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1988 K5 the "Big Blue" compromise

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Well, made it through Christmas. Hopefully Everybody had a good one.

I guess it is time. Bumper time! I have sooooo many photos. I will try to sift out the good ones. Also, by this point in the evolution of the blazer, it was no longer stock, and half the parts on it had been changed or swapped. Im changing the cover photo on this thread!
 
This was back when T-Max winches were still around out of Australia. They were getting pretty good reviews, and I pulled the trigger on a 10,000lb flavored one. They have since then been sold and absorbed/ rebranded as the smittlybuilt line that 4wheel parts sells. that was several years ago now- im sure the more recent smittybuilts don't have as much in common with my old t-max now.

Now, just need to figure out how to get it on to my truck and and functioning!
 
Recent trail repairs had left me wanting a flat bumper platform to stand on, and i didnt much want to have the winch out front, loud and proud style. I was gravitating towards keeping the winch under the core support, and behind the bumper...

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this was going to take some beer and a lot of hard "through the beer thinking" before starting the project. Needed to be able to wire the the winch and access the cables, free spool lever, and i did not like how the fairlead was going to be!

It was either here on CK5, or on pirate, or maybe Ih8MUD (maybe all three!), but i posted some pictures and got some good feedback before starting anything.

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My Air compressor needed upgrading at home, and I had my eyes on craigslist... found a 230 volt twin piston oiless (meh.) with 30 gallon tank close to home. It put out 10.5 scfm @90psi to run my impacts and my other air tools... and, it also seemed to satisfy the requirements for another toy i had been eyeballing at the time...

So My buddy Jeff and i went down to some guy's shop to get this compressor- it was an almost new devilbliss -same one that sears put the craftsman name on - my buddy and his dad had one that I had borrowed before. -100 bucks? sold. I will take it. Mine.

also, the guy was closing the fabrication side of the business and renting that half of warehouse floor. They designed and built slides and chutes for aggregate conveyors. He let us FILL the bed floor of my friends poor 1/2 ton Chevy with FREE mild steel plate and sheet. 4'x8' 1/8" sheets... 4'x6' 3/16" sheets... 20"x48" 1/4" plates... 20"x48" 3/8 plates...

YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeAAAAAAAHHHHH :D score! :pimp::pimp::pimp::pimp::pimp:
 
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in hindsight I screwed up. He had also been offering to sell to us (CHEEEEEP) similar sized remnants of AR500...

we were like "ar5-what??"

He said they used it for any surfaces that aggregate would contact- everything else wouldn't hold up. BUT, he also told us this would be torch cut and weld ONLY- said there was no way we were going to be drilling, or cutting and shaping that stuff with a grinder or saw.

We were tired from loading all the mild steel and did not think we wanted to get into the ar500 for anything. we left it there, and I have regretted ever since- all my friends have been buying shooting targets made out of that stuff.
 
With all the free steel, i pretty much abandoned the idea of a tube bumper, and started thinking about building one more similar to the ARB bumper we put on my friend's Lexus. But, i wanted the winch hidden up high and tight, with feet forward so i dont have to worry about bolts shearing, and wanted the overall package to be stronger, higher than the stock bumper, have better approach angles, and provide a platform for me to stand on if needed, AND it needs tow points AND it needs to look good, AND... AND...
 
I went on Ebay and stole an auction out from under somebody... chinese plasma torch for $200 including delivery! -that was cheap even compared to cheap!
 
I was going to need to remove and remotely locate the solenoids from the winch, and if i disassembled it, and flipped/rotated EVERYTHING, I could get the winch positioned how I wanted it -like this:

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I had to end the "beer design" phase, and ACTUALLY START building somewhere, so i gutted the winch so it would be lighter weight for mockup, mounted it and the fairlead to a 5/16 plate, and bolted 1/4 inch plates to the frame ears and started welding.
 
At times, this was like building my own jigsaw puzzle, and i was having a lot of fun with the new plasma torch. Carboard and Masonite templates first, then blast the steel parts right out!

I was thinking about what would happen if i pulled up square to the face of a pile of rocks, or a dirt embankment- didn't want the winch to take the full abuse of the truck sliding over things or ramming into things...

All steel sticking out forward from the winch plate is 5/16 steel to stiffen it and keep the area supported while pushing/hitting things.

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lots of tack welding. I did not want to fully weld anything unless it was getting buried by some other structure- that way i could hammer something back off if I changed my mind
 
I also did not want the entire bumper held to the truck by the 2 welds between the winch plate, and the side plates that were bolted to the frame ears... just how hard IS 10,000 lbs of pulling force?

so i went up inside with some angle iron, and capped the weld point across the face, down the sides of the plates, and incorporating a few of the bolt holes. and then weld weld WELD WELD IT ALL!


I was then fairly confident teh winch would not rip itself through its own mounting... and I had four 9/16 grade 8 fine thread bolts connecting to each frame ear.


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So the winch area was coming together, and the fairlead was going to be recessed and protected as best i could...
but how to incorporate shackles into all of this? I wanted them far enough from the center that they would not be the leading edge/tip of the spear...

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I also decided that rather than buy cheap 3/4 inch shackles, i could buy American made 5/8 shackles with comparable or higher WLL, and smaller overall size. They would stay further back than the leading edge of the bumper, hang higher than the sliding plane the lower bumper would form, and more straps and cable ends would be able to fully snap over and fully attach to the loop? I think what I ended up with came from PEER LIFT and have 3/4 inch cross pins, and a 5 ton safe WLL
 
so I cut, grooved and pounded part of the face back until it was squared up with the truck, and then capped the hole I had opened up with a piece of flat steel. I then had a flat area to work with

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