98OzarksRunner
New member
The basis for the bumper is the factory receiver hitch. I wanted to maintain the ability to pull a heavy trailer, and most of the bumpers I saw looked like they were weaker than the factory hitch.
I cut the hitch and moved it up about 3 1/2" by putting it inside the frame. I welded nuts to the hitch and drilled the frame. The hitch bolts go in from the top (4 1/2" grade 8 bolts on each side - plenty strong).
Then I welded 3" rectangular tubing (3/16" thick) to extend the hitch to the sides, and welded uprights to the ends, for the tire and gas can swing outs (to come later). (Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.)
Then we filled in the gaps and made the side wings. I have a friend with a metal-working business and I raided his scrap pile (and he had his guys cut the pieces to my specs - saved lots of work). The wings and step plate are 10 ga and the other pieces are 12 or 14 ga.
We welded braces from the wings to the frame (3/4" rect tubing) for rigidity. We ground down the welds on the non-structural visible surfaces. Here's the mounted bumper, before we pulled it off for paint.
After it's painted, I'll put some non-skid traction tape over the step areas (to hide the welds in the center and keep me from falling off of it).
It's a little more squared off in the back than I'd like but the uprights are certainly strong enough to hold a tire mount. I'm going to weld tabs to them and drop a bolt through the tabs for the swing-out. If I were doing it again, I'd probably just weld a long piece of 3" tubing over the hitch. That would make it more compact and still allow room to put the tire mount on the uprights. Currently, it is pretty much the same dimensions as the factory bumper so it fits the body lines well (except for being squared off in the back).
I have less than $200 in it, including paint and the trailer hitch ($60 from the junk yard), but too many hours of labor to be profitable. I think it weighs about 75 lbs (I can lift and mount it pretty easily).
I cut the hitch and moved it up about 3 1/2" by putting it inside the frame. I welded nuts to the hitch and drilled the frame. The hitch bolts go in from the top (4 1/2" grade 8 bolts on each side - plenty strong).
Then I welded 3" rectangular tubing (3/16" thick) to extend the hitch to the sides, and welded uprights to the ends, for the tire and gas can swing outs (to come later). (Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.)
Then we filled in the gaps and made the side wings. I have a friend with a metal-working business and I raided his scrap pile (and he had his guys cut the pieces to my specs - saved lots of work). The wings and step plate are 10 ga and the other pieces are 12 or 14 ga.
We welded braces from the wings to the frame (3/4" rect tubing) for rigidity. We ground down the welds on the non-structural visible surfaces. Here's the mounted bumper, before we pulled it off for paint.
After it's painted, I'll put some non-skid traction tape over the step areas (to hide the welds in the center and keep me from falling off of it).
It's a little more squared off in the back than I'd like but the uprights are certainly strong enough to hold a tire mount. I'm going to weld tabs to them and drop a bolt through the tabs for the swing-out. If I were doing it again, I'd probably just weld a long piece of 3" tubing over the hitch. That would make it more compact and still allow room to put the tire mount on the uprights. Currently, it is pretty much the same dimensions as the factory bumper so it fits the body lines well (except for being squared off in the back).
I have less than $200 in it, including paint and the trailer hitch ($60 from the junk yard), but too many hours of labor to be profitable. I think it weighs about 75 lbs (I can lift and mount it pretty easily).
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