Found a guy semi local to me said he could build me a custom bumper for about $250-$300. This is about $200 cheaper than buying one from a company. My question is, Have any of y'all had someone build you a custom bumper? I'm mainly worried about the fit of it. He said he's built a few for other peoples' trucks in the past, but not for a jeep cherokee. He said he guarantees his work to be free from defects. Sound too good to be true?

 

I only paid $200 for mine, plus shipping. My winch cost more than my bumper.
In hindsight, I should have bought Smittybilt or JCR instead. Or built my own, but I didn't have time to do that. But an XJ bumper can very easily be built for $250-300. Have you seen any of his other work? Do you have any idea what the bumper will look like from him?

 

I sent him a link to a smittybilt with the "prerunner bar" and told him that is what i wanted it to be similar to he said he could do that. I have not seen any of his other work. Will see if i can get some pics of it.

 

The main thing is making sure he understands they need to be tied into more spots than factory mounts.
The front needs to extend back to include more than 3 bolts, and the rear needs to be tied in to the unibody as well.

Otherwise they are going to be fairly useless during recovery

 

This is like asking how long a piece of string is. You really need to look into his work and see what his finished products look like. You can give him $300 and he makes you a bumper of straight 2x6, or he could make a really nice product.