Student Project: Front Bumper & Recover R&D

[rbutler]

Whats up overlanders and offroaders alike. Im a student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena doing a project on off road vehicle recovery. For my project Im focusing on re-designing the front bumper, not just tweeking or adding more features necessarily but mostly trying to come up with new recovery concepts completely. Id love to get some insight from all of you on what experience you have with your aftermarket or custom front bumper, what works well, what doesn't work well, any ideas that you have had? Id also like to hear some of your craziest or most disastrous or just adventurous recovery operations.

Thank, hope to hear some interesting stories and insights from some experienced and even beginner drivers.

Reese

 

[frank84]

How about a winch housing or some sort of fairlead that doesn't let the winch bunch of up on one side during angled pulls? My parent's had a garden hose reel that had a lead screw that evenly spooled the hose up on the reel from left to right no matter what the angle the hose came in at. Worked great with the garden hose, not sure about with the forces of a vehicle recovery, but if you aren't actually building this then it might matter less. Another idea for the same problem might be that the winch itself pivots to always face where you pull from.


I've seen this done once or twice, but you could box the bumper and use it as an air tank to work with the compressor for filling tires or running airtools.


Dodge rams probably had my favorite tow hooks - you could use a D-shackle or just a plain old strap with the looped end. http://www.ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=76547 They are a hook and a loop in one.


Anodized aluminum would be nice over painted/powdercoated steel for lighter weight and corrosion resistance for those of us that see a lot of salt on the roads.


Pick a vehicle and try to make is look like it came like that from the factory like AEV did on their ram. http://www.aev-conversions.com/vehicles/ram


Center and side high lift jack points are nice. They don't need to be fancy but you need a spot to get a standard jack under safely.


A provision for a front license plate is a must for many of us. This often looks like an afterthough if there even is one.

 

[roverandom]

Good ideas above. Especially the winch cable fair lead helper and high lift jack points.

My own suggestions are;
Design it so a person can stand on it. Always useful.
H
Design a removable modular bull bar/brush bar/light bar/stinger bar/no bar attachments.

The various styles of protection bars are only useful in certain situations and often get in the way at service time. It would be nice to fit a bull/brush bar when heading into overgrown forest trails and then have the option of removing it and fitting a stinger for rock crawling. Then removing it for regular road use and/or servicing.

My 2c.


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[brdl04]

My humble Opinion:

Focus on design and usability. less is more.

Any company can design a origami mess that makes your vehicle look like you drove through a swing set.

Keep it clean. Simple. Design with purpose.

 

[DaveInDenver]

How about a winch housing or some sort of fairlead that doesn't let the winch bunch of up on one side during angled pulls?

I believe what you are describing is essentially a winch fairlead shuttle. Hopefully someone who is not landlocked can correct me on the terminology. In any case I believe you occasionally see these on shipboard winches and cranes, a longitudinal shuttle that is driven by the winch itself to keep the cable spooling evenly.

 

[ZG]

Make it as tight to the body as possible.

 

[rbutler]

Thanks guys. Can you explain your reasoning for me? It helps gear my design in a certain direction and strengthens my 'design drivers.' Im not totally inexperienced in this field but I would like to hear why specifically to you, these things are important, and any experiences that led you to this.

Thanks again,

Reese

 

[roverandom]

Having the bumper mounted as close to the body as possible makes it less obtrusive and looks much better.
The downside is It also offers less protection so that is a decision for you to balance form with function.

Personally, I go with function. But I drive old Land Rovers.

The winch shuttle is a fantastic idea. Basically the problem is when you use the winch the cable/rope will never wrap back onto the the drum evenly, especially if you are pulling to one side. This can cause damage to the winch, fairlead and cable/rope. Anything that can reliably respool the winch evenly when under load would be very handy.


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[ZG]

The bumper close to the body is about approach angle, not looks. ARB is a good looking bumper but they all just ram into rocks when doing any real climbing.

 

[roverandom]

Unless you have a bobtail, the approach angle is always compromised by the departure angle. They don't stick out that far.

If few degrees extra up front is make or break for the trail then you are likely to to be damaging lots of other stuff as well.

Are we talking Land Rovers or rock buggies?


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[94Discovery]

Unless you have a bobtail, the approach angle is always compromised by the departure angle. They don't stick out that far.

If few degrees extra up front is make or break for the trail then you are likely to to be damaging lots of other stuff as well.

Are we talking Land Rovers or rock buggies?


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You have a point but in every design you have to maximise everything with no to minimum compromise

 

[94Discovery]

This hapened in a trail that laster 18 hours of suffering i was stuck in a mud pit at 2 in the morning and a 10 inch lug was jammed to my weel and the only way was to winch the lug and it took part of my bumper brock the headlights and the front flasher.

So lesson learned and i started my bumper design .
What i did is i integrated led light bar plus some led fog lights and the winch is behind all of everything taking into considaration not to push my buper forward more than 2 inches and only 1 inch lower than the land rover chassi .
Do not laught at the picture with the small wheels (bigger is comming)

And the rear

 

[JSBriggs]

My humble Opinion:

Focus on design and usability. less is more.

Any company can design a origami mess that makes your vehicle look like you drove through a swing set.

Keep it clean. Simple. Design with purpose.

This is the key. The antithesis of Pronghorn.

-Jeff

 

[AFSOC]

Lots of great ideas here so far. My take is that there are compromises with every design. Just remember to plot your design to meet your objective and don't worry about incorporating features unless those features are in support of your design objective. One size does NOT fit all.

Lots of different bumper types on ExPo, lots of different features and aesthetics. Some ExPo'rs are hardcore trail guys, some play on the rocks, some DD their rigs, some run long distances, some use their rigs for business and some of us are simply Faux'verlanders (though I try to deny it). A high beef/high clearance bumper, optimal for a trail guy might, not be palatable to an ExPo fashionista who prefers the aesthetic of an ARB label and is less concerned how easily the wings fold up into your body work when tapped. Not everyone will need winch provisions and may prefer a 2" receiver for the jobsite, trailer maneuvering or a receiver winch. My personal preference leans toward the clean and simple, largely unnoticeable aesthetic but some prefer the Swiss Army Knife approach with Hi-Lifts, Shovels, Shackles, Carriage Bolts, rivets, Lights etc incorporated.

The best bumper is compromise of physics, image and price point. There are so many offerings on the market because everyone values the factors of physics, image and price point a little differently. Create the design that remains true to your initial objective and the bumper will be perfect...for the only one of us that matters. Good luck, keep us posted on progress.

 

[rbutler]

Thanks guys, explaining why you need these features emphasizes the importance of them. Clean, simple, strong and tight to the body and getting a grasp on the important recovery features that you need, and new things you are looking for. Making progress.

Thanks, Reese.