trailblazer front winch and rear bumper

[superiormetalfab]

We do custom off-road fabrication and have decided to use our personal 03 trailblazer to design a front winch bumper and a rear bumper with tire carrier option.

How many people would be interested in these? Will have a design hopefully figured out within the next few weeks and production would start within 2 months. Not sure what the price would be just yet.

[mason10198]

I for one would definitely be interested in seeing the rear bumper/carrier, and I certain others would be too!!

[DirtyBacon04]

Would be anxious to see design.

[HARDTRAILZ]

Have you looked at the available stuff. That should help you with your price point.

[SnowBlazer]

Depends. If you could manage to ship it put together, I know you'd have a market. I for one haven't bought steel bumpers for my truck because trying to find a shop that'll weld it together for a reasonable price is rough.

[Anthony Hernandez]

I agree, we all need rear end bumper so hurry the hell up

[bartonmd]

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, man, but a rear bumper is what people keep bugging me for. Frankly, to be done right, with a class 3-4 hitch integrated into it (not just a receiver welded into the sheetmetal, with a stiffener rib across or some shit. Like 2.5x2.5.1/4 tube across, etc.), even doing a full kit is more than I really want to mess with, though I may later this spring, when I make another rear bumper for myself, and can put it into 3D CAD (Inventor. I'm an engineer at my real job) and see how well a kit can be made. The thing that's a killer, though, and I think a lot of the reason that real manufacturers haven't gotten into our platform, is that a lot of us body lift to get more lift, and the bumpers are different between the Envoy and Trailblazer. Between winch and non-winch bumpers, between NBL TB, 2" BL TB, 3" BL TB, NBL Envoy, and 2" BL Envoy, I've got 10 different bumper kits. The rear will be the same, but it'll be down to 5-6 (rear bumpers are also different between the two, but no winch/non-winch different models). You could make a single bumper for the TB and a single one for the Envoy, and just have enough vertical space that you could slide the mounts up and down 3", but then you end up offsetting the winch plate, which makes it structurally crap, or you end up with the non-body-lift (NBL) guys having a bumper that hangs down 3" and kills their approach and departure angles (an issues for us, anyway). Again, way sub-optimal. If you do a front bumper, make the mounts flat at the bottom of the frame, so you allow people to use my radiator skids that they already have (most have my rad and oil pan skids, whether they have a bumper or not), making your bumpers an option to them.

Real talk. The other reason that I'm kind of it, for the last 6 years or so, in the TB bumper/skid market, is because there are some of us who bought our TBs new or almost new, but the vast majority of TB folks got the vehicle from their parents, and the vast, vast majority of us are C-H-E-A-P. I get people hemming and hawing over a $275 front bumper kit, about how it costs so much, FWIW. I'll tell you that, all told, across all 10 bumper models, I sell about 20 bumper kits a year. About 2/3 of those are people who ask specifically for kits, due to price, or due to wanting to weld their own stuff, but not knowing where to start, and wanting a designed/tested/engineered kit, ready to weld together. So, maybe 6 people a year initially ask for finished bumpers, but end up being OK with welding it together themselves, because of the cost, their cousin/friend/whoever welds, and welds it together for a couple hundred bucks, for them. I don't get about 2-3 sales/year from people who NEED finished bumpers. Those ~7-8 people who would potentially buy a finished front bumper for the right price ($5-600 base, obviously more with brush guard, powdercoat, etc.), they're pretty evenly split up between NBL/2"/3" BL, and between whether they want a winch bumper or a bumper without a winch mount. It's really kind of a shitty setup from the manufacturing side. That's why I do this stuff mainly as a hobby and a service to the TB community, and maybe make $1k/year off of it.

Frankly, you make a finished rear bumper (One that I think is structurally good for towing and such, and would feel OK about passing along), and I'll send people your way for it! After having pulled a muscle in my back cutting fire wood a couple months ago, front parts kits are fine, but I have no desire to load/unload/cut 20' and 24' sticks of 2x2x1/4, 2.5x2.5x1/4, and 2x4x3/16.

Mike

[Anthony Hernandez]

Soooooo, your telling me there's a chance..... I read ya...

[superiormetalfab]

Went and had the front bumper brackets drawn up. Should get them this week from the laser company and start the designing process. All bumpers would be welded together ready to bolt on and have an option for powder coating.

As soon as the front bumper is designed we will be jumping on a rear with tire carrier option. Stay tuned pics to follow soon

[Anthony Hernandez]

guess he never got this going....

[DirtyBacon04]

lol! 2 years is too long for us to "stay tuned"; but fortunatley for him, we're still shy of the 2 year mark. Don't be such a premature fabricator