Winch Bumper Construction
August 31st, 2004
For the last few weekends I have been building a winch bumper. I plan to mount Milemarker's 10,500 lb hydraulic winch. I read a great article on it a few weeks ago, and for my use I feel that it will greatly outperform any comparable electric winch.
This is the frame horn...you can see the shackle that I need to work around.
I started with 4 pieces of 3/8" x 8" x 16" flat bar. I drilled three 9/16" holes using my drill press to accommodate the mounting bolts. I drilled all 4 pieces simultaneously to get the holes to line up exactly. Then I torched out some notches to accommodate the shackle and tack-welded the bar to the frame horn. This will allow me to drill the frame horns and run bolts through both pieces of flat bar.
I did quite a bit of work before remembering to take some pictures....
I cut off the bottom of the flat bar at about 45 degrees, I then notched them to allow for the placement of the square tubing. Then I tacked it all in place.
Triangles make stuff strong!
Now it's off to the welder to burn in the work that's been done so far....more to come later.
September 12th, 2004
Well...I went to the local welding shop to get everything burned into place a couple of weeks ago...he did a pretty good job. Now I have welded on the center plate that will be the winch mount, it is 3/8" inch plate....the rain rusted things up a little:
I added some ends to protect things out to the end of the fender:
September 19th, 2004
I also discovered that I can only draw a decent bead [well....sorta decent] in a horizontal position. I weld like crap when vertical, and forget about trying inverted....So I removed the bumper from the Bronco so that I could weld things up properly by moving the bumper around so that my welds were all horizontal. After welding up the end pieces, I added some plate:
I cleaned up the welds and then added some additional spot welds to fill in some low spots:
The next step is to brace up the ends of the bumper....later this week:
September 24th, 2004
The ends are braced up and I have cut out some templates for plating the ends:
Cut out the end plates and tack them in place:
Some welding and lots of grinding....they are in place:
After a little paint....it is back on the Bronco:
Still a few things to go...for a later day...
October 1st, 2004
I added some tow hooks and started covering in the top. I plan to finish off the bumper by welding some expanded steel [mesh] into the open spaces on the top of the bumper. I will not be adding any light bars or grill protection until after I finish swapping in the 460 later this year.
Update: April 20, 2005
The 460 engine swap is nearing completion and the winch [purchased on ebay] has been installed. Check it out here.