that feeling that I made that you know? On my next front bumper(way in the future, or when a winch comes along) ill do all these! Thicker plates winch protection etc.

Ohh one question how would I protect the winch more than that? pics would help too.

 

well the bottom of the winch should be protected by the winch plate (mounting point for the winch)

in the front of the winch youll need something to mount the fairlead too however you shouldnt make the fairlead stick out past the protection

i would suggest bending so loops that can run from your upper and lower tube and would stick out further then the fairlead

this would also depend on which fairlead you use if you use cable and a roller fairlead or a rope and just have a plate fairlead

i also under stand the fabing it yourself i do all my own stuff now that i have a proper bender but have ordered from jeeptubes in the past and you still have to fab everything it just comes pre bent and the more you play with the kit he sells and make custom changes the more fab it requires lol

anyway back on track

my honest suggestion would be to do some research on a winch and figure out which one you like and and get the basic measurement for it all the info you need should be available from the retailer

that should give you the space you need open and mounting pattern altho most mounting patterns are standard

also figure out if your going to use rope or cable that will give you direction on your fairlead and youll also see in researching so of it as to what will be needed to protect it

 

Cool man thanks for all the advice! Even learned a new word for the dictonary! Fairlead aha I think I may just keep this one cut the mounts out put bigger mounts in and fabricate the winch mount and all sounds like another fun project!!