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Rear Winch Bumper design thoughts...

T

TwiztedEngineering

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Hey all,

We've been getting a number of questions about K5 rear bumpers recently, especially since we released the front "Winch Cradle". What sort of designs does everyone like? I was thinking of three major directions to choose from:
  • A Simple (and inexpensive) Winch Mount that would be similar to our front winch cradle - something that could be used on it's own or as a solid base to build your own full bumper off of.
  • A full fabricated sheetmetal (3/16" probably) bumper with winch mount integrated into it.
  • A full tubular bumper with little sheetmetal, except to mount the winch.
I would prefer to stay away from the tubular style, as it's been done many times over, and it's also very time-consuming to bend & notch all the pieces of tubework, therefore driving up the price. I do like the looks however.

If we were to do the full fabricated sheetmetal bumper, I can keep the price reasonable, make it look nice & beefy, but Shipping gets really expensive and if I make it line up with stock body panels, then what does everyone do that has modified their rear quarters?

The "winch cradle" style is the cheapest and most versatile, but it would not be a quick bolt-on bumper that offers full protection.

SO, there is my dilemma, what style to build (or build first at least). I am leaning towards a sheetmetal (3/16") winch cradle that mainly just covers between the framerails - leaving the rest up to the consumer if they decide they want more. What are your thoughts?

-Darren
 
Well the cradle seems popular because most people are going to design their own bumper. Not everyone has the same idea of what looks good. The full bumper would be nice as well. I think maybe you should do all three. Let us see all three. You know someone will buy anything you buy and this way you can see exactly what we think
 
I say a cradle with optional side pieces of different design so it's modular.
One center section but bolt on side pieces should also help on shipping cost.
 
I like all the ideas but here are my thoughts that I wish someone would do if possible. I don't really have the need for a winch in the rear. It would be nice for someone to build a semi custom nice looking and functional 3/16 bumper that would fit all Gens of blazers. I'd imagine that all Gens are about the same width except the frame rail mounting locations. To get around this you have the main section of the bumper all the same for all Gens of blazers but you make a "standard/universal" plate mounting bracket that the customer can modify, grind, drill mounting bolt holes into and fab to his liking/needs/fitment. Then the customer can use the plate from you that he modified and weld the main part of the bumper to the brackets. Given that there are only probably several inches of difference in frame rail widths it seems like an easy thing to do. However, I'm not a prof fab guy either.

In doing so, and done right, you open yourself up to that many more customers with first gen blazers or trucks. Just a thought.
 
I say do all 3 options. The more products that fit our model trucks means more options for us buyers. And that is a good thing.
 
What about a non winch option? Realistically I think most dont run a rear winch. I have always loved the simple steel bumpers that a few run here. Something made in the dimensional area of 2"x6" with a hitch receiver built in and ultra strong clevis points
 
I am not in the market for a bumper, but I throw my .02 in anyhow.

If you develop & market the cradle first, You could then build a tube bumper or sheetmetal one off that cradle if you wanted too later. That would help keep cost down because all the bumpers you built would use the same center.
 
mnstrburbon said:
Any updates??
Click to expand...

Well, the Blazer that I was going to design off of was taken back right after he brought it because his daily driver broke down, and I didn't have a chance to do anything in the short time it was here. I'm waiting for him to bring it back now, as I'm pretty sure he just finally got his car fixed back up again. Of course now we are in winter here, so I'm going to have to work something out with him in between snow storms :)

-Darren
 
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