Hey I just crawled out of bed five minutes ago. What do you want from me?? lol

 

haha nah its just a ranger thing... no fullsize.OR chevy's be stealing my **** :P

 

I'm not gonna have shackles. I'll still be using the hitch I have for towing. It is looking like it will mount on the most rearward bed cab bolts. I ran out of welding gas so the project didn't get much further that what you see. I did get the the second piece cut and bent.

 

sounds good, yea i still need to do somthn bout a hitch. i need to tow things, and im gettn sick of not being able to. and i dont want to have one hangn down stock, so i'll have to find one to mod, or get one made

 

I cut my hitch and welded and bolted it back together after the bodylift. It raised up about 2-1/2 - 3". I was a little uneasy about it but I towed an old ranger on a trailer about 100 miles sinced I hacked on it. It seems functional so I'm gonna leave well enough alone.

The clevis' are cool but if I can somehow have the exhaust tips come out of the bumper it will be cool and tucked out of the way for off roading. I hope I can figure something out to make that happen. It's all still up in the air due to my lack of talent. we'll see.

 

what color is thing gonna be when you are done? Any chance you can get powder coating in Sonic blue?

exhaust comming through it would look friggin sweet!

 

It'll be sonic blue. I went through a big learning curve painting the roush hood scoop. I'm pretty comfy with doing it now.

A couple of things I thought about from the get go:
Line of fires
exhaust through it
an outlet from a bed mounted air tank. Just connect the hose to the fitting on the back bumper. Maybe a small access door involved. IDK.
CB antenna mount for one those long ones that confirms my redneckness.
At which time I get rock sliders I will continue the style under this roll pan.

Thinking and doing are two different things. We'll see how this progresses.

 

great ideas!.. i want on-board air too.

i have a 102" whip.. im no redneck :P

i like the plug in idea for the air, but yea if its gona be offroad, prolly should have some kind of door that will cover the air outlet so it wont get trashed

wayne what air kit do you have?

 

Wayne, i have one of those redneck antennas if you want it. $15 its yours if you can meet me somewhere one day.

 

Michael. That sounds good. Surely there will be a meet in the area sometime.

Andy- I just have a 20 gallon tank with no compressor. I figure if I have a quick disconnect for the "out" that I could use the same outlet to fill it up. I can rig up an adapter like a male/male to use to fill up from my 50 gallon compressor. I can also rig up a male with a valve stem on the other end to fill it up at a gas station. It should be pretty simple. If it comes down to it I guess I could get on board air. Initially it will be on board storage.

 

Wayne(or Andy), do you have any pics. of where/ how it mounts? About how much did it cost to make? I really like yours Andy!

 

All the metal was about $50 from a lumberyard. I'm sure there are cheaper sources.

 

^^ like free :D .. heh yea i got my metal from in my dads shop, he got a bunch for a job he did and never used it, also he takes the metal the iron workers leave around the job sites

i used stock bumper brackets and cut and welded them into the bumper design, so it mounts like a stock bumper

 

The mounts are going to be the hardest thing for me. I was planning on using the stock mounts also. Instead I decided I was making the hitch part of the bumper. So now I have to make custom brackets for each side to utilize all five bolts holes on each side =\

Bumper itself should be cakework.

 

Only problem is those bumpers you guys re building offer very little protection in a non-direct rearend car crash. First guy to not hit you straight on is gonna whack the fiberglass and **** ur bed. It happened to me(cept i did the reverse snowy hill hitting lol) and my bed, although unnoticable, is tweaked.

Aaron

 

All my body panels are trash. I have a crack in my pass side fender already. That's the point. I'm hoping someone trashes one of them...let their insurance pay for it. The only reason I'm putting a bumper back on is b/c officer friendly wrote me a ticket telling me to do so. Otherwise I'd just let the hitch hang there. I noticed once the bumper is off, that oem hitch hangs down a bit. I'm surprised I never scooped up dirt with that sucker, that's why I decided to integrate the hitch.

It's better than the guys who put glass roll pans there. At least there's something.

 

looks like a good start there wayne..

 

ehh.. you get hit in the rear yer fukked either way..

 

Wayne, I work in conroe monday thru friday from 4-9 if you are ever in the area...any other time Im probably in Huntsville. PM me whenever you want to pick it up.

 

It would have to be next time Christian has a meet. That would be the only time I'm down there.

 

thats gonna look awsome, wayne. i want one of those for my truck one day, with the shackles like andy's

 

I was able to work on it today. I put the bracket on that came with my BL kit:




I cut some off so the bumper would fit flush:


So I could change the angle of the two bars, I tacked some metal to the back. Once the bottom bar was welded to the bracket I was gonna bend the top bar to fit the opening. My welds popped s I had to go anoher rout.


i had to cut some more off the bracket. It was to tall to fit in the "U":


I Tacked the bottom bar to the bracket. The plan as mentioned earlier was to bend the top bar into place using those two welded tabs. The metal I used was too thick and the tacks broke before the metal would bend:


No problem. I got a couple of pieces of angle iron and tacked them to the front so the top bar had the right angle. Not sure if they will stay there. Maybe the start of a swing put tire mount? Maybe a cb antenna mount? IDK yet.


more to come as I progress. Right now I have it contoured to match not just left to rigt, but up and down also!

 

that looks good wayne. plans to change the hitch?

 

the hitch does look out of place doesn't it. I haven't thought about it other than I tow a lot for long distances. I'm kind of iffy on integrating it into the bumper. I'll have to think about it.

 

im not knocking anyone who builds bumpers like this style. but to me it defeats the purpose of even having a "bumper". when you get rear ended whats to save your bed/tailgate/frame from taking all that force of the impact.