Designing a winch bumper

[mdl]

Im going to be designing a winch bumper but i have a few questions before i begin on this. Ive searched around and found mixed ideas on what is acceptable or not.

1) I do want 3/4" D ring shackle recovery points. These are obviously welded into the bumper but right to the outside of the bumper or do they need to be directly attatched behind right into the frame?

2) will 1/4 be strong enough to use?

3) I was thining of using a tubular design for the main bones then building around it for the visuals. If i was going to do this, how would i seat everything down?

Im sorry if this sounds totally nooby, im by no means a welder or a designer. Im going to try my best to get this working and im having a friend who is great at welding do the actual work. Thanks for putting up with me

 

[DDCxj]

1. D-ring mounts are welded to the face of the bumper. I've never seen any with anything that goes behind the bumper. But you want them placed so they are as in-line with the fram as possible. That way the load is spread through the bumper mounting brackets and there isn't a great deal of stress on one specific location.

2. yes, plenty strong. If your using plate, I believe most bumpers have a mix of 3/16" and minimal 1/4" A full 1/4" bumper will be overkill and extremely heavy. With a tube bumper, I believe most are atleast .120 wall, but I'm not really sure on that.

3. That all depends on how you want it to look and as long as it functions like its supposed to. As long as the main part of the bumper that is going to take all the beating is strong enough, do whatever you want with the rest.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

1. D-ring mounts are welded to the face of the bumper. I've never seen any with anything that goes behind the bumper. But you want them placed so they are as in-line with the fram as possible. That way the load is spread through the bumper mounting brackets and there isn't a great deal of stress on one specific location.

no.....if you are using square/rectangle tubing, the d-ring mounts should go thru the tube and be welded on the face and the rear of the bumper.

if not using tubing, the d-ring mounts should be part of the mounting brackets to the "framerail"

welding only to the face of the bumper is not a good idea :wave:

 

[DDCxj]

Sorry, should have specified. I was talking about steel plate, not square tubing. I've never done that nor really looked at one with square tubing. So I can't comment on the square tubing.

All of the plate and C-Channel bumper I have seen and helped build had the d-ring mounts welded to the face of the bumper directly in front of the bumper bracketswith reinforcing where the bumper brackets meet the bumper. Sorry, no pictures, but if you can viualize d-ring mount welded to 1/4" c-channel bumper, directly behind the d-ring mount/c-channel was 1/4" plate welded to the back of the bumper, and 1/4" bumper brackets welded to that.

This was a bumper I helped a co-worker build for a Land Rover, it gets used about every weekend and never had a problem. The guy does a lot of fabrication so I assumed that was the right way to do it, but if not, than scratch everything I've said. But once again, I've never worked with square tubing so i wouldn't know anything about that.

 

[XJoachim]

D-ring mounts should be a plate that mounts directly to the frame. They should be the attachment points for the whole bumper. Means you attach 2 big plates of steel to the frame and weld the bumper around those 2 plates.

 

[GirlScout1]

Granted mine is not a winch bumper but wehn we did the D ring tabs we did like everyone else says. We went through the bumper. Basically we cut slots in the bumper, ran the mounting bracket through the bumper and plated it on both sides. works just fine.

 

[apsdad]

I am planning on building a bumper with a hitch receiver. It will be two 2" x 3" x .120 recangular tubes spaced 2-1/2 inches apart. (3 inch dim parallel to ground. They will mount to two custom frame brackets made of 5/16 and 1/4 steel plate and go all the way back to the 3/4 hole behind the steering box. All brackets will have gussets for strength and have 1/2' nuts welded on for the bumper and the tow hooks. The square tube will be mounted to the brackets with Grade 8 1/2' bolts going through the tube. Each hole will have a 3 inch piece of schedule 80 pipe through the tube to prevent tube collapse (welded of course). On the outside will be a 2" strip of 1/4 plate (vertical) as a bolt plate.
I'm also welding D-rings to these bolt plates for tie-downs. The frame brackets will have tow hook mounts for recovery, and the hitch receiver can also be used as a pull point. There will also be a stiffener going between the frame rails to add support for the hitch receiver. I plan on a receiver mounted hitch so it can be mounted either front or rear.
I haven't started fab on it yet, as I'm now welding up a set of nerf bars/rock sliders.

 

[043500]

Here's what I did on mine...

http://www.floridajeepers.net/viewtopic.php?t=17784&highlight=bumper


Still don't have winch. Should have a stinger/brushguard on it in a few weeks. Eventually it will be tied into an exo-cage (when $$ allows). I built the tray like this to keep the winch below the grill. The tray itself is the only part that sitcks out beyond where the stock bumper did (and only by 3") but I gained a fair bit of ground clearance compared to the stock bumper. It's already taken a few good hits and has pulled (and been pulled) many times. Cost me (including all the steel for the rear bumper) $140 total.

The only good thing about not having a winch yet is it's nice little tool/parts tray when I'm working under the hood.

 

[vetteboy]

This was just a mockup I did, but here's what everyone's talking about w/the shackle mount.

There's really no reason to have anything larger than 1/4" at the frame rail. Typically what I've done is bring the one piece through like that, and then where it comes through on the front weld another piece of 1/4" on either side of it. The 1/4" itself is strong enough in shear, the remaining 1/2" distributes it evenly across the shackle pin and helps it to not bend when pulling from the side.

Like this, but one on each side.

 

[88XJScott]

Square tubing is real easy to work with. I've used 1.5x1.5x1/8" wall for my front and rear bumpers and rock sliders. My tabs on the front were face welded, which I would not prefer, but they are like 3/4" thick, so I was able to get two passes on each side, so they will hold. The rear bumper has 3/8" plate that has been cut and fit into the tubing so there is lots of surface area for the weld.

 

[massxj]

http://detoursusa.com/images/xjbackbone02.jpg

 

[creeperjeep]

i like that last winch bumper