Winch Bumper for the Suburban

I decided that a winch bumper should be the first piece of body armor for our Suburban. Before building a bumper, you must first decide on a winch. I decided on a Warn M15000 do pull the duties up front. That should be more than enough to pull the D' GOAT(stands for: Douglas' Global Offroad Adventure Traveler) out of any jam I seem to get us in. I didnt want the same incident that happened on our Southeast Colorado Expedition.

I first removed front bumper and front hitch that was mounted under factory bumper. I then removed the plastic skid plate. We used 3/8" plate for the winch cradle. Trying to keep my approach angle from going by the wayside was not easy! The Warn M15000 was sucking up all the room like a stingy big brother. We did manage to get it to fit up under the grill without having to chop any of it out. That was nice, as I really didnt want to have it look like a hack job. Having just added a 3" bodylift really helped with this part. The craddle was able to mount directly to the frame, so that all leverage from winch pulling comes directly from the frame. This is crucial! I have seen this done wrong alot! You want the winch mount as close to between the frame horns as possible. Not above or below, as it acts like a lever on your frame! Anyway, if you look closely at the pics you can see we added shackle mounting points. We actually added another 3/8" plate to that spot to make the mounts solid as a rock!

Next we (When I say we, I mean my buddy Matt) started making templates for the rest of the bumper. We used cardboard and layed it together to get the initial idea for the design. Once that was done we traced them on our flat stock and grabbed the very handy dandy plasma cutter to cut them out. All you do is just flip the same piece over and cut the other side. That way it "should" all come out and match up(crossed fingers at this time). It actually all came out good. Matts great, no need to recut anything. Anyway, once the pieces for the top were cut we tack welded them into place. We then took a 3" piece of flat and built the front pieces. Heated and bent into place, it was time to decide on how much approach angle I was willing to give up. NOT MUCH! I was bound and determined to loose very little! We laid the bottom plate at a good angle to retain approach. We also tappered the bumper as it came outward, so there was very little bumper in front of the tires. Honestly, with the size of that Warn Winch, I didnt think we had a prayer in retaining in approach angle. Thank goodness Im not a very smart man. We we able to save alot of approach. With all the pieces tacked into place, we removed bumper for final assembly.

We added 2" square to the backside of the bumper to keep it stout! Once it was all braced and looked good, we started welding. Again, when I say we, I mean Matt. He is a master at welding, so why mess up a good thing right? I did grip my coke can while he welded if that counts for metal work. Once it was all welded the long and tedious process of grinding and sanding started. Grind, grind, grind. Once thats all done it becomes very smooth and ready to paint. Make sure you hit your metal with brake cleaner to get all the crap off of it before you paint.





I almost went against my better judgement, and had the bumper Powder Coated. I dont recommend doing that. Any piece of body armor that is going to get scratched, I recommend shake and shooting it. Much easier to touch up later. So it recieved the "shake and shoot" Colorado Ron special. I use and industrial black paint thats really strong. Only problem is that it takes forever, and a day, to dry. If you barely touch it while its drying, you actually will leave a perfect imprint--its that soft! Dont touch it! It sucks! Ask me how I know. Once thats completed, and it dries, it becomes very hard and works well.

Before installing the bumper onto the truck, the warn winch had to be installed. Once that was mounted, we mounted the bumper. It fit like a glove! I must admit I was surprised! Just kidding Matt! Great job! Bolted it right into place and it turned out good I think. We kept the approach angle decent, while mounting one of the larger warn winchs. Next project for it will be to cut and fab some custom recessed lights!