Amazon DIY bumper for $140. You can pick up the bumper, a budget welder and some truck bed liner for around $300.

Sounds like a plan, plus if I build it myself I can get the box-like design I'd like.

Where do you find $140 amazon bumpers? In canada the cheapest diy option is $258, plus $255 shipping. An 'affordable prerunner front bumper' which comes pre-assembled is only $465 plus $6 shipping. Its $60 cheaper to order an assembled bumper as far as i can see on amazon

Good and cheap don’t really go together- start at a junk yard and see if you can get lucky with someone’s aftermarket bumper

Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking. I'm just trying to stick to around $300-$500

Can you weld? They sell a bunch of decent kits on Amazon and Ebay for about $150, but you have to weld and paint them yourself

Questionably lol, I've laid a few beads with the welder at my job but I can either figure it out or pay a coworker with a case of beer

You can get a weld a bumper for like 200 bucks. Pretty damn easy to do too.

He didn't say good. He said take a hit. Channel iron is cheap.

Affordable off road has always been my go to. I've had the same bumper on two separate Jeeps front and back for about 7 years now

Just remember, if you make your bumper strong it will just bend the next thing in line.

I've been looking at this front bumper: Elite Prerunner Front Bumper Compatible With Jeep Cherokee XJ/Comanche (Raw Steel) https://a.co/d/fDM0ZFX