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Lets see your bumpers


whitetrash96 , I love what you have on the front there, very nice work.
4x4junkie , I also really like yours.

Here is mine, I am putting 2"x2"x1/4" tubing behind the tinfoil outer sections of the front bumper. And when I get a chance I'm going to move the rear hitch receiver over top of the tow bar instead of under.
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I have didn't really plan it this way, I just kind threw it together when the idea's and materials where available. I enjoy how they ended up, I like the strong tow points incorporated with the stock-ish look.
 
Just so you know its not a good idea to put the tow hooks on your bumper like that. I think sooner then later its gonna end up pulling your bumper off.
 
what did you do to beef up that rear bumper for tow point duty?

Honestly, nothing. I positioned my D-links *just* inside of each frame rail for optimum load transferal to the frame, anytime I pull from them 99% of the load goes straight to one frame rail, the rest has to transfer sideways through the bumper to the other frame rail, I feel this is defiantly better than if I had put them outside the frame rails, and a tiny bit better than if I had put them in-line with the frame rails. This way the other frame rail at least knows that there is a load, I have seen a truck where they were pulling on 1 frame rail and they ended up sliding it forward. If you were to look at that frame from above or below it is now a parallelogram instead of a rectangle. I'm relying on the bumper to act as a cross member as well, a job which I think it is up to. Other than that I made sure the bolts were in good condition and made sure my welds had good penetration.

I think sooner then later its gonna end up pulling your bumper off.

Thank you for your concern, but I don't think I will pull my rear bumper off, if I'm stuck bad enough that I feel there is a danger of pulling it off I will tie into the frame for that pull. I know I will never pull the front bumper off. If someone wants to suggest that I am in danger of shearing six 1/2" grade 8 bolts with a 4400 lbs truck then.... IDK, but I sincerely doubt that will happen.

*IF* anything ever comes apart on the rear bumper I have chosen my weakest link to be the bumper-to-frame union, which there is 2 of. This is so when I reach the point of something failing the first thing that will happen is one side of the bumper will come off the truck. My experience has been that things like this will bend and not all four bolts will fail at the same instant. There will at least be a moment of warning (and a noise?) before the whole pulling assembly (winch?towrope?) comes undone. This gives you a second to either let off with your pulling device, and/OR duck and cover, hehe.
For the rear bumper to come undone two 1/2" bolts have to shear. I know that metal strengths come into play here but to have a quick look at it...
Two 1/2" bolts have a shear area of 0.1963 sqr inches, (remember there is two perside, =4)
ONE 5/16" winch cable has a tensile area of 0.0767 sqr inches.
So two bolts have more than double the area of metal that has to fail compared to the cable that I do 90% of my recovery work with.

So even if the frame-to-bumper bolts don't prove to be the failing part, I think the bumper itself is next in line. Again, it has been my experience that things like this yield before they completely fail, giving the people (that pay attention anyways) some warning. There is the heavy drawbar section (1/4" plate?) that mounts to the frame rails. If this is the part that fails it will bend before it comes apart, thus letting me know. I sized the D-links bigger than the frame-to-bumper bolts because I don't want to have D-link's or clevis's (or parts of either) becoming bullets when winching.

*IF* I manage to mangle/ruin this bumper, I will be forced to build something on-par with my front bumper, then there will be no more trouble.
 
I made a rear bumper a couple weeks ago. I will be putting a 2" reciever hitch on the bottom of it someday but I needed to get the bumper itself done fast so I just left it off for now.

Pics!
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I'll play

Here is my pile, I have about $200 in steel and about 50 hours to make. The body is 6"x6" square tube 1/4 inch wall. The brackets attaching the bumper to the frame is cut from 3/8ths plate.
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Built the bumper last summer, all new parts. Yes, the rust on the hardware (which came painted) is already starting to rust. Gotta love Wisconsin...



hick
 
could someone post some material costs for the bumpers that they made?

I have about 50 bucks (bumper, backets/mounts, paint, everything) into my rear bumper (above your post) and about a days worth of work form start to finish. $60 if you include the cost of the welding rods.
 
here's the ones i made 2 years ago and also the tire gate. just got a new ranger and am gonna be starting over again.

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