Simple winch bumper build.

This will be my first winch bumper, I wanted simple strong and effective, this is what I've got so far, hopefully tomorrow i will have it finished, all the material I used today has been 1/4" plating

I got this idea from JCR Offroad, they said its not the bolts that make the 3 hole bumpers weak, it's the thin material it's bolted to... So i have a 1/4" plate that uses all the holes, then for my bumper mounts it uses 1/4" plate and only the front 3


I wanted it to sit low enough to clear most of my grille but high enough to not effect my approach angle to much


Yes that's a badlands winch plate but I'm gusseting all the places I think are a problem issue with bending.


How high it will sit


I cut off the front and cut the bottom to a 45 degree angle( used the 45's for gussets)


I added gussets to the bottom to help with any other flex


That's all I have for now, but I'm hoping to close off the bottom and hide the gussets tomorrow. im going to add plates next to the winch itself for some lights and maybe a small stinger to help protect the winch.
im going to make it functional tomorrow but ill need a tubing bender to finish it completely.

Any questions suggestions comments concerns are welcome. Maybe some pointers.


I used the keep it simple stupid method for this bumper, hopefully it works out and doesn't taco under a load.

Why not trim the grill to allow you to pull it back.some more. Will keep your angles better and put winch on top of bolts instead of in front of them.

The thought originally crossed my mind, I was going to lower it more and suck it next to the cross member under the grille, but with all the wires I needed to run I just went and kept it simple

I know closer to the bolts would create less flex but that's why I'm adding gussets everywhere for compensation

Grilles are cheap. Cut yours.

If I could rebuild mine I would take their advice while its still unfinished, I was dumb and used 2" dom as my main front bumper, then used the same dom against the crossmember as an underneath support for my top plate... well, it sits 1/2" from the grill so I tucked everything quite nicely, according to my original plan it couldn't have come out better. But seeing it after its done I would have sucked the whole thing back 2", the bumper sticks out 7" from the front of the grill which isn't terrible, but 5" would have been nicer had I thought it through better.

I had to have that certain gap between the two pieces of dom.to be able to bolt down the winch, had I used angle and drilled through my top plate and the angle for the rear winch mounts I could have made it a bunch smaller.

Just food for thought...

Either cut the grill and suck the winch back into the grill



Or cut the crossmember and put the winch under there.

Other than adding tube, this is it, I gusseted the fairlead mount for strength.

I was going to go under but it was a tight fit for the front winch bolts.

Bumper weighs just under 40 lbs and winch is just over 60lbs this is my $29 get me by winch bumper until I have more time to do the modifications everyone suggested earlier.

Not bad for $29. Are you planning to add sides or keep it as a stubby? I can already picture broken lights....

If you taper it back on the edges(from the fairlead to the mount plates) youll save yourself a ton of clearance.

TRAILREADYXJ said:

Not bad for $29. Are you planning to add sides or keep it as a stubby? I can already picture broken lights....

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Yeah, that's this weekend imma tube the corners with 1.25 tubing and brace it , I'm also goin to add a short stinger too possibly

Looks good, I was gonna say, here in UT the bumper has to extend to the outside body line to pass safety. But you are already planning on addressing that.

I got pulled over when I was building my bumper because I didn't have a front.bumper... pulled it to check my bolt hole measurements then drove it without one for 3 days and got busted. Luckily the cop was cool and I showed him progress pics on my phone to let me off with a warning.

Ideally this will be basically the look I'm going for, only slightly different .

kinda like this?



I just sucked mine back for most clearance

Breezio69 said:

Looks good, I was gonna say, here in UT the bumper has to extend to the outside body line to pass safety. But you are already planning on addressing that.

I got pulled over when I was building my bumper because I didn't have a front.bumper... pulled it to check my bolt hole measurements then drove it without one for 3 days and got busted. Luckily the cop was cool and I showed him progress pics on my phone to let me off with a warning.

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Move out of the USSR, that sounds like bullshit to me.

Didnt get a whole lot more done today but it's still progress

I still have to brace it but the rain is killing me

Time to brace it up

I also ran a cross brace to hold the corner so it didnt bend in on the corners

Taking shape

Got the stinger tacked up but ran out of sunlight

Not sure if its too far forward, I'm kinda irritated at my flat bend from my harbor freight bender


I'll finish the supports tomorrow and hopefully paint it up. Overall I'm pretty happy with it!, thanks for the stinger idea in4aride!!

Having actually used a stinger to push the front end around on a rock...
Id move the mounting points to the forward edge of the bumper, if you push with it how you have it, it will just allow the front edges of the bumper plates to dig in and hold you up.
Angle is a lil far for my liking.... but thats just a personal aesthetics thing.

in4aride said:

Having actually used a stinger to push the front end around on a rock...
Id move the mounting points to the forward edge of the bumper, if you push with it how you have it, it will just allow the front edges of the bumper plates to dig in and hold you up.
Angle is a lil far for my liking.... but thats just a personal aesthetics thing

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That's a good call, as far as moving it forward to the outer edge, I don't have the tube wrapping around so I would have to weld it to the winch plate itself to actually have it in front. I just hope I don't have to push around a rock lol. It's as far forward as it is cause I was holding it by myself when I tacked it and it sat best there where I saddled the pipe . It's a little far for me too but I hate welding huge gaps... It's growing on me

I think if you put inside edges of stinger against outside edges of the plate, but still on top of the side tubes, it would line up nice and get you the push ability.

Ya pushing off it sucks lol

in4aride said:

I think if you put inside edges of stinger against outside edges of the plate, but still on top of the side tubes, it would line up nice and get you the push ability.

Ya pushing off it sucks lol

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I'll have to see about that, I just gotta cut it down some and make it more vertical, kill 2 Birds with 1 stone