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Thor Parts front bumper

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jakesz28

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1,041
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Cabool MO
I have a question and this is in no way meant to sound like a complaint. I still feel this is one of the best upgrades I have done.
Has anyone bent the front bumper doing a recovery? I bent my front bumper on the last recovery. I had a Navigator that was buried. It had been stuck a couple days before I got there. I also had to tie the H3 to a tree, use a snatch block and a second tree as an anchor. The second tree should have taken part of the load.

So am I the only one to have the winch plate twisted now? This is definitely the hardest pull I have ever done. We even recovered a 5 ton bucket truck. On that one we did a single line recovery with the H3 anchored to a tree.

Numerous pulls and never noticed anything until this one.
 
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jakesz28

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1,041
Location
Cabool MO
cbetts said:
Did the bumper bend or was it the mount points behind it? I know the mounting ears on the frame can be weak. Many H3 owners have welded in reinforcements.
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The top plate that the winch bolts to is no longer flat. Yeah I have heard about the ears or caps on the front frame rails bending with other bumpers. I have seen people weld thicker plates to reinforce that area. I am not sure if any of that moved. I felt Christian did a good job with this design. If I remember correctly it kept the lower angled mounts which I am sure helped spread the load.

One side of the winch is twisted up, do to the top plate bending. I may cut another plate to go under it and try to pull it back down.
 
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JPaul

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Way up north, UT
I'm not surprised it did that with such a heavy pull. The design is probably strong enough to pull yourself out and someone similarly sized, but it's not going to handle high loads like that well. It's just plate after all with no reinforcement on the rear.

I've thought about that myself, seems it shouldn't be too big a deal to tie the top and bottom of the rear together to help reinforce it against twisting when doing heavy pulls. Or tie the rear to the frame rails. But it will take some additional fabrication either way.

I need to pull mine off anyway after MetalMasher to straighten out the body work, I should look at beefing mine up then.
 
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jakesz28

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Messages
1,041
Location
Cabool MO
JPaul said:
I'm not surprised it did that with such a heavy pull. The design is probably strong enough to pull yourself out and someone similarly sized, but it's not going to handle high loads like that well. It's just plate after all with no reinforcement on the rear.

I've thought about that myself, seems it shouldn't be too big a deal to tie the top and bottom of the rear together to help reinforce it against twisting when doing heavy pulls. Or tie the rear to the frame rails. But it will take some additional fabrication either way.

I need to pull mine off anyway after MetalMasher to straighten out the body work, I should look at beefing mine up then.
Click to expand...

What happened on Metal Masher?

I am kinda surprised it bent, but it is truly my fault. Doing a single line pull with maybe 3 layers of rope on the drum I almost stalled the 10,000 lb smittybilt. So then I spooled down to one layer and used a snatch block. It still was a hard pull. I did not know the vehicle had sat there a couple days before I went out to get them out.
 
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jakesz28

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1,041
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Cabool MO
I will just use a piece of 1/2 flat stock to stiffen the plate where the back two bolts go. I may have to machine it thinner at the bolt holes. But really there is little need to make any changes it is a good design. I should have taken 2 vehicles and used 2 winches. Had I known it sat there a couple days as it dried up a little, I would have done it differently.
 
06 H3

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
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Meridian, ID
E75B8E65-5711-48FB-8775-8025DF4CEB25.jpegDFC4979D-991F-4BCB-A8F1-6CEB51E60158.jpeg9E5C3318-8A1F-4393-BFAC-9A5848EDC0A7.jpeg217327AB-70EB-4AE5-8DED-2E412A0D6EDF.jpeg

you can see I bent mine (see suck down winch pic) also cracked the mounting plate for the bumper. Plated it all up.
 
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jakesz28

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Messages
1,041
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Cabool MO
J

jakesz28

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Messages
1,041
Location
Cabool MO
Brad said:
Curious, what do you use the smaller winch for?
Click to expand...

Brad, the small winch is a suck down winch. Since he has a solid axle swap with a bunch of extension. He can use that winch to prevent the front suspension from extending on steep climbs. It helps keep a lower center of gravity and minimizes the chance of flipping backwards.
 
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JPaul

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2,401
Location
Way up north, UT
jakesz28 said:
What happened on Metal Masher?
Click to expand...

I was up past the V notch and took a bad line which was dug out a lot more than I realized. i got my front up an undercut ledge but couldn't get my rear up. Tried backing up to redo the line and my front driver tire fell off the ledge and I slammed my driver D-ring onto the ledge. I actually broke some of the rock off so now it's not so under cut there. :giggle:

Unfortunately it hit really, really hard so my core upright crumpled, the fender somehow shifted backwards, the hood ended up pinned underneath the grille (had to use a prybar to get it open), I can't keep the fake air cleaner pod on now (pops off when I open the door), the frame horn might be bent (won't know until I remove the bumper), the plastic headlight/turn indicator mount cracked, and who knows what else got tweaked.

So at some point this summer I need to tear apart the whole front/driver and get everything straightened out and fixed. It'll be great. :roll:
 
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Brad

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Location
New England
jakesz28 said:
Brad, the small winch is a suck down winch. Since he has a solid axle swap with a bunch of extension. He can use that winch to prevent the front suspension from extending on steep climbs. It helps keep a lower center of gravity and minimizes the chance of flipping backwards.
Click to expand...
SAS with a ton of travel is a little above my level. Lol. Good to know if I ever end up buying something like that though. Will probably never swap to a solid front axle on the H3 though. So far the independent suspension seems to handle my needs just fine and get me wherever I want to go and the H3 is way more capable than my last rig.
 
06 H3

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,352
Location
Meridian, ID
jakesz28 said:
Chris, that is exactly what happened to the top plate on my bumper. When I get all my other projects done I will have to pull the bumper off and I inspect/reinforce the mounts on the frame. Did you bend the top plate back down or let it go?
Click to expand...

I bent it back to the best of my ability.

I think long term I need to plate it with some additional ribbing to prevent further issues
 
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