When I built the square tube FB I built everything heavy duty not thinking about the weight. Not only was the tubing all 2 x 2 x .125 the deck and fender material was 12 ga. steel. While the round tube one is, the same design modified a bit, not putting as much bracing of double tubing the fender. I used .100 aluminum plate for the deck that is pop riveted to the framework and the framework for the fenders is 1 x 1 x .125 aluminum angle. After I had it all assembled I used auto seam sealer on all the joints of the deck and fenders. It has taken a lot of abuse in the last few year. Moreover, it is all still tight.

To tell you how much I overbuilt stuff early on, my front winch bumper was made from 5/16 x 4 channel and 1/4 and 5/16 plate and weighted over three hundred pounds without the winch.. My rigged weighed in at about 5,700 pounds. it was a fat <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/oink.gif" alt="" />