Denker2005
New Member
- Joined
- June 6, 2021
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 8
- City, State
- Boise
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2010 Explorer Eddie Bauer
- Callsign
- Blue lightening
As we all know aftermarket support for 4th gens is next to nothing, but since fighting this problem, I personally have come up with my own answers to the problems ford has created. Most notably, I wanted to fit a winch in the front of my vehicle while maintaining approach angle and hood looks. After finding someone to fabricate a rear tire carrier for me, I began understanding the world of custom fabrication. I reached out to many different shops for quotes and settled on a semi retired guy here in idaho who was up for the task of building me a custom steel winch bumper. I basically gave him full artistic reign with it, and I trusted him. I can’t say how he did it is exactly how I would do it, but I kinda love it anyway. The winch I stuffed in there is a Smittybuilt gen 3 XT0 12k (on sale for around $600) and should me more than I will ever need. For the custom fab work we agreed on $1500 for him to take it all apart, and build it all back up in steel. Here are some photos of my rig before tearing the front end apart, and also some photos of the bumper being built. Photos of it being painted and 100% done will be later once I actually paint it.