How much interest in a winch bumper build by SKoverland?

[sk_overland]

Hi All! So, my wife just got into a fender bender with our Launch Edition R1S. She was trying to get something from the back for the kids at a stoplight and rolled forward into the next car. The front is not terrible, but will need some work. The lower valance broke, and the front has some cracks and lots of scuffing (she and the kids are fine).

Soo, I am thinking of finally building a winch bumper for the Rivian. I don't post here much, but I have a company that makes aluminum bumpers for Land Rovers (including the new Defender - if you want to see them check out www.skoverland.com or @sk_overland on Instagram). So not my first rodeo making production aluminum bumpers.

At any rate, obviously making a bumper for the Rivian is a pretty big task, like it was for the New Land Rover Defender, and as such, I want to gauge interest. I am considering doing pre-orders, but wanted some feedback from everyone here. Basically, I would try to make it in a similar style to my Aluminum Defender bumper, to blend lines into the truck as best as possible and hide the winch behind the bumper for a cleaner look. Here is the link to my new Defender bumper ( 2020+ Defender Front Winch Bumper - SKOverland - Custom Off-Road Parts and Vehicle Builds )

I know everyone will ask price, and I would expect it to be similar to our Defender bumper, which starts at $4500. The development will take at least 9-12mo before we are even ready to ship a single bumper (and thousands of hours of labor, CAD, programming, fabrication and testing), so as you can imagine getting a good feel of who is interested is important to me before I make the huge time/money investment!

If you are interested (or even if you are not), please fill out the Poll! I am trying to get a sense of who wants one, who wants to actually put money down (and therefore have some say in the development and get regular updates), and who would want to just see how it comes along. I suspect that if I can get about 25-30 money-down pre-orders, I would go ahead and get started on the development.

Any thoughts or questions let me know, looking forward to the feedback!!

Sponsored

 

[Dark-Fx]

Is the full thing aluminum? Will it include a skid plate? Will you try to integrate the sensors and camera on the front of the truck? Definitely would be interested at that price point but I don't want to lose any of the tech in the truck, personally.

 

[sk_overland]

Is the full thing aluminum? Will it include a skid plate? Will you try to integrate the sensors and camera on the front of the truck? Definitely would be interested at that price point but I don't want to lose any of the tech in the truck, personally.

Hey Dark-Fx, pretty much yes to all of the above!
- The whole skin is 3/16 aluminum, the actual winch mount would be steel like our Defender bumper and would likely be part of the support for the aluminum skin. We have bashed the Defender bumper for years and it is very strong.
- Skid Plate, yes I\we would design it so it protects some under the truck, probably to interface with the Rivian skid plate (which I have on my own R1S). I would likely hope to get a pre-order from someone local who does not have the Rivian skid plate so we could make sure it fits both underbodies.
- We would definitely integrate all of the sensors. We integrated ALL Land Rover tech into our Defender bumpers (front and rear), including cameras, lane assist Lidar sensors and ultrasonic distance sensors.

 

[jjswan33]

Very interested. Wouldn't necessarily commit a $1k to a pre-order a year out so I voted accordingly.

 

[Dark-Fx]

pretty much yes to all of the above!

Updated my response. Definitely interested. Would like to see a little improvement in arrival angles over stock, but if it's stiff enough I don't need to worry about it, probably not a big deal.

I might still investigate doing this myself but more about the electrical aspect of things versus a saleable product.

 

[sk_overland]

Updated my response. Definitely interested. Would like to see a little improvement in arrival angles over stock, but if it's stuff enough I don't need to worry about it, probably not a big deal.

I might still investigate doing this myself but more about the electrical aspect of things versus a saleable product.

Yeah an improvement on approach angle would be nice, will really all depend on how everything fits with a winch once we get into the design!

 

[EVTrukHog]

how do you plan to power the winch?

 

[k3g]

I care about:

- winch capacity. I'd like to fit a 12k *without re-mounting the solenoid*
- strength: This thing should be able to take both a kinetic recovery, and act a lifting point should a wrecker need to tow me out with the front lifted due to excessive shenanigans
- parking sensors: Companies like BAMF provide inserts to re-mount parking sensors.

edit: The reason I wouldn't put money down is that bumpers are highly aesthetic, and I'd like to see how yours will look before committing. This isn't purely function > form.

 

[Dark-Fx]

- winch capacity. I'd like to fit a 12k *without re-mounting the solenoid*

Are you familiar with the Warn 12k platinum? What does it matter if the pack is on top of, next to, 100 feet behind, if the entire package is hidden behind the front valence?

 

[k3g]

Are you familiar with the Warn 12k platinum? What does it matter if the pack is on top of, next to, 100 feet behind, if the entire package is hidden behind the front valence?

It complicates the install and in the rivian, I don't want to stuff a solenoid into the gaps between the frunk tub and the rest of the stuff under there. I'd like sufficient space to be left for the factory mounting location for the winch solenoid to be used.

Like I know I can re-mount it but I dun wanna

 

[sk_overland]

@k3g
- I agree with the bumper for kinetic recovery - on our Defender bumper our d-rings mount to the winch plate which mounts to the frame.
- I can't say exactly how we will do it yet, but likely similar. Given it will most likely also be a hidden winch, the Warn Platinum series (with remote controlled clutch) would be the winch of choice. That has a non-movable solenoid. Again similar to our Defender bumper the intent would be to keep the front end looking clean so no hole to access a manual winch clutch.
- The parking sensors are easy - on our Defender bumper we reverse engineered the mounting bracket Land Rover had, put it in CAD and then adapted it to our bumper. We 3D print (SLS for those interested) our brackets and bond them into our bumper, so the original Land Rover sensors just pop right into our bumper. They were all mounted at weird angles, but we designed each bracket to make sure the sensor kept the original mounting angle relative to the ground, even through the faces of our bumper were different angles than the original bumper. I would expect a similar solution here!

@EVTrukHog
- To power the winch we would likely add AGM lead acid battery capacity in parallel to the 12v battery system, which would be pretty seamless, provide the current capacity for a 12k winch and also be essentially invisible to the vehicle while being charged along with the existing 12v battery. Additionally useful for other accessories like fridges, radios, lights, etc.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

That is very cool. I in no way need it, but my house is full of things I don't really need.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I looked at your Defender link and am pretty impressed. Obviously at that price point it would take some hard consideration, but I would definitely like to improve protection at the front and back of my vehicle (as I did with my previous Chevy trucks).

Am not as interested in the winch functionality as I am just adding more "armor". Had been hoping the Rivian brush guard shown on those Africa safari vehicles might become available at some point. But definitely following development of your product.

Also, +1 for being important to include all sensor capabilities. And consideration on weight with the vehicle's air suspension, etc.

 

[k3g]

Any chance you'd be down to filet in the inside radius of your shackle mounts? Most everyone I wheel with has switched to soft shackles, so a softer radius on the recovery points is a big plus. It doesn't tear them up nearly as bad.

 

[WSea]

Sponsored