I'm going to try to get the best of both worlds. Most winches up to 12,500 need about 8" of space. If I can get 3-4 inches of that behind the front of the truck, that will only leave 4-5 inches sticking out in front. We'll see how much room there is to work with.

Lighting options are no problem. Can't have enough lights, right?

I am a throttle down kustoms fan too. I have one on my truck and love it. I like your base bumper design but for your new year models a smoother transition from bumper to grille guard would look better IMO. Thats just the random opinion of someone willing to spend $2k for a good looking bumper and $1500 for good quality functional steps(amp steps)

My needs are different than many but here goes;

I do not want a bumper that looks like a cow catcher on an old time steam locomotive - most of what I've seem are butt ugly and I didn't spend $50,000 on a truck to hang a ugly bumper on. No news on this, I'm sure.

I'm a RVer and spend more time in town than out in the country. I do not push cows, I need protection in parking lots.

What I want is a bumper that flows with the lines of the truck. Use ovalized stock, teardrop cross-sections, Put some lines in the plate stampings, tabs for off road lights. Mostly make it look like it belongs there - not added.

Round tube and diamond plate is boring abd ugly.

This is great feedback. Do you have any examples of what you mean? Thanks, Evan

I'm not sure what you mean here. I would love some more details on this. Do you mean ovalized stock for the base bumper or for the guard? And are you talking about actual oval tubing? If so, it's only available in a few sizes and I've never seen a bender that can bend it. I would love to though. Also, what do you mean by teardrop cross-sections? Thanks for your input, Evan

Hi Evan, Afraid that I'm not sure what is availible in steel, I work some with aluminum and teardrop is a common aircraft form.

Like most artists, I do a great job visualizing what I'd like but after I hit the send button I thought about you needing off-the-shelf materials.

I'm home in bed fight the flu right now so I'll drag out a sketch pad and see if I can draw a few things. I'm a 3D ceramic artist so my sketching isn't the best, but I take a swing at it.

Didn't mean to sound as blunt as I did - this flu has given me a grumpy keyboard.

Best Wishes,
Larry Kruzan

Haha, no that is exactly what I was asking for! Looking forward to any and all sketches/drawings. Hope you get better soon.

look up throttle down kustoms. I have their mayhem bumper on my 09. I would have also gone with the road armor but I liked the different design of the mayhem from TDK. If you look at the risers on the bumer they flow smoother with the lines of the bumper and dont overlap into the front of the bumper but come down on top of the seam on the bumper so it doesnt mess up the flow, just seems more fluid. The tubing on the grill guard flows around the side of the truck nicely on both of those brands also. I could have spent $1000 and put a bumper on my truck that was thrown together like every other bumper out there but I opted for a $2300 bumper because it looks better. These companies are always very busy and are hard to get stuff from because they are slammed with business for their smooth designs... It probably costs them just as much to make the bumper but they charge more because people can and will pay it. I have a couple pictures that I have posted on this forum before of my bumper but it wont let me post them to a differnt thread.... throttledownkustoms.com is the company, they are in montana.... roadarmor.com is the other one i think that is a real smooth looking bumper....

Great input, man. I appreciate all the thought you put in to that. I'm definitely going to try to come up with something that looks nice and smooth, that is also different from what everybody is used to.

Bumper
 

In post #15 aluminum was mentioned.

I have a Lorenz Suspension and do not want the HEAVY weight of the steel if I can avoid it.

Do you do any bumpers in aluminum?

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with in any material.

we're not really set up right now to work much with aluminum. The main problem is getting the tubing in sizes we can bend. Most people would not be willing to pay the extra cost that comes with our cost of the material. I do have plans eventually to make them in aluminum, but that's a little further down the road.

Ok, looks like the 4th gen is gonna be in the shop in about a week. Anybody have any last minute input on the actual design of the base bumper? Any specifics or drawings/ideas? Otherwise it's at the mercy of my imagination!

You have a pic of a step bar in your web gallery. How much are you charging for those that would have 3 steps? Two door steps + a bed step in front of the rear wheel for the quad cab. Preferably attaching to the frame vs the paneling.

I would like a rear bumper to have a functional stepping surface, with the lines of the unfinished product in your pics. Some traction on top would be needed, as well as indents for upgraded reverse lights.

I happen to have the Warn 16.5ti. How much more would it stick out? I would prefer a cover on the top as well to cover the wench when not in use. That wench is so big there may even be room to put a covered storage box next/behind it for recovery gear.

Oh, and another little detail is we have to have a front plate in CO, so it would need some type of attachment point below everything else.

I'll shoot you a PM on the steps. On the rear bumper, we'll offer soemthing similar to that one, plus a less expensive model. I'm still trying to decide on the design of the front bumpers. We can custom make bumpers on a customer-to-customer basis for larger winches, etc. Thanks for the input!