How do the Cat made front and rear bumpers for a 400I hold up?

 

i dont know about cats bumper but i know the one i made for the front of my 375 cantake a beating check out my pics to see

 

Yeah, I've seen your pics before. It is a bad *** looking bumper. I am thinking about building my own bumper also. I saw another bumper someone else had built and I was going to try to combine his ideas and your idea. You ever come to East Texas to ride?

 

i haven't yet but i would like to go ride at fun wheeler i've heard its a nice place i just got hooked up with a club out of houston called the texas good old boys and they are planning a ride there a couple of times this year so i'm hoping to make one of those. check out there site they are a great group of atv riders" texasgoodoldboys.com"

 

i don;t have the rear one but i can tell you that i wsa really impressed with the front bumper. ran into numerous things with mine since i installed it hasn't bent yet. the tube in the middle is now my trailer hitch for pulling people out, i highly recommend it, very easy to put on too, took about 15 minutes, well worth it!!

 

I have both bumpers, both are very sturdy. bent one side of the front on slightly when I was trying to pust a tree that was across a stream. If you want to build your own I could give you some dimensions and pics of the ac ones if you want. You could build a rear bumper really easily, and they are very handy. I also welded 2 pieces of 1" square tubing to mine and have made some of my own "mrp" style tool holders, and have designed a chainsaw holder.

 

I have both, and a funny thing happend to me with the front one to prove to me that is a good bumper. I had my quad in the back of the pickup and slid off a muddy road, my back straps broke and my machine went full tilt into the back of my cab and put a huge dent just abouve my rear window I took a look at the bumper and ther wasn't a scratch just a little paint from my truck on it. Hope that gives you an idea. You can check out my pic's and you see the front bumper there.

 

Hey, Greasmky! I built my front bumper this weekend. It turned out pretty good. Got to get it painted. It looks similar to BASSTOY's. It's an eye catcher. I'll figure out how to get some pics posted when I get it finished. PM me if you ever come to ride this side of the Brazos.

 

thats cool . i'll let you know , i saw there is a place there close to you called skoolzout atv park have you had a chance to check them out yet?

 

If you are beefin' up the front bumper and have a winch mounted in the front bumper, you might also want to look at replacing the "L" shaped bumper support brackets. They come off the frame and go along either side of the radiator or oil cooler and connect to the bumper. If you hit an object hard enough with the front bumper it can push the front bumper back far enough, bending those brackets, to severely damage the radiator or oil cooler with the back of winch.

This has happened to me (I won't go into how) and no matter how strong your bumper is those brackets bend rather easliy. If your winch is mounted someplace other than behind that bumper I think it would be fine. I also am not familiar enough with ATV design to know if that "L" bracket was designed to bend in the event of a severe impact to the front bumper, to absorb some of the force? (similar to a front bumper on a car)

It is a $200 mistake that is preventable if you also make those "L" brackets stronger while improving the front bumber.

SJ.