I had always planned on building a custom front bumper capable of supporting a winch, but, I didn’t own a winch and for years, the stock bumper worked just fine. There were many other areas that got the attention of the customizer first. But, while returning from a trip to Moab UT in the spring of 2000, just 20 miles from my house, a deer decided to jump in front of me and take out the stock bumper. At least that was all the damage it did! Still, I left it smashed in for awhile, and then I finally just removed it and ran that way for awhile. My wife insisted I have a bumper on for towing a float in a local parade, so I did what I had seen certain Colorado rigs do and chopped the ends off the bumper, pounded what was left back into shape, and installed a shorty (see picture above). This was run for a short while 'till I finally got off my butt and built the solid piece of protection described below. J

Previously built custom rear bumper

Custom front bumper (unpainted)

I had previously modified the front fenders and fender flares to run flush with the bottom of the turn signal lights, so one of the design priorities was for the bumper to extend around the front of the turn signals and run back to the flares for protection of this vital fiberglass and plastic area. I also wanted the new bumper to tuck up high in the corners and angle back on the bottom center for clearance. The bumper needed to be able to mount a winch and I had an idea of how I would like to mount a winch to a plate that could mount to the front and back bumpers. I decided I wanted to mount the winch flat on top of the front bumper instead of to the front of the front bumper, yet it would need to mount flat to the face of the rear bumper. My plan was to make a right angle plate of 3/8" steel to which the winch would mount. This plate would then mount to the front bumper by sliding in two channels from the front and would install on the rear bumper (as described on  http://www.jeepin.com) by sliding into some channels from the top. After making some measurements of the truck and various winches, checking out many other bumpers, and visualizing the new bumper, I started construction.

 Bumper top from front, bumper top from end, and bumper bottom welds show the completed top portion welded together. Even though I was being very careful, the ends of this piece managed to warp down a little from the welding heat. I decided to just leave the top alone as it wasn’t that bad, but if you are trying to fabricate something similar, BEWARE !