• RME Gear & Apparel

Plate bumper fab, size of steel?

Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
Considering building a plate bumper with a winch mount for my Land Cruiser... wondering what size plate to use. I've built a couple bumpers before and they've end up silly-heavy or kinda ugly. I want something that will protect the vehicle, but not weigh 300+ #'s. I won't be rock crawling with this thing, so the bumper won't be getting beat up constantly and doesn't need to be super beefy.

I'm thinking of using a winch plate (3/16") as the base, thick frame mounts (3/8"?) that are one piece and also extend thru the bumper to make recovery (d-ring) mounts, which may end up doubled up for strength. The part in question is the rest of the bumper, should I build it out of 1/8" plate or 3/16"? Perhaps a mix of both? I'd like to add some vertical plate supports inside the bumper and perhaps some boxing for strength.

Any suggestions?
 
Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
There's a guy building & selling these and I like the look, but he's out of bumpers for awhile.

i-86LtHwR.jpg


i-8h52HW7.jpg


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D

Deleted member 12904

Guest
Slcpunk on here has done a handful of awesome plate land cruser bumpers. I'll see if I can get him to post some pics. He likely still has all of his burn files for his plasma table also.
 
R

rockdog

Guest
How much does he sell them for Greg? If they are reasonably priced, I would just buy one. Without brakes to bend the 1/8" it will be hard to get the nice clean look of his bumper.
 
Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
rockdog said:
How much does he sell them for Greg? If they are reasonably priced, I would just buy one. Without brakes to bend the 1/8" it will be hard to get the nice clean look of his bumper.
Click to expand...

Around $600 for the complete bumper, $400 for a weld-up kit. The price of a weld-up is pretty affordable when he's done all the homework. The thing is that he won't have anything for a few more months... not that I'm in a rush, but....
 
D

Deleted member 12904

Guest
rockdog said:
How much does he sell them for Greg? If they are reasonably priced, I would just buy one. Without brakes to bend the 1/8" it will be hard to get the nice clean look of his bumper.
Click to expand...

This was whipped up from scrap and put on the end of my welding table. Bends 10ga just fine.


 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
I've made a number of bumpers and sliders over the years. I started with 5/8 brackets and 1/4 plate... Eek! The last round I moved to 1/4 or 3/16 brackets and 1/8 plate and I've been really happy with the change. I'm sure it will be great for your application :)
 
zmotorsports

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
I use .250" plate for the winch mounting/middle bottom plate, then .188" for the front and .125" for top and end caps. I probably could have used .125" for front and top but wanted something just a tad heavier on the front. Mounting plates to the Jeep are .375" x 4" and tie all the way through to the recover points. Same on rear bumper.

Here is just a shot of my front bumper prior to powder coating. In my build thread I have many more detailed pics of the sizes and progress.
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Make sure to post up some pics of the progress once you get rolling.

Mike.
 
R

rockdog

Guest
maveric said:
Fab shop here uses 3/16 for the face bars. Mostly used on full size rigs though.
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I'm not sure you have time to be surfing rme! Shouldn't you be out in a dry van pounding nails or something? :)
 
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