A Heavy Bumper

A few years ago I decided my dodge needed a winch. I would also need a sturdy mount for the winch. There were several available that I liked but they were all very expensive. My favorite was the Buckstop bumper like Stacy installed on the red dodge of the truck show several years ago. I want to say it was like $1600 or so. I dont have that kind of money for bumpers. So I pulled the plastic factory bumper off and started my design process.

I built a wooden model to test it out first. Then I made it all in steel. I had to make brackets to mount the bumper to the frame. Then I made a box that the winch sat in. Everything else is used to offer crash protection for the front end and to cover all the stuff you dont normally see on the front. The mounts were made out of 1/2"plate. The box for the winch is 1/4". The outside parts were made from heavy sheetmetal and bent in a brake. Then I used flatbar and angle to reinforce them. The brushguard part came from a dodge dakota brushguard. It happened to be the correct width to fit nicely. Originally I didnt want the brushguard, but figured it might save the radiator if I smacked a deer or such.

I wanted to keep the weight down at first but it got heavy quick. I would say the bumper probably weighs over 100lbs and the winch is another 100lbs. You can really feel it on the front end. I like always having the winch on the truck, but next time I make a truck bumper I will make the winch removable. I am not a fabricator by trade but I do some welding. This is probaby the most complex project I have built for a vehicle. It could have turned out better but I am happy with it.

Red River/Toas NM

If you had 2 nice vehicles, a 2001 Dodge truck and a 2004 GMC, which would you drive for 11 hrs to New Mexico? Neither of course, you take your beat down 95 Jeep YJ. Oh yeah and its got the 4 cylinder with all of 115hp. Combined with the 33" tires and a bunch of crap in it, it has no balls. So we left after work one day and it was about 96 degrees(with no ac of course) But it wasnt too bad with the earplugs in and things went well. It looked like we were going to hit some thunderstorms over Vernon but we missed them luckily. We crashed for the night in Clarendon. The next morning I noticed the trans was leaking oil between the transmission and the transfer case. We managed to find a Napa and I bought some gear oil, added a quart, and kept a couple for spares. While driving an old 4x4 you have to resist the urge to pull over and check out every little noise or vibration or you wont get anywhwere. You just have to tough it out and pray the wheels dont fly off. When we started heading north for Taos from 40 the hills started whoopin the 2.5L. I had to downshift all the way to 3rd gear for many of the hills. We made it without further problems.



We checked out some trails around Red River. We had trouble finding the trail. I think the locals take down the forest service road signs to confuse people on ATVs and such and keep them out of their neighborhood. We saw several signs: "No Goose Lake access!" A hole yuppies. anyhow we found the trail that starts behind the storage building drive and crosses the creek and heads up the mountain. We had the top off the jeep and my arms were red by the end of the day. The trail was narrow but easy. Not too scary. We ran into snow at about 11400ft or so and had to turn back before we made it to Goose Lake.

On another day we went up a trail on the north side of red river. It had just opened for the summer.(closes in spring for elk calving apparently) The trail had some great views at the top.

Later i tried fishing in the river while my wife shopped in town. I didnt catch a thing in the river so i decided to jog down the hill to town. A bus stopped and gave me a ride back. The driver asked me about my luck and said there was a pond in town that they stock twice a day. Score! Of course I was the only grown man fishing there. Everyone else was about 11. There was plenty of stockers and I caught a fat one on about my 3rd cast. The youngsters werent having any luck so I felt kinda bad and quit.

Hurricane Over Greenville, TX

Recently I spotted this storm while driving southbound on 75 between Sherman and Mckinney. It was rather large with a round, swirling, appearance of a hurricane. The picture didnt turn out so great as I took it with my left hand while driving a 20,000lb tool box 65mph.

Kiamichi Mountains

Awhile back we decided to purchase some land for a few reasons. Most land within several hours of us in Texas was out of our price range. We found some land for sale in southeast Oklahoma for sale for a much cheaper price per acre than anything in Texas(besides Sanderson.)

We made a few trips up there to check it out. I had been through some of Oklahoma before but not this region. The area has some good hills to it. It is interesting what kind of terrain you can get to only 4 hours from DFW. It is also very remote, which is something we were looking for in land. The hilly areas are mostly owned by timber companies. In the valleys there is nice land used by cattle operations. They have some very fat cows up there compared to most cows in Texas. It might be they have better grass.

The tract of land we bought is up in hills between Honobia and Albion. There is not much to Honobia, mostly just a few houses and an RV park. The RV park is actually quite nice and the rates are cheap. They have a small cafe that is very slow but there is no reason to hurry anyway.

The Kiamichis are a band of ridges running east-west. They are steep, rocky, and heavily forested. Our tract is on the slope of a ridge, running from the bottom of the hills to the top. The hill is too steep for the land to have much use or value. There are plenty of pine, oak and hickory trees. I plan on hunting up here and offroading. The place is good for shooting guns too, as the nearest house is about 3 miles down the road. Future plans for property include: making a gate, a small cabin, and clearing some trees.

The Jeep

About 5 years ago my wife bought me a jeep wrangler. It was previously owned by my friend for several years but he needed a truck for work. It was well taken care of and not run in the mud hardly at all.

This is not my first offroad vehicle. I started with an 83 gmc 4x4. It quickly grew from a stock truck to having 36" swampers, lockers, and a 300hp small block. I completely trashed it along with 2 more trucks, a 76 and an 82. The 76 was the largest with 39" boggers and a 400hp engine. These trucks were a lot of fun but they all had the same flaws: too large for the trail, carbs, and weak axles. I secretly plotted to buy a jeep. Finally after asking for a few years Brad sold me his YJ.

The jeep was virtually stock when I recieved it. It was the rio grande edition with the 2.5L and manual trans. It ran rough but just needed some vacuum hoses and a tune-up. I used it as a commuter for a year, doing about 80 miles a day on it with school and work. I installed a posi-lok kit, some 33 Tsl's, a winch, a small lift, and some other minor details. Later i replaced the rear 35 with the ford 8.8 axle, changed the gears to 4.88, and added a lockright to the front. The ford rear had a trac-lok that I repacked. At one point it had 35 tires but it has 33's on it again.

A brief introduction to my blog

This blog will be used to document my various hobbies, adventures, work activities and things that I see that I encounter while driving around all day. My hobbies vary from outdoor related activities such as hunting and fishing, to offroading in my jeep. I work as a field mechanic on heavy equipment. I spend a lot of time driving around the area and see some interesting construction sites. There is a lot of oddball things seen on the highway that should be documented as well.