I'm building a steel front bumper for my BRAT. Here is what I'm thinking so far:

• Stock bumper mounting location
• Simple single beam that wraps around the front fenders very much like the stock bumper
• Material will be steel C-channel
• Hitch receiver for a winch (Moderately sized ATV winch. Nothing crazy.)
• I'll use some plate to beef up the mounting points on the unibody so that I will hopefully not rip them out.

So now my question is this: what thickness steel should I use for this? I want it to be tough enough, but I'm hoping it won't weigh a million pounds. I'm thinking that 1/4" is heftier than necessary. I'd certainly tear the car apart before the bumper, right? So I'm leaning towards 3/16", but can I safely go thinner?

 

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks!

No idea on the thickness for a winch, but that is going to be a heavy duty bumper. Have you thought about using just a c-channel across the front, and using factory corner pieces at each end ? This saves on fabricating the corners, and means you just need to either find the right profile, or getting it folded to the right thickness. You then just need to drill a single locating hole at each end, and two drilled and tapped holes in the top and bottom corners at each end.

This was the bumper for my BRAT.

 

If I had factory corners to use, I'd definitely consider it, but I'm not super worried about the fabrication. It should be pretty simple. And heavy duty is the whole idea, but I want it to be heavy duty enough without be too physically heavy.

 

Bratman, your bumper is awesome, but I'm going for a slightly more subtle look.

I made mine out of 12 gage sheet metel thats .109 just a hair under 1/8" i used 1/4" stock for mounts and i conected my reviver tube on another piece of 1/4 stock running between the main brackets and then i ran a small piece of angle stock along the bottom side i made a winch mount on a 2" reciver tube so i can use my winches front or rear i have a 12k and a 3 k winches ive pined my car between 2 other rigs and drug my cargo box around my yard with the 12 k and the bumper dident distort at all the bumper it self will bend if i hit something hard ive straitend it out a few times i beat the isht out of my rigs though if your looking to build a light wait bur stronger than stock than 1/8" should be fine but if your gona be bouncing off of rocks and trees you might want it to be stronger but the winch mounts would need to be reinforced and tied in to the bumper mounts the thicker the better