Hi guys

I guess ill start off with my truck. I have a 1997 4x4 Ford Ranger extended cab.

I am 18 years old and I am designing and ultimately building a (front) bumper and winch mount for my truck. I have a warn m8 winch that I want to put on so I need a bumper that can handle that and look good.

I am also designing this bumper for my Senior project that is a requirement to graduate High school. Since I do not have time to build the bumper before the deadline I will design the bumper on AutoCad inventor.

I am having issues with correct measurements, angles and design. So basically everything. I want the bumper to form fit the front of my truck and I will put hooks and lights on the front.

What I need is the dimensions that will account for the wrap around and ideas exactly how to mount the bumper. If anyone has the dimensions and/or somewhere I can find them with mounting diagram. It would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you

 

your best bet is to take an afternoon and pull off your bumper and measure everything. There are only 4 bolts that hold your bumper on. I built a completely new bumper in approximately 4 hours for my ranger, granted I had access to cutting and welding equipment. If you do build this dont use the goofy mounts that the stock bumper uses, personally I just had 1/4 in. brackets laying around that I used. They had a 90 deg bend in them and a slotted hole on each side, after I had cut and welded my bumper I just bolted it onto the brackets which were bolted to where the stock bumper was. As for my actual bumper I had some 12 gauge C channel laying around so all I did was cut small angles out of the top and bottom, bend, then weld. I basically eyed up the first side to match the curve of the truck and then from there took measurements so the other side would match. Its not the most technical approach but from my experience with inventor, it would be quicker and easier to just go build it. Then worry about drawing it. Dont get me wrong I absolutely love inventor its great for drawing out pieces that you need to get fabbed, but for something like a bumper its not very helpful unless you need the drawings.

After all that I'm curious, have you gone through and looked at pictures to find sorta what you want?

 

Thank you a ton, I have to use inventor for my senior project otherwise I would probably make it. I

I want it to wrap around like the stock one, but be square, I want tow hooks on it with room for fog lights. With probably a standard mounting position on top for the winch.

Sort of like a mixture of these few. Obviously less rounded.
http://www.monstermachine.com/2001ex...Bumper-012.jpg
http://www.gomad4x4.co.za/catalog/im...t%20Bumper.jpg
http://www.therangerstation.com/gall...2009_OTOTM.JPG

 

make it out of cardboard first and tape the pieces together then you can take it apart and measure each piece of cardboard and know the exact dimensions of each piece you need to cut out of the sheet of steel. that's what I did and it was fairly simple.
IMG_1656.jpg?t=1268885126
IMG_1657.jpg?t=1268885171

 

^^ either that or plywood

 

Ok thanks for the help everyone. And woods rider nice Ranger, wish I had the money for all that.

Did you go to OSU? Thats where I am going next year. Go beavs

 

Yeah, just graduated last year.

 

im not sure on how to build a bumper, but inventor is a great program. im taking a CADD program at my school and we started with inventor 2010 first and its awesome. its very user friendly and should be easy to design a bumper on there. now we are learning autocad and its completely different and harder.

but good luck with the bumper

 

That is a good idea, I never thought of doing it that way. Your bumper turned out nice. Mine is definitely more utilitarian but it gets the job done. How hard was the coil over conversion you did woodsrider? How much did it cost in total?