Custom Bumper Build

[Troymclure]

I thought Id throw up a quick little build of my front bumper. I originally wanted a shrockworks, but couldnt afford it, so I decided to make one myself. Mine is pretty closely modeled off the shrockworks, built with 3/16" and 1/4'' plate, all cut by grinding wheel (never doing that again, haha). Anyway, hope you enjoy.

For those wondering, total cost was about $120 in materials, and a week or two of hard work, to me, totally worth it.

On to pics:

Bumper off

First mock up, too small though

Plate cut, brackets made

Welding it up

Coming along nicely

First mock up of steel on car

Main section welded, and brackets done, bolted on

Finished, and painted with bed liner

And dirty!

Still planning on beefing up the front hoop and adding some headlight hoops much like the shrockworks. Also might new to make new mounts when I get my body lift in, we'll see haha

 

[Troymclure]

Oops, fixing pics now

 

[KidVermicious]

Oh, man. Please don't ever use those rings for anything more strenuous than lashing a canoe to your rack. Try and recover off of those and if you're lucky they'll pull right out at the first bit of tension on the strap. If you're not lucky they'll hold just long enough to turn into missiles when they do let go, and if it's a really bad day they'll wait until you're halfway out of whatever scrape you were in before tearing out and your truck will fall back into the rock or mud and be in worse shape than before, with bonus body damage.

Recovery points should be rated for a static load at least twice the total weight of your truck, and tied directly back to the frame. Those Home Depot deck loops aren't going to cut it, and even if they were strong enough by themselves they'd taco your bumper because you don't have them tied into the frame.

I like the bumper, it looks good. But please take those loops off before somebody gets tempted to try to use them.

 

[Troymclure]

Oh, man. Please don't ever use those rings for anything more strenuous than lashing a canoe to your rack. Try and recover off of those and if you're lucky they'll pull right out at the first bit of tension on the strap. If you're not lucky they'll hold just long enough to turn into missiles when they do let go, and if it's a really bad day they'll wait until you're halfway out of whatever scrape you were in before tearing out and your truck will fall back into the rock or mud and be in worse shape than before, with bonus body damage.

Recovery points should be rated for a static load at least twice the total weight of your truck, and tied directly back to the frame. Those Home Depot deck loops aren't going to cut it, and even if they were strong enough by themselves they'd taco your bumper because you don't have them tied into the frame.

I like the bumper, it looks good. But please take those loops off before somebody gets tempted to try to use them.

I know they may not look like much, but they aren't just homedepot rings bolted to the plate steel. What I didn't show pics of was the reinforcement tube steel I put going from frame end to frame end to prevent the frame getting bent inwards. I also have a pretty hefty structure behind all the plate steel to prevent it from tacoing in. The rings themselves are rated for 12,000lbs. On the back side of where they mount is roughly a 8"x10" 1/4" plate welded behind where they mount to thicken the plate up. It is also gusseting in the the side brackets that make up the shape of the bumper, which are directly tied into the frame rails. Right now the only weak point is the bolts. I have yet to find any higher rated bolts locally, so I just have grade 8's in there now. I appreciate your concern but I put a pretty serious amount of thought into everything I did. I'm studying to be a mechanical engineer, so I live for this kind of thing.

 

[Geologist]

Badass man, that's one of the nicer 4th gen bumpers I've seen. Props for doing it yourself. What type of welder did you use? Do you have any pics of the reinforcement tube?

 

[Troymclure]

Badass man, that's one of the nicer 4th gen bumpers I've seen. Props for doing it yourself. What type of welder did you use? Do you have any pics of the reinforcement tube?

Thanks man! I just used some random 180 amp welder my friends grandpa had in his garage haha. I believe it was a sun co or something. I don't have pics of the inside right now. For some reason I never took pics of it. I'll try to get some when I get home. I'm not on summer yet so I'm still living at school, away from my 4runner, Sadface