winch bumper or brush guard

[MidnightRebel07]

The '98-04 didn't have the tabs under the lights, just the '05+. You would have to fab up you own mounting brackets to mount the grille though. Did you measure the grille?

 

[NewTrac17]

Weird some 98-04 rangers seem to have tabs and others don't.:scratch: Making new mounting brackets shouldn't be too hard and I may just need to drill new holes. I did measure the grille. The top width was roughly 38.5" and the height was roughly 10.5". I didn't think to measure the bottom width so I sent a picture of my truck and a picture of the ranger grille to my uncle and he photoshopped the ranger grille onto my truck. A new ranger grille is $23 shipped. Here is the pic (my passenger headlight is slightly out of place because I was working on it when I took the pic)

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Wow that grille is smaller than I thought. You might be better off either cutting yours or finding a ST or a '01-03 Explorer Sport that's wrecked in the front where they won't charge full price for it since you're only using the grille section.

 

[NewTrac17]

Yeah I may end up just cutting my stock bumper. I've looked for a wrecked bumper and haven't been able to find one let alone a nice one. There is one bumper that is wrecked on both sides and the grille is still intact but it's in Denver and I don't really want to go down there and get it lol. I could add on to the ranger grille possibly. Maybe fill the gap with mesh or fiberglass.

 

[Valas1969]

Ill be curious to see how it works out. The fact that we don't have a traditional bumper is one of my biggest pet peeves of the truck. I've been looking through custom ones because of someone/something doing this to mine recently while it was parked. It's so close to breaking in two spots and just hanging there.

Problem is the majority of people who have built bumpers for our trucks don't replace that part that's about to completely break on mine.

you could also do what dirt bike riders do and make it a franken bumper with some zip ties. lol

 

[TGtrac05]

True. I did think about taking the zip tie route for now. I'd fit in at the drift car meets too haha

 

[Valas1969]

If done right it wouldn't look that bad. you just have to do it from the inside.

 

[NewTrac17]

If you take the bumper off and melt the plastic possibly along with some new stuff it would look good and last until you get a winch bumper.