Wayne you could get a hiden hitch and only the square part would stick out a little. I don't know what to tell you if you don't want want it to stick out at all. I does look good though!

 

With either his design or a normal bumper they are going to get damaged anyways. The bumper gets impacted and comes forward hitting the bed and or tailgate. Either way you have damage.

Looks good BTW.

 

looks good to me wayne..
keep it goin brah

 

Not True. I got hit 2 times in the rear of my 98 while stopped at lights and both times my bumper got it and never touched my flareside.

 

I don't think it's that simple. I have a body lift. The one you see was cut apart and lifted 3". It's touching the spare tire as it is. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.

 

If my hitch ever gets done mine should be just as strong if not stronger than the stock hitch.

 

I forgot about that. You could get a spindle lift and a hidden hitch, it's the expensive way to go, but the hitch will be hidden.

 

3 words

yer ****ed anways..


might as well have some style...and its stronger than a rollpan

 

i seen lots of accidents where bumpers have been damaged but no other damage accured to the vehicle because the bumper took all the force of the hit.

 

4x4= no spindle lifts


if your bed gets tagged you call up the insurance company, although yall might wanna check with them and see if they will cover it still being that your removed your bumper.

I don't know if it will be stong enough because it's on body lift brackets, but I think you should remove your hitch setup and just stick a square tube piece in the center of your bumper, and then get dual exhaust to exit through holes on either side of that hitch

 

your on the right track with what I would like to do Andy. I have to work out the logistics. "If" I can make a swing out tire carrier the options will be better. The spare tire seems to be in the way for any kind of hidden or reconfigured hitch. The spare tire looks to be in the way with having the exhaust come out of the bumper.

 

Wayne do you have a full size spare??? If you dont then its kinda pointless to even have it in there since you have upgraded to a larger tire. If anything just get a fullsize spare and put it in the bed.

 

I have it figured out. I have an s-10 hitch in the back yard and it is straight, not arching out like mine. Remove the spare tire and graft this onto my hitch and it should be good.

 

why not be creative?..putting it in the bed is lame, and takes up space

 

lol. A swing away on the bumper would be nice.

I have the brackets, bumper, and hitch all tack welded together as one unit. I removed it from the truck. I am working on removing the hitch and attaching an s-10 straight bar hitch to it. It will tuck under nicely. It started raining so I am off the project at the moment.

 

Pic of everything (brackets, hitch, and bumper) welded together and removed from the truck:


This is the straight bar hitch I plan to integrate into it so it will sit flush:

 

I got the hitch off while leaving all the bracketry. I put the bumper back on the truck to make sure nothing twisted. It fit right in:

 

Lookin good Wayne! Can't wait to see it all finished. I love how you arched the bumper to match the tailgate! Your attn to detail shows through.

 

looks great wayne!

 

hitch fitted into the end of the frame. The frame has a hole in the bottom and side. i'm gonna box the end of the hitch with a nut welded to the other side. The same with the bottom. After it has 4 bolts holding it on I'll weld it to the frame. It ought to stay put. I cut out part of the spare tire holder. There is room to run my exaust through the bumper now!

 

getting some work done:

 

The two exhaust tips are small. They basically split from one main pipe. The pipes will be cut flush to the bumper.

Notice the Hitch probelem is resolved (It's not sticking out.

I'm going to weld a flat stock on the back side to fill in the gap between the two c-channels. This will give a mounting spot for the Line of Fire LEDs and keep it from getting caked with mud. You can see the flat metal sitting on the a-frames.

 

One more pic I forgot to load:

 

Pretty nifty idea.

 

nice wayne. i want better pics of how you did the hitch. i can barely see it! i like the exhaust but i think i would have gone bigger. looks good