Awesome work, very sharp :)

 

Got my parts in. I should finish up this weekend.

Here are the weldable shackle mounts:



Here are the license plate lights:


-Levino

 

Looks killer, hurry up and finish I wanna see it done

 

I think you should get fancy and recess the liscence plate area

 

for sure man, no worries!!

make sure and take care of yourself, we can always improve later!!

 

you asked for it these two pics have me worried a lil bit. your brackets look like they attach to the frame in great fashion(same as the stock hitch.) but then the bumper is only attached to those brackets with 2 (grade5????) bolts per side?
IMO, the bumper bracket to frame attachment point could be made stronger by incorperating both the stock hitch and bumper attachment points. you also need to have a better joint between the brackets and the bumper itself. weld it? maybe 4 grade8 bolts per side?
maybe the "in progress" pics are misleading....

 

^^True, i thought the exact same thing, just bit my tongue a bit. Hefty bumper with weak points of connection. I could see those suckers shearing off.

 

First off thank you for the feedback. It's my error about the grade 5 bolts. I went to lowes intending to buy grade 8, but I had a brain fart. When I got home I thought "Damn it", all well I'll get the grade 8's when I install it premanently.

I decided to mount the bumper onto brackets for easier assembly. I completely understand what you are saying and I'm going to look into it further. In the long run I'd like it make it so that the bolts aren't taking the downward load, but instead just holding the bumper in place, if that makes sense.

I'll get back to you guys...

-Levino

 

I don't have the time to type the steps right now, but I roughly calculated a safety factor of 13.8 for a tongue weight of 6000 lb. The force needed to shear the grade 8 bolts is 80,000 lb. I made the decision to use four bolts because if you take a look at the bracket mounts, four bolts due most of the supporting.

I'll post how I got those numbers later, I have class in a few minutes.

-Levino

 

^ oh the joy of school and learning those calculations.. i enjoyed my statics/strength in materials classes.. besides the fact that id rather be doing anything else

get some fresh pics when its all done and painted

 

I got the shackles mounted. I cut a slot out of the bumper, inserted the mounts and welded the front and back of it.






Right now the primer is drying and it should be painted by tonight. Look for the mounted pics hopefully tomorrow(monday) night.

-Levino

 

Man that looks frickin pimp

 

I might be an extra day late on getting it mounted. After painting most of it, I found need to do more grinding and some filling to get it a bit smoother.

Sorry for the delay guys, trust me when I say I'm the most anxious about getting this thing DONE!

-Levino

 

good job with the shackle mounts, very beefy. you should makeup a few of those..maybe someone could use em

 

Thanks for bringing those up. I didn't make the mounts, I purchased them from www.rokmen.com.

For the amount of money to buy the steel bar, I could of bought the mounts from them......so obviously I bought them from rokmen.

-Levino

EDIT: exact link http://www.rokmen.com/smounts.html

 

looking good, can't wait to see it all done and on the truck.

Chad

 

oh sweet, thanks for the link, may come in handy sometime

 

Ok it's on. I got home late so I finished mounting it in the dark......so this is the best pic I could get:



lol, horrible ain't it.

I'll get nice pics tomorrow. I could have done a little better in smoothing the edges but it looks good enough to me. Lastly, tomorrow I need to drop by Autozone and pick up some electrical connectors to wire up the license plate lights.

I must say.......even in the dark this thing looks like it has *****.

-Levino

EDIT: Oh, and the pipes did rattle. For a quick fix I stuffed some rubber between the pipes and bumper.....I'll make it nicer later.

 

sweet!..yea new pic required to see how it really looks lol

 

the rubbers gonna melt broseph...

and you should buy shackle mounts from www.rockstomper.com hes a cool ****...

 

Looks good man. I have to admit, I had my doubts before I saw it painted an on. Consider me converted. Can't wait to see it in the light.

 

Finally here are some nice day pics.






The thing weighs 76 pounds, which isn't too bad. Overall it came out pretty nice. I really like the look of a big beefy bumper.

Now that the rear is out of the way, hopefully I can get my front bumper under way in the next few weeks.

-Levino

EDIT: oh and I think I want some bigger shackles. Those are 5/8, I can go up to 3/4 with the mounts I got.

 

Def beefy! I like it though. Great work man!

 

turned out really nice, now put a tire carrier on it and I will buy one.

Chad

 

the paint makes it look like a giant bar