I've been thinking of making or having somebody make me a rear bumper for a while. My stock bumper is in pretty bad shape its dented, scratched, the plastic is cracking, and its been bent a few times from dragging the ground when crossing ditches. I was crossing one last weekend to get to a pond to do some ice fishing and it drug going both ways and I'm just tired of it.

The stock bumper


I made a ruff sketch of what i am wanting it to look like. The porportions probably are not correct and i dont have any measurments yet because im at school and the Ranger is 150 miles away. Please give me your opinions on what you think, good or bad, what you would change or keep. I am thinking of using 6" or 8" iron pipe with built in steps, trailer hitch, backup lights, and recovery points.

 

Umm Dosent look bad. But I dont totaly understand it.

 

looks good, but where are you going to put your license plate?

 

Thats a good question forgot about that. I might put it on hinges on the side so that it can swing up if it hits the ground.

 

 

That would look a lot better.

 

I thought about that but i didnt know how much strenth it would have in the middle with the hitch there because i want to be able to tow on the bumper still. Im scared that if i take that much out of it around where the hitch is welded in that it would only be relying on the welds instead of thr rest of the pipe.

I also got to thinking that i will need to fill the back of the steps with something to cover up the gap under the bed.

 

the strength can still be there, its all in how you build it. you can have pretty much any design you want, you just have to build it up inside, underneath, or behind it.

 

i don't think you will see any appreciable loss of strength by cutting the wide step instead of two narrow steps, your frame mounts will be outside of the step or steps (whatever you decide) so the structure of the pipe is already comprimised. it depends how you re-create that structure as to the ultimate strength of it. the 2" receiver will still have the same surface are of weld holding it. i assume you mean to plate the steps.

 

remember, if you are using pipe then your bumper will stick 6 or 8" out as well which may look a little funny. maybe use plate or a smaller diameter pipe. you can have two pipes on top of eachother to make it taller without it sticking out as far something like this.
IMG_0625.jpg?t=1233633395

 

Thanks for the info. Woods-rider your pic didnt show up but i think i know what your talking about. If you mean by plate the steps that i put steel across the the hole then yes.

 

I've been thinking about the width it would stick out also and i don't think i like the idea of sticking out 6 or 8 inches. So what if i took like a 3 or 4 inch pipe and cut it in half long ways and then welded a piece of steel on top of it so it looked like a U with a piece welded across the to so that it would be solid to. That would take care of the step problem because it would be flat. And since it will be open for a while i would be able to add some support to the inside of the bumper. Any thoughts?

 

tell me how it comes out. im trying to get a custom bumper too.

 

sorry, i was reorganizing my photobucket right after i posted up.

 

what i would like to do, is get a FAT tube, (dont know how wide yet) that would sit right under the tailgate. but i dont want it to stick out to the sides how you have it. really hard to explain, i would draw it up on paint, but im on a mac, that doesn't have paint.

 

looks like a good idea i would do a plate bumper

 

im pretty sure this is someones truck on R-F. dont know who though....

but pretty sexy bumper. i want it.

but i would have mine not stick out on the sides as he does.

 

That's what i was thinking to but i wanted to put some flat steps in it, add some back up lights, and put a hitch in it because i wont have a place to tow a trailer if i take my bumper off. I was thinking of cutting a hole and inserting something like this. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=97095

I am not wanting a plate bumper because it could still get hung up easier than a round one can and since im still at stock hight it occasionly gets draged when crossing ditchs and other things. I thought that if it was round then it would slide easier than a plate bumper would.

I took some time away from studying to draw this up in paint so you can see the kind of shape i was talking about earlier with cutting the pipe in half. I like this idea but i think it will be alot of work to do of course my oringonal idea would have been alot of work to.

 

i also wanted to incorprarate a hitch. but for me what i really would like is a place to mount d shackles. http://www.geocities.com/guyvanhorn/Dshackles.jpg

id rather have the D's over a hitch.

 

I was mostly wanting the hitch for towing but i on my original drawing i incorporated two mounts for D shackles. They were the small rectangular thing between the lights and the hitch. I figured that would be around where the bumper mounts would be.

 

ohh, thats what that was.

sounds like a kick a$$ bumper. im trying to get mine made. but the school auto body teacher told me to come back in a week, before he even looks at my truck.

 

Yeah i was wanting to put everything on it now that i think i would need so i don't have to re-due it later. I wont be able to work on it until sometime this summer because i go to college away from home so the ranger is stuck there all alone with nobody to drive it except for a few weekends i go home. Then it gets DRIVEN. So i am just trying to get the idea laid out so i can start to get all of the parts together to make it if it is easy enough.

 

By saying that you don't want it to stick out on the sides do you mean you want to try to tuck it up in the gap below the tailgate?

 

im pretty sure he wants it flush with the body panel..

idk why you would put time into an offroad style bumper and not have it protect everything.. atleast thats what it looks like he's going for.

 

I've actually seen it where someone made a rear tube bumper like the blue one and attached air fittings to it and used it as their tank for onboard air which was kinda cool. It was a wheelin rig only though.