scout bumper build

[scout man]

Here it is. I hinted at it in another thread, but didnt want to post any pics until it was in a mostly competed state. The idea was to mount an 8274 in a front receiver hitch in a way that it was removable, yet looked permanent. Along with this I wanted to make sure to have a plenty strong tow point, as well as maintain as much approach angle as possible. I am also a fan of very stout bumpers. Light it is not, but I feel I succeeded on the sttrong part. I would guess the bumper weighs 120 pounds overall.


1. This is the starting point
2. here is the tow point welded on. I wanted it to be as strong as possible, so it is recessed into the 1/4 inch 2x2.
3. the receiver mount halfway finished
4. gusseted and in its final form

to be continued

[scout man]

1. got caught in a sudden snow storm yesterday, JonnyD49 sitting on the floor helping me with some welding.
2, 3, 4. Mostly finished. The stuff primed in green is permanent to the rig, the unprimed part is removable. There will also be 4 bolts at the interface there that still need to be done.
Future mods will include a stinger, which will also be tied into the sliders in a bit of an exo. This is a lot of the reason the bumper extends so wide.

[Medic-5150]

Looks good!

[Rusty]

Sweet, nice work!

[Rob]

Looking good, Steve. I'm definitely going to want a demo on how the removable part gets removed. I'll volunteer to get stuck behind you sometime. :thumb:

[Patrolman]

Yep. I like the whole "it looks permanent but isn't" look. I had the 8274 on the front of my Toyota mounted so it wasn't removable. On the front of the Scout I have dual 2" receivers, but the 2nd 8274 that I have is on a setup with only a single 2" receiver input. Will make it all work some day. Really nice work on your rig and well thought out!

[scout man]

this is only on a single receiver, but its extra deep so that it hits 2 crossmembers on the frame. Plus the rest of the bumper adds a bit of side-to-side stability.

The removable part wighs probably 50lbs, plus the weight of the winch. So it probably wont be removed for everyday winching when i could just turn around, but if I am ever in a situation where I NEED one in the rear, I can muscle it back there and self-recover, or whatever the situation is.

[scout man]

and rob, i tried to take a pic with the center removed, but my camera battery died..

[Mporter]

That looks sick Steve good job.

[Fordguy77]

Looks Great! Good work Steve

[scout man]

this is what the bumper looks like with the center removed. As you can see, the winch plate mounts into the receiver in the cross member, and the front plate recesses in the front of the bumper so its flat. This will receive two bolts on each side to serve as rattle prevention, theft prevention, and additional side to side stability.

[Rob]

Ahh, OK, I'm getting it now. Nice design.

[Cr33p3r]

Looks good Steve! Interesting concept too.

[Brody]

That's a nice bit of work there, Steve! looking really good. Lotta work in them bumpers, huh?

[Patrolman]

Yeah, that thing is going to weigh a ton to move by yourself. I think that mine with the 2" receiver setup and the cable comes in well over 100 pounds. I didn't bother to weigh it. You don't want to move it daily.

[scout man]

Thanks Sean!

Pete - Yea, it took me longer than I hoped, since I am trying to speed up my fabrication, but really I would say the actuall work time took me 20 hours, but i still have a few loose ends to tie up. Of course, a lot of this is because it was a bit of a complex design for me and I had to sit and scratch my head from time to time. that 20 hrs, however was spread across 4 different days. partially because I had other stuff to do, but also because I needed to run some errands for the project and just wasnt getting lucky at finding what I needed. I think the plasma cutter really sped up the process though, once I found all the parts for a good 220 extension chord.

Jeff, you are definitely right. I knew this going into it, but I feel that if I really need to, I could move it by myself. Its heavy, but not unbearably heavy, and I'm not too small of a guy. I would love to have a front and rear winch, but the rear was going to take more effort than I was interested in. I would need to move my gas tank and all sorts of things. I figured most times if I am winching someone else I can just turn around, and if I absolutely cant, then I can pull the winch to the rear. Plus, if its to winch someone else... then I dont have to carry it alone!

[CR]

Nice work Steve!!
Looks great!

[Patrolman]

Steve, another thing to keep in mind is single pull capacity on the winch. I was with a couple guys from here and stalled out the 8274 on the front of my Toyota truck. It was a relatively short pull on a steep hill with me still driving the truck. Multiple wraps obviously since it was a short pull. It would surely stall with the weight of the Scout. The snatchblock pulled it up with basically no effort from the truck. That was a life saver.

[jonnyd49]

And a pic of Steve welding, to compliment the pic of me welding.

[AccordRanger]

Can't wait to see the finished product.

[Haku]

Steve, another thing to keep in mind is single pull capacity on the winch. I was with a couple guys from here and stalled out the 8274 on the front of my Toyota truck. It was a relatively short pull on a steep hill with me still driving the truck. Multiple wraps obviously since it was a short pull. It would surely stall with the weight of the Scout. The snatchblock pulled it up with basically no effort from the truck. That was a life saver.

I think it might be worth looking at your motor. I've seen an 8274 with the stock 70's motor pull full size rigs like a K5 all day long with a single line. I know Red Rhino's runs very strong, and its series 1 8274, as is mine and they both seem to do fine.

[Red Rhino]

I think it might be worth looking at your motor. I've seen an 8274 with the stock 70's motor pull full size rigs like a K5 all day long with a single line. I know Red Rhino's runs very strong, and its series 1 8274, as is mine and they both seem to do fine.

X2 I have 8274 from 1975 still on the orignal motor (i do replace the cable every few years) and it has pulled out more that one Suburban out of deep mud and snow. I would not trade it for any thing.

[Patrolman]

Mine has a HUGE amount of cable on it. 150-200 feet range. Needless to say, with that many wraps of the cable, it bogged down. Likely only pulling at about 4,000-5,000 pounds. If we had taken out more cable, it would make a difference. It was a 20' pull, so didn't even unwrap one wrap of the cable. That makes a huge difference. Used it since with full line pull and it is a monster.

[scout man]

so here is where it sits for now. Other than some black paint, it is probably done for a bit. When i get motivated again I will do some skids from the bumper to my front leaf hangers, and when i buy some tubing it will get the stinger. But for now, this is pretty much it. here is one more shot showing the removable section. Permanent stuff is black, removable part is primered. Tomorrow it will all be black.

oh, and the grill got a nice coat of white today, since I had to remove it for some welding.

[Cr33p3r]

I am liking that there, Steve!

[Patrolman]

Very nice work! You can come and do mine when yours is done. ;)

[scout man]

I am liking that there, Steve!

you mean the colors? I started spraying that primer in the dark, and it was looking really white to me. I thought it looked really cool, although I dont think I want a white bumper!

No more bumpers for me for at least a couple days!!

[Red Rhino]

Looks great! You will love that setup.

[scout man]

thanks! I am thinking I will!

[AccordRanger]

Looks great! I like the white grill too! Goes with the truck.

[Dirt Claude]

Steve... your Scout has changed quite a bit since I last saw it. Keep up the good work!

[scout man]

Thanks Brad!! It has come a long way. Hopefully I will make the moab trip with you again this year.

I just remembered I still have your tranny jack too.

[Dirt Claude]

That would be awesome if you could swing the Moab trip, we had a great time last year.
No worries on the jack, we'll hook-up sometime.

[scout man]

That would be awesome if you could swing the Moab trip, we had a great time last year.
No worries on the jack, we'll hook-up sometime.

Yea, hopefully I will make it this year, but with a little less wrenching involved.

[Dirt Claude]

Yea, hopefully I will make it this year, but with a little less wrenching involved.
LOL....that's what makes it memorable!
The memory of you and me working under the Scout in Marty's garage with Marty, Rob, Chris, and Denny sitting back in lawn chairs watching us work is forever burned in my brain.
Seriously, your truck will be a different animal the next time it hits slickrock.

[Chris]

:lmao: I'm looking forward to that myself!

[scout man]

A friend of mine from home requested a video of how it works. Figured since I made the video I might as well post it, although I hate doing commentary on things and hearing my own voice.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwMCHoGnqw

[Chris]

Thanks Steve, well done and excellent narrative!

[Brad]

Seriously nice bumper Steve! :thumb:

[Dirt Claude]

Very creative and well done!

[Rob]

Excellent work, excellent vid and excellent narration and explanation. Well done all the way around. :thumb:

[Brody]

Nicely done and well thought out.

Now you are just going to have to get a couple of these plugs for the front and back:

http://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/quick_connect_all.shtml

I posted these awhile back and a source where you can get the same thing, sans cable and the ultra expensive Warn name, for around $15 bucks. I decided I wouldn't even try to use the 'search' function on the site to try to find the post as I can never find anything with that unless I type in the EXACT wording....and who remembers the exact wording.. Basically a non search search function...I have one in my electrical junk and will find out that name and link for you. You can get some battery cables at a junkyard for around $5 and do a pretty economical front and rear, plus jumper cable set set up. I have a plug in on both the front and rear that I have jumper cables set up for and it works very well. If I had removable winches, this would also work well for them.

[scout man]

THanks Pete. This is next on my list for spending money. A cheap source for these would be great, as they are definitely not cheap anywhere I can find.

[Brody]

Here is a list of stores. Turns out that WW Graiger carries these in town:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=&q=anderson+power+products&rlz=1B3GGLL_enUS393US394&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=16236315325678930030&ei=aJVBTZzHPIH7lweQrd39Dw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEcQ8wIwAg#

And the name/link to the company, Anderson Power Products. They make some great stuff.

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/

If you end up getting your hands on the Warn jumper cables with their version of the same thing (probably made by Anderson, as they custom make stuff for people), all you have to do to get the two of them to work together is remove the middle plastic bar that runs down the center of one or the other of the connectors...I have a Warn style on the front, with a set of Warn jumpers and the Anderson Products terminal mounted on the rear.

[Fordguy77]

Also, not sure if it helps any but i imagine a ford lift repair shop could hook you up with the exact same things pretty easily. They look identical to leads used on electric forklifts for the battery's and chargers, and a lot of time on the fork lifts its 0 gauge or heavier.

[Brody]

They are the same. Wreckers /tow trucks use them too.

[Red Rhino]

Steve

I bought the Warn quick disconnects for my removable Warn Winch and they cracked after 4 months, I got a placement set from High country 4x4 for free and they lasted about 3 months. They are the only thing from warn I have every had trouble with. I bought a set of red ones from Bulldog Winchs, they where cheaper and have lasted for a year so far. I got the 2 ga wire for the long run to the back mount at a welding supply house. It has worked great!

Bryan