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Thats good question .With weight always being the enemy of any vehicle, is it worth going aluminum on the front bumper vs steel? Do you sacrifice much strength say for a jacking point or to attach a wintch?
Thank you for a great answerOur aluminum bumpers are a combo of 1/4" and 3/16" and are more than strong enough to winch and use to jack. The real issue between strength comes to impact most of the time as steel and aluminum transfer vibration differently. Aluminum absorbs it and tends to crumple but transfers much less to the frame and vehicle where steel is a little different. It is going to dent less but will transfer a lot of the impact to the frame and vehicle. Steel is also much more easy to work with, IE if you dent it you can normally pull it out but with aluminum it tends to crumple and typically stays dented. The amount of weight you save should be proportionate to what you do with the truck. Rock crawling is better suited to steel while "overland/camping" is better suited normally to the aluminum.
I’m staying tuned to this thread, since I’m in the market for a bumper. There’s guys runnin’ “light bars with no lockers”, and winch bumpers with no winch, it looks like I’m the guy with a winch and no bumper. I Pulled the trigger on a Warn Zeon 10k, going on a theory that if I get into some shit the truck can’t handle, I now have a winch more than capable of doing the job. Going over multiple options, I went with the US made Warn Zeon choosing quality, reliability, and serviceability over price. Lifetime warranty, sign me up.
View attachment 2736
Thank you for a great answer
looks killer brotherI went bumperless to save weight and a clean look.
CBI hidden winch mount and a Smittybilt X20 10k synthet
looks killer brother
Those are such a great option along with sso and sos concepts two streamline bumpers like the one i have. 60lbs is all it weighs full steel. I pulled trigger in Pelfreybilts aluminum bumper to shave weigh as i noticed a huge difference in take off speed when i switched from steel skids to aluminum. It all does add up. I too will be adding a winch and they are heavy as all hell combined with larger battery. Luckily im already running heavy springsI went bumperless to save weight and a clean look.
CBI hidden winch mount and a Smittybilt X20 10k synthetic. View attachment 2802View attachment 2803View attachment 2805
Those are such a great option along with sso and sos concepts two streamline bumpers like the one i have. 60lbs is all it weighs full steel. I pulled trigger in Pelfreybilts aluminum bumper to shave weigh as i noticed a huge difference in take off speed when i switched from steal skids to aluminum. It all does add up. I too will be adding a winch and they are heavy as all hell combined with larger battery. Luckily im already running heavy springs