Hi Everyone.

I got a good deal on this Road Armor/ Iron Cross Home built bumper for a Ram 1500. The guy that sold it to me said he designed it with NO winch fairlead opening in front, so he wasnt sure if a winch would have room behind because of radiator. Looking at some bumpers, I can tell that they extend out a little or a winch. The exception is that my 96 ram has a 2" body lift which raises the radiator up 2" as well. The winch is not huge either, a WARN 8000lbs. with removable solenoid control box. Please give me your ideas of mounting methods to conceal the winch behind this bumper, or if you think it will even be possible to go this route with this bumper. I am hopeful it will work .! Thanks for your ideas!!

 

Mount the bumper, then measure. Compare those measurements the the dimentions of the winch. If the winch is smaller, than it will fit with a little fab work for the fairlead hole and mounting. If the winch is bigger, either no winch or fab up some new brackets or extensions to push the bumper further from the truck to make room.

 

I second kejobe's comments.

Priority 1 being mounting to the frame. Don't go any thinner than .25" in the case of having to do some form of extension. Then I'd box-in that backside (in between the clevis') to strengthen the fairlead section. Hard to provide any other useful comments not knowing what the thickness material was used. Dimensions may be similar to those stated, but doesn't mean the same thickness plate was used.

You might try finding a store that has these local or someone around you and see if you can take some measurements. My buddy has an Alien Patrol that also mimics that design. He has a 3" BL which means the mount brackets take that into account. I could get some dimensions, but I can't guarantee any time soon. So you'll have to account for 2" BL if the bumper was not designed with a BL in mind.

 

Thanks very much for the input! I do know that the winch designed bumpers do mount to the front of the bumper between the clevis as you pointed out, so glad you reminded me to reinforce that section. Then yes I imagine have a welder bracket it up to the frame with the required space left for the winch. The bumper is 3/16" steel by the way.

 

What about mounting your winch in the bed of the truck? Or, get a front hitch receiver welded to the bumper and mount your winch on a plate that can be secured to the receiver and then you get the benefit of a front and rear winch. The other plus to having a wich on a hitch is that you can leave it at home when you do not need it and not have anyone want to take it off the truck. Hope you get it worked out, and that it looks good when it is done.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but I believe the whole idea of having one of these bumpers is to conceal a winch. Also thanks for the input, because now I realize i have an ALIEN PATROL bumper.

 

i would sell the 8000 and upgrade to a 12 thousand at least 8000 is minimum for a jeep

 

i wouldn't waste time trying to sell a 8000# winch for a 12k# winch. just get a couple ****** blocks that are rated for 10,000# and call it done.

 

if you have only seen the carnage these winches can do if you do not get one rated equal for the vehicle the snach blocks are not a substitute they are ment for use with a winch that can handle your rig also if you were getting a snach block it would have to be at least 15000lbs. a 10000 lbs one would be a good paper weight

i have had a friend killed because he didnt get a winch properly suited to his rig the cable snaped and hit him because he wnted to save a few extra bucks

my apoliges for thread jacking and ranting

 

Get some better pics up here. Use photobucket or imageshack as an offsite photo location. Then use the [ img] tags to paste here.






Being that there are a ton of jeeps and toyotas out there that wouldn't mind an 8K winch....it's just a matter of finding the right venue for it to sell or even partial trade+cash.