As I decided to
build rather than buy a Winch Bumper (I had already spent far
too much on this Ranger according to my wife), I tried to figure out
how much labor would be involved in cutting, bending, shaping
and welding sheet steel into some form of winch bumper. Most
quality winch bumpers are expensive, or so I thought! I had
been busting my
butt with a friend of mine, trying to save some money and attempting to build my own
for many weeks. I have had some success but the tough part was
yet to come. Enter Custom 4X4 Fabrication of Oklahoma City... |
Thanks to a thread
on Ranger-Forums.com, I stumbled onto Custom 4X4 Fabrication's
web site and was pleasantly surprised. I had several chats
with Mike, owner and product designer. Mike makes a quality
product but for Jeeps; he assured me that I could adapt them to a
Ranger. His prices are very reasonable considering the quality
of his product. I cut and fitted
the brush guard, added my stock fog lights and trial mounted the
bumper with winch and roller fairlead. Everything looked fine,
so off to be powdercoated! |
After powdercoating,
we brought everything back to the shop and started to
meticulously fit it together. I spent my entire Saturday
fitting, assembling and installing the bumper, winch and brush
guard. I also installed the original rock sliders the we built 6
months ago. It's been a long, tedious, seemingly
never ending
project (click the link or scroll to the bottom). I would do it again though... even though I spent more
than I had anticipated. The ability to make it the way I wanted
it and the fun of designing and fabricating was a BLAST! Enjoy
the story and pictures! |
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Sah-weeeet!
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Can't
believe it's done... |
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Close-up of
winch detail... |
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I gained
a significant amount of approach angle... |
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I had a Westin
Sportsman grille guard and we cut the blades so we could attach the upper portion of it
to Mike's basic Jeep ZJ bumper. The finished bumper is mounted
directly to my frame rails with new brackets that I fabricated
and I was able to eliminate the lower 11 inches of the
Westin's upright
blades to gain some added approach angle. The Milemarker PE8000 winch
and roller fairlead
are mounted to the ZJ's mounting system! I also have two 3/4"
D-Rings on the way for the bumper's tow points and a Warn
receiver tow point with D-Ring for the rear hitch. Thanks for
following along with my project... hope you enjoyed it! |
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THANK YOU! |
I'd like to wish a
sincere thank you to John Pellegrini, without whom
this probably wouldn't have even happened! John is a good friend
and fellow employee who has many years of welding and
fabrication experience and lays down one beautiful bead! I'd also
like to thank Dave Reis, my boss for letting me spend
long hours in the shop, out of the cold and snow, to get this
project completed. Thanks too, to Mike of Custom 4X4
Fabrication for cutting my project time by getting me the
"ZJ" shell built to my specs to fit the Ranger. And last, a
sincere thank you to my wife for putting up with
me being at the shop instead of at home where I belong! Also,
thanks to all the folks on rangerpowersports.com,
ranger-forums.com and therangerstation.com who offered ideas,
advice and solutions! |
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