A few months back I picked up a PTO winch on e-bay cheap. The winch is a military 18000 lb rated set up from a Gamma Goat. I wanted to put together a steel bumper that would look good and be tough enough to deal with the forces imposed by the winch. Additionally, I needed the bumper to hold my kc lights and and have pressurized air tank storage capacity for the converted a/c compressor that will soon be under the hood (article coming up soon). By the time it was done it also had a couple of 1-inch clevises on the front for winch points.
The first step is design and planning. This is the most important step. I used the following approach:
- Yank the old bumper off the rig
- Figure out how far to the side of the fender you want the bumper to extend
- Measure an overall desired width, and all measurements in between. (e.g. end of the bumper to frame rail, width of rail, width between the two rails)
- Spend some time under your rig looking for mount points and obstacles. If you are mounting a PTO set up don't forget to figure in clearance for the drive shaft. If you are building a winch bumper you'll need width length and height as well.
- Come up with a concept. Do you want a tube bumper or a box type, what does it need to do? Do you need it to hold compressed air or chains? Do you want your high lift jack on the front, off road lights, a pre runner bar?
- Sketch out a rough plan on paper and itemize the types of steel you'll need. Don't forget to consider weight on lighter duty rigs.
- Call your steel supplier and get a rough price quote for materials.
- Think about the tools you'll need, do you have them? If not, budget in cost of tools.
The next phase is production. Think about how you plan to assemble the thing. I knew that I was building a box type bumper and would need to start with the air tanks and work my way to the middle winch mount. I also decided that it was important that the winch be removable by unbolting and that the bumper have bolted on brackets. If you're using large flat pieces of steel, plan on having the steel shop sheer them to shape for you.
The following is a rundown of my bumper:
The face bar is 8-inch track bar; the top and bottom of the tanks are 1/8" steel as are the sides and back. I used deck plate for the top of the tanks for looks and also for traction when using the bumper as a step. The pre runner bar is 1/8" wall welded tubing. I used the military winch cradle and trimmed it to fit the bumper. The brackets are ¼" steel plate. If you have shapes that you need the steel shop to sheer it really helps to make them a cardboard template. Steel for this bumper cost about $240. Bolts, hardware, clevises, etc. cost me about another $60. Labor time into the bumper was about 30 hours.
When I got the steel home I started by welding the tanks together. Using .35 mild steel Mig wire, I double welded all seams on the tank. The steel shop did a great job shearing the pieces and they fit together very well. When the two tanks were welded up I connected them with the center face bar. The winch cradle had to be trimmed down and I was surprised to find that the cradle was aluminum. Carefully, I trimmed the cradle to fit the winch to the bumper using a bolt up pattern. I spent a night welding in the mounts for the clevises. These mounts are three pieces of double welded ¼" plate welded to thick wall 1" i.d. pipe. The clevis pins may rip through the top of the pipe under a load to avoid this ½" steel rod was welded over the top of the pipe, 2 sections per mount. My plan called for using the pre-runner bar to carry compressed air between the two tanks so holes where drilled in the tanks where the pre runner uprights where to welded on. The top bar on the pre runner was cut to length and drilled tom match the uprights. The quick connect for the air tool was tapped into the back of the passenger side upright and a pressure gauge into the right side. All areas to be threaded were reinforced with another slab of ¼" plate. The light tabs were welded to the pre runner. The back of the pre runner has 3/8 steel fuel line welded to it to carry the light wiring and keep it out of the winch spool. The last step was to primer and paint the whole assembly.
Once the bumper was assembled the mounts had to be constructed. ¼ by 20" Plate steel was cut to conform to the frame rails and holes drilled to accommodate all of the needed bolts. The mounts were painted and bolted to the frame. A cherry picker was used to suspend the bumper to the front of the truck while we measured and leveled everything. When we were sure that everything was right the mount was tacked to the bumper. Everything was re-measured and then final welds were made.
Finally, here's a list of tools that you will need for a project like this:
- Good 220 Mig wire feed welder with wire and argon
- A torch for cutting
- A sawzall for cutting
- A steel band saw for the needed straight cuts 2 to 3 blades
- Magnetic welding arrow and clamps
- A large drill press and a quality bit assortment
- A good quality grinder
- A good quality hand drill
- Primer and paint
- Nuts bolts and sockets
- Tape measure and level
- A plasma cutter would be nice
