I've found myself in the happy position of having to fab a mount and bumper for my new-to-me RE8000 winch. It's a bit of an oddball since it's worm drive and on the large side. It's supposed to be able to pull the butt off an elephant, so whatever I come up with will need to be burly as well. Anyone out there have pics or links to favorite plate style bumpers? Some ideas would really help.

Here's my favorite it's the Hanson bumper

Well, it's on a hummer, so it must be awesome:


I like the Hanson's as well. It's been such a long time since I was in the market, but I've kept modifying mine into what it is today:






I'm just a few plates short of a "plate style", but have never felt the need to add the weight.

I have to ask, being a newb to 4-wheeling, why the tube extensions above the bumper. Obviously there are tons of mfr's that do this, I guess i'm confused on the purpose. Is it just protection for the grill/lights? Recovery point?

Grill protection and look mostly. You do NOT want to use them as recovery points because you are putting a lot of leverage on your frame. You always want to pull from a point directly inline with your frame if at all possible.

The ones on the hummer bumper are mainly for looks. And a little ridiculous, but it's just fun to fun at it.

Another name to throw in the hat:
http://broncobumpersandcages.com/store/ ... ry=Bumpers

Jesus, I've always liked the Bailie bumpers and will probably do something similar. I like yours lots as well, as it's really clean.I'm hoping to make this as low profile as possible which is going to be tough given the size of the winch I'm mounting. I've thought about notching the grill to fit it closer to the core support, but I'm not sure I can hack up a nice front end.

So a bumper question-how much do you guys actually hit the part of the bumper between the frame rails when you're wheeling? Then ends of mine will be tucked up really high, but I'm planning to set my winch down low between the rails. How much am I really going to lose in terms of useful approach angle?

You see mine. I have cut the frame horns off in an effort to keep the bumper like a Marine hair cut (high and tight). I can barely stick my fingers between the grill and the bumper. You may not notice, that the bumper started out as a 2x6, then I "frenched" in the winch so that it is sitting at the bottom surface of the 2x6, but I had someone brake me a piece of 1/4" plate that I welded to the bottom of the 2x6 to maintain strength. There are rectangle tubing horns that stab into the frame, and the 2x6 sits on top of that. So the bottom of my winch is level with the top of the frame. Also, I welded in some spacers inside the bumper horns to keep it from collapsing when tightening down the bolts. There have been only a few times I have hit that part of the bumper, but I think any lower and I'd hit it 400% more. I have somewhere where my approach angle prior to stretching the front axle forward. If you want that figure, let me know.

Anyway, if you decide to use a 2x6 as the backbone of your build, let me know. There is one little trick I learned that keeps the radius's on the tubing and keeps that finished look.