DIY winch bumper, ideas? Designs?

[Jay18]

I'm looking at making my own winch bumper as it seems it would be cheaper than buying one and I can make it a nice fit to go with the width of my arches..

So.. Any ideas? Designs or advise of any sort?

I don't actually have a winch to build one around so how much space would I need to allow for the winch?..

And what thickens steel do I need to use? Don't want it to be too heavy though..

If you have one for sale fairly cheap then I may be interested...

[Tramp]

I have no idea about winch bumpers, but I've always fancied a winch, I wanted to mount a plate to the chassis, with a fold in it that butts up against the original bumper, then I want to slot the original bumper and mount the fair lead in the folded section of the mounting plate so it's flush with the bumper, hopefully it would almost be invisible (except for the hook) - the down side would be I would have to use a fairly low profile/compact winch like a champion, rather than a warn

[Jay18]

well the zuk doesnt weigh much anyway so a small winch should be anough really, i am looking at using one of these plate as my starting point?


Click Here for Ebay Listing

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Winch-Plate-U ... 5d442cf659

then build around it once it is mounted to the chassis rails, it says its steel so should be able to weld to it to make some strong brackets to bolt up to the chassis...

[Jordi]

Winch bumpers usually have a stronger middle section, 6mm plate or thicker, for the winch to mount on. This also has the strong bumper mounts on the back and recovery points on the front.

[timwilks13]

Its not the weight of the zuk that matters so be careful with small winches, when you're stuck in mud you can be adding a ton of extra pulling weight, then if your stuck and winching up hill your zuk will suddenly weigh an awful lot as far as winching is concerned.

[Jay18]

thanks guys its looking to be expensive now so will be making a normal bumper instead, thinking of something simple like this...

CBI3.jpg (49.18 KiB) Viewed 13303 times

[kiwizook]

simple he said

that's actually quite a skilled bumper there my friend. I remeber seeing a bumper built on here that seemed to be quite nice, maybe it was mike's truck. just have a look through e few people's build threads

[Jay18]

well when i said simple, i meant the look of it, i know that actually making it will be far from simple haha

and without a sheet metal bender its going to be very interesting lol, i did find a build thread where someone made their own winch bumper built into the chassis rails on the front, id like mine to be removable though but that would be that hard to adapt the design...

if anyone knows which thread it was please tell me! lol

[Jordi]

simple he said

that's actually quite a skilled bumper there my friend. I remeber seeing a bumper built on here that seemed to be quite nice, maybe it was mike's truck. just have a look through e few people's build threads

It is a nice looking bumper though.

[Jay18]

yep i think im going to use a length of 4" x 2" box section as the starting point and work from that, i really like the look of it and think it will look really nice on my zuk, sorry to whoever owns the zuk in the pic but i am copying your bumper haha

well im going to try my best to copy it anyway...