khaos
New Member
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- 2,907
- Location
- Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Today, because I'm both skint and tight, I set about modifying my defender bumper to make it into a winch bumper to take my shiny new 13000lb winch. I thought I'd share it with you because I know how much you like piccies and I might give you some inspiration to make your own rather than pay the extortionate prices for a terrafirma or similar. The bumper is home made to start with but not buy me. It's 4.5 inch diameter pipe with about a 4mm wall. It cost me £50 last year from a show from that guy with the huge red trailer with them all up the side. (I don't know him but honestly if you ever want a bumper buy one from him they're fantastic quality and cheap.) I spent £10 on hammerite and then everything else used came from scrap bins. I did cheat and get a 6mm winch plate plasma cut for free but if you can get one for £30 off eblag them the bumper still costs less than £100. I'll be adding pictures as I go and writing out the steps I take. Who knows, someone might find this useful.
Tools used:
Masking tape
Pen
Angle grinder
Welder
Right, the long awaited step one:
The first pictures show what I'm working with. The bumper is a garage made job but not by me. First of all I measured up my winch and looked up the mounting hole sizes in the manual. I then sent a sketch to someone who plasma cut me a bottom plate, a front plate and two rounded side plates that would fill in the gaps where I will later cut my round bumper. The parts are made from 6mm steel for strength.
The first thing I did was to measure where the plate that the fairlead will be attached to needs to be. I then welded it on. As you can see, it's not in the middle. That's because I want my winch plate to sit central on my bumper and the motor is longer than the gearbox.
Step two:
I measured up my bumper. I wanted the plate to sit exactly half way down the bumper. This is both for strength and to keep my approach angle high. I find that a lot of winch bumpers actually reduce approach angle. To make my markings clearer I put masking tape on my bumper and then marked it with a pen. When I was happy, I cut the shape out with an angle grinder.
Step three:
I welded side pieces to the winch plate to protect the winch from side impacts. I could have cut them shorter but I think they look good so I left them long.
Step four:
I then welded the plate into my bumper and finished off every weld. I also added plate to the mounting points to strengthen them. I plan to add more mounting brackets for strength like you see on proper bumpers.
Step five:
I keyed then sprayed the bumper using sating hammerite. (Don't use it, it's too thick to spray so it's a nightmare to stop it running.) I'm going to have it powder coated next year I think.
In total the bumper owes me £60.49. I think it looks meaner and it's easily stronger than most bumpers. Opinions welcome.
Tools used:
Masking tape
Pen
Angle grinder
Welder
Right, the long awaited step one:
The first pictures show what I'm working with. The bumper is a garage made job but not by me. First of all I measured up my winch and looked up the mounting hole sizes in the manual. I then sent a sketch to someone who plasma cut me a bottom plate, a front plate and two rounded side plates that would fill in the gaps where I will later cut my round bumper. The parts are made from 6mm steel for strength.
The first thing I did was to measure where the plate that the fairlead will be attached to needs to be. I then welded it on. As you can see, it's not in the middle. That's because I want my winch plate to sit central on my bumper and the motor is longer than the gearbox.
Step two:
I measured up my bumper. I wanted the plate to sit exactly half way down the bumper. This is both for strength and to keep my approach angle high. I find that a lot of winch bumpers actually reduce approach angle. To make my markings clearer I put masking tape on my bumper and then marked it with a pen. When I was happy, I cut the shape out with an angle grinder.
Step three:
I welded side pieces to the winch plate to protect the winch from side impacts. I could have cut them shorter but I think they look good so I left them long.
Step four:
I then welded the plate into my bumper and finished off every weld. I also added plate to the mounting points to strengthen them. I plan to add more mounting brackets for strength like you see on proper bumpers.
Step five:
I keyed then sprayed the bumper using sating hammerite. (Don't use it, it's too thick to spray so it's a nightmare to stop it running.) I'm going to have it powder coated next year I think.
In total the bumper owes me £60.49. I think it looks meaner and it's easily stronger than most bumpers. Opinions welcome.
Attachments
Last edited:
I made mine
