ssooo i already have on of those westin bull bars or type style on mine and i'm thinking of welding it to the frame instead of the bolts as most of the front end damage i've seen is from where the bar simply breaks loose at the mounting point and slams back into the radiator, would welding it in create a better defense?lol as well as welding a some brackets to the bumper for a small winch like a w8000 or something of the sort. would the westin be able to handle it and any other advice? don't have the cash for a shockworks or arb, not sure if i really like the looks of them and i never do that much high angle stuff no the approach angles yield little to no value to me ,pulling my ass out of snow and mud is however.

 

your right about the brush guards doing most of the damage..

1.) dont hit anything...

and 2.) those guards are made to fail that way, its a crush point for the g-forces to dissipate .. if its too strong and welded to the frame, it would transfer alot of the stopping forces to other parts of the frame/body and even your body!


id much rather be out of a radiator and a brush guard than get seriously hurt..

 

lol, rule number 2 should be follow rule number 1! lol
meh we're going to a national health care plan anyways, i can afford it lol
,

what about using one of these cheesy bumpers with a winch? good/bad idea?

lol i'm not to worried about hitting anything with speed, been driving 15 years without an accident don't plan on starting now, but you do have some good valid points, i'm just choosing to ignore your warning for my personal safety...lol thanks anyways man!(tounge in cheek)

 

Your looking for disaster, Give up the bullbar and build a real bumper. The westin is thin wall steel, and will not hold up to the abuse of winching, you'd basically have to mount the winch to the frame and not even consider the westin support for it.

The bullbar utterly sucks, I've pulled a buddy out who had the westin and my strap broke it. and this is from pulling from the stock tow hook locations.

If your going to be putting that much effort into it i'd just build my own simple bumper to hold the winch.

Also 8k might be pushing it weight wise if you get really stuck.

 

cool well good looking out man that the sort of answer i was looking for even if i didn't like it, thanks for the help, guess i'll start a kitty for the shockworls bumper then....gawd dammit lol!
cheers though and thanks for the insight!