Built me a winch bumper and camper shell

I've got a long time back ground in aluminum and steel fab, and build custom aluminum boats on the side of my normal day job. I had just about all the material on hand to build this bumper and camper shell out as drops from a couple of boat builds.

I tried to make the bumper a combo of the RSI bumper and the ARB. I 've not seen either on a truck in person, so a lot of it was just guess work looking at pictures off the internet.
The actual winch cradle and mount are 1/4" steel plate, the rest of the bumper is 3/16 5052 aluminum, and bull bar is 2" sch 80.

The camper shell is all 1/8" aluminum. I tried to get a couple of local glass shops to install the windows, but everybody was so busy and short handed, they had no interest, so I ended up getting a 4x8 sheet of tinted 1/4" plexi glass on doing it myself.

All and all, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Had little to no money in the material, but a lot of hours in figuring it all out. Probably could have took on a boat build and just used the profit to buy and camper shell and bumper and been ahead of the game labor wise, but this way I got something a little stronger and how I wanted it.

 

Amazing work for scrap metal and off the top of your head build.

 

Those are awesome

 

Dope

 

You never know what you are going to get when you open one of these "Hey Y'all, Look What I Made!" threads, but this one was quite satisfying! Well done OP, you have skills!

 

Excellent Capt. Any idea how much weight you added to the truck?

Show us some boats!

 

Beefy!

 

Camper shell is in neighbor hood of 150LBS.

Total for the winch bumper is around 165, but most of that is the steel cradle and winch itself.

 

AS to some boats. Just stopped and thought about it, been building them for 20 years now, though I grew up around it as a kid. It's a fairly common thing in this part of the world for back yard aluminum boat builders.

That said, just finished what I plan to be my last one for the foreseeable future. Between work obligations with my real job and kids getting older and involved in more activities, there just aint enough hours in the day to make it worth it to me anymore. Add to it it more and more federal regulation through the Coast Guard, and it's just about all but impossible now to "legally" build these types on one off aluminum boats to sell.

 

Beautiful work

 

I started the thread thinking "this is going to be disasterous" and then saw the first pic and thought "nope. shouldn't have started there."

Then I got to the end of the OP and want to know where I can get one!

That's seriously awesome. Nice work!

 

Very nice!

 

I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that bumper. That's a thicc ass boy!

 

Damn good looking solid ladies you have there! I agree with the posters above.. looks like great work!

My younger brother has built a few fiberglass (over wood frame) center console boats. I like to think I got him into it.. as I restored a 50' 1962 Chris Craft Constellation in the late 90s.

 

Sick. Wanna build me a Topper? You might be quicker than Leer

 

I appreciate all the kind words. I've built plenty one off things from sight of eye over the years, but the front of these 3rd gen tacomas was certainly a challenge. I'm pretty well pleased, but will be curios to see how it works out in application this summer and fall hunting season and if there is anything i would like to change.

One thing for certain already, will be adding some lighting in the camper shell, been on here reading today to see what previous people have gone to for a constant 12v power source.

 

wow, well done! boats too, those are sharp!!

 

Awesome work. Bravo.

 

Very skilled! Impressive on the camper shell.

 

I would definitely recommend making an additional support for that bumper to tie into the frame beside just the front horns, c4fab makes a cool one: https://c4fabrication.com/products/tacoma-front-bumper-frame-support-brackets-2nd-gen-2005-2015

That looks super heavy for just those 6 bolts