Jsmarine's custom winch bumper

[jsmarine]

finished!

Well I finally finished my winch bumper today. Yesterday my brother and I got the bumper all welded up, put in the fog lamp holes (which turned out really good by the way), and prepped it for paint. Today I primered it, then painted with with under-body coating for a textured look and got it all mounted and ready to use. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[jsmarine]

the rest of the pictures

 

[jsmarine]

As you can see, I decided to go with just a hoop on the front, and used square tubing instead of round for a different look.

 

[JohnsD90]

Looks great, finally people are catching on that winch bumpers are supposed to have winches.

 

[legokcen]

That really looks amazing. I just bought a welder recently and hopefully I'll be able to do things like that sometime. You're an artist. I think you could market those. I'd love one.

 

[jsmarine]

Yep, and what jump started this bumper build for me was a $50 instant rebate on a Smitybuilt 8000k winch at 4wheelparts. They are normally $300, which is a great price anways, but $50 off is even better.

 

[jsmarine]

Well I must say I did design it, and did a lot of work on it, but Im not a great welder! My brother is though, he did a lot of the welding. He armours vehicles for a living and is certified in many types of welding, I have to give him props on this one. I did a lot making templetes, measureing, cutting and grinding, but my brother did a great job of welding, really nice looking welds!

 

[jsmarine]

As far as marketing, I thought I might be able to sell some like mine, but I don't know now! It is a lot of work! I know what the cost is in metal, but the time it took would be hard to put a price on! Probably a total 100 hours of labor (from design to completion) over 5 weekends!

 

[KellyJ]

Looks great, amazing work. Could we get some night shots?

 

[jsmarine]

sure, as soon as it gets dark I will snap a few pics

 

[Fireball]

Major props man, that thing looks fantastic! It has a similar look to the Shrockworks bumper to which I am (obviously) partial.

Especially nice work integrating the fog lights and turn signals. Any idea how much the thing weighs? I haven't install my SW front bumper yet, and wondering how much front end sag I can expect.

In regards to selling them, I think you have to ask yourself how long would it take to make the 2nd one? The 3rd, the 4th or 5th? Then once you get it down pat, how long does it take to make 5 at a time? A batch of 10? Etc, etc. If you can get the hours down to a reasonable number, multiply that by a fair labor rate (or at least one you'd be happy with), add in your materials and come up with a number in the sub $1000 range I think you could definately sell some of them.

 

[jsmarine]

I think the bumper weighs about 150 lbs, with the winch probably 250. I will probably need to get some heavier duty springs, but for now I havent really noticed much front in sag at all, maybe just a tad but its sits pretty level. I can feel it though when driving, it does feel heavier in the front.

 

[4runr30]

I must admit when I saw the title "Custom Winch Bumper" I thought what kinda jack leg crap is this guy putting together. Man I couldnt have been more wrong. That is the cleanest homemade bumper ive seen to date. Great job!:cheers:

 

[manhunter]

Great job JS, that looks awesome. The guys that built mine put in about 100 hours labor, but most of that was in design and trial and error. With my tube bumper, the winch, then the budbuilt skid plate, my front-end sagged almost two inches below the rear. I replaced my Rancho RS5000 shocks with the heavier Rancho Quiklift shocks on the front, then the RS9000XL's on the rear. Made a big difference in the ride and it leveled things off. Also, BTW, a group of us are going out to Bridgeport on Sunday, April 18 to spend a day wheeling. See if you can work it in to your schedule so the group can meet you, and also see your handi-work in person.

 

[(4)runnin'it]

speechless... that thing is amazing, your rig is amazing.

 

[techno]

Impressive bumper, certainly one of the nicest looking homemade ones I've seen. The square tubed center frame is different, still deciding if I like that or not. Gives it a tougher appearance but I'll have to look at it for longer before I give it the full thumbs up . Glad you didn't go with outer frames around the headlights. I don't think you would have had much room to tie them into the wings neatly and still retain sufficient body clearance.

Good luck resisting the urge to bump into things now, you know, things like shopping carts, small trees, Smart Cars, etc...

 

[brian2sun]

Really great job man! I think that is the best and cleanest looking home-fabbed bumper I've seen yet! I think it would honestly look better without the hoop altogether, but that's just my opinion, still a really awesome job!

 

[jsmarine]

Well I wasn't sure about the square tube either when my brother suggested it, but I like the way it turned out. Plus we don't own a tube bender so this is the best we could think of

 

[MillerPKA]

Would have left the hoop off until I could get some tube bended then add it later, sort of takes away from the rest of it in my honest opinion. Besides that lookin good. Reminds me to get my winch in mine haha

 

[jsmarine]

Yes I should be able to make it on April 19th, that would be cool. I am also planning on going to the meeting on April 9th down in Mansfield too, are planning on attending that one?