i know there are a couple people with custom rear bumpers, and at least one who is working on a custom front bumper. has anyone considered/tried mounting a winch (warn 9500i, specifically) to a custom bumper?
...i'm learning mig welding and a few other handy tricks soon, ive been drooling over the idea of a tube front bumper & grill guard with a couple lights and a winch in the front, with protection for the front of the quarter panels but maximum clearance for the front tires...
I have a bunch of ideas I'm trying to work on. I was thinking of going tubuler(round) but, now I'm thinking of doing square. This way I don't have to worry about getting a tube bender and a hole notcher. All I'll need is my grinder/cutter and a welder. This way, I can save money for material.
As far as the winch part. I'm sticking with the idea of having a hitch in the front to attach a multi-mount winch. Like the one Warn offers. I currently have the warn front hitch but I may modify that to work with the custom bumper. Plus, I like the idea of having a winch I could put on whenever I want and not worry about "thief" issues.
I like his last line..."finally, no, I will not make you one".
for the front, i'm thinking a large rectangular section in the middle with a winch mount, and tube or rectangle coming out at the sides to protect the sheetmetal at the sides of the front end. visualize an arb bull bar with a winch but with only the center section around the winch, and a couple of smaller tubes wrapping around the sides. it'd give more tire clearance at the front of the tire, so a larger tire than normal could be used when a lift is installed which moves the front axle(s) forward an inch or so.
haven't really thought about the rear much, but i have a hitch so it'd have to come off.
Melting metal is a blast and you can do virtually anything you want to!!!
Warn has templates for mounting points that you can get from their website I think so that will help you in that aspect, but keep in mind that you will need to be DAMN SURE of your worksmanship as far as the welds go after you bolt it on and use it. I would suggest several trial runs to verifiy the ability of the setup to handle the stress of winching from it. A catastrophic failure could mean lots of damage to anything in the vicinity if it were to go.
My Gen II rear is coming along nicely and I should be done with it in another week or two. (For those who did the Deer Valley trail, you will noticed the heavy design influence I had from Mike Ross' rear bumper )
__________________
-------------------------
Got a question 'bout TS.com? You'll probably find your answer HERE!
Looking for an answer to your Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, Highlander, or 4Runner question? Try HERE!
So you cut your quater panels? I was thinking of doing the same thing, if I ever get the chance to work on my bumpers. The bumper looks good. I probably will not add the round tubing and just stick with square tubing. Just for clearence purposes. I got the design idea from Mike Ross's Tacoma. I hope he doesn't mind.
Yeah the pucker factor was way high on the Qpanel slice!! I musta stood there for 30 min with the sawzall in my hand saying "do I REALLY want to do this???" It was by far the least expensive way to fix the body damage I got from the Deer Valley trail!!!
Actually I talked with Mike several times about his bumper and basically copied what he did. I added the bottom rail to cover the receiver hitch while providing some protection for a set of Hellas I'm gonna mount. I figure I still gained about 4-5 inches.
__________________
-------------------------
Got a question 'bout TS.com? You'll probably find your answer HERE!
Looking for an answer to your Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, Highlander, or 4Runner question? Try HERE!
...i gotta learn some welding skills. i'm thinking maybe just a community college course or something...
tedd, do you have your own mandrel bender for the tube, or did you take it somewhere/have it done to spec? your design is really close to what i'd like to do, i like the protection for the 1/4 panels as on the 4runner. did your receiver hitch move up at all? or was the 4-5" related to something else? the exit angle is pretty bad on the tundra, several inches extra in the rear would really help matters . i've already made a few divots with my receiver hitch .
A class at your local CC is a great way to go. Thats what I did, took a welding class for a year, bought my own little 90 amp MIG and off I went!! I would love to get my grubby mits on a plasma cutter, but that must wait for now.
As for the bending, I cheated somewhat with a little trick I learned from Chris from the TTORA board (www.bajataco.com). Instead of using tubing, I used schedule 40 black steel pipe and a pipe bender I got from harbor freight for about $85. Much cheaper than the $1000 or so for a mandrel and the dies needed, plus material is inexpensive as well. The measurements are harder to figure, but with a little bit of practice it is totally do-able.
As for the added clearance, its hard to figure exactly, but my new bumper is about 2-3 inches higher than the stock bumper and if you add the were the bolt on hitch was that adds another 3 inches or so. Also, the Q panels are very susceptible to damage from the tailpipe getting shoved into it from larger boulders on the decent. I am still trying to figure on how far back I am going to trim the exhaust, just off of the last bend next to the spare, or after the bend over the axel.
__________________
-------------------------
Got a question 'bout TS.com? You'll probably find your answer HERE!
Looking for an answer to your Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, Highlander, or 4Runner question? Try HERE!
you could potentially also run the exhaust through one of those ports on the side of the new bumper, maybe...that would be interesting...
...unfortunately, ever since i saw them, i've wanted to stick an escalade tail pipe on my truck...maybe if i hid it right behind the mud flap, it wouldn't take so much damage.
did you weld the quarter panel protection horizontally to the frame, or are they unsupported extensions to the bumper? i was thinking it'd be nice to have well-to-well sliders, and just extend them back behind the wheel to protect the qps as well...it's been a few months since i've been under the truck tho, so i don't remember the state of the frame under there.
...just called the local cc...280 bucks gets me six weeks, 8 hours a week, helmet, gloves, brush, chipping hammer, mig and tig welding...i'm signing up monday, since they've only had one day of class so far .
I put 2 supports to the frame on the sides. The leaf hangers are in the way for a continuous frame mount so the front most frame support has a 3x3 plate with two 1/2" bolts keeping them in place.
__________________
-------------------------
Got a question 'bout TS.com? You'll probably find your answer HERE!
Looking for an answer to your Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, Highlander, or 4Runner question? Try HERE!
those of you with custom front or rear bumpers...
)
.
Linear Mode
