Well my bumper project is well under way. My friend cut up and welded all the materials I'm using. We are using 1" thick plate steel for shackle tabs, class 3 receiver and 1/4" thick channel as the bumper. I have the tabs, receiver and ends for the channel all welded in and it looks sweet. I just have to bend it with a machine at my friends shop to get the radius I want and make up mounting tabs with angle iron. My cam died before I could get any good shot of it welded up but here are the some of the parts we made up:

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_21_full.jpg

 

Looks good man, keep it going!

Brenton

 

Looks good so far! I wanna see finished pictures asap!

 

OK, here it is finished. It took a lot of mock up and welding but here it is. I still have to chip guard it like the rest of the truck and find a good way to light the license plate but it's all but done.

Can one of you guys repost these pics so you can see them instead of links?

here is the back of it. You can see I welded the tabs right to the brackets that go to the frame rail for support and how the tabs were tapered through a smaller hole, pushed through the back and welded on both sides so its very very strong.

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_24_full.jpg
Here it is mocked up

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_23_full.jpg
here its getting extra gussets to support the receiver

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_25_full.jpg
Painted

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_27_full.jpg

All done!

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_28_full.jpg

 

hooked ya up

looks good man

 

Thanks gaybriel!

 

looks good.
if you plan on any towing, you might consider boxin in the center section between the frame brackets. maybe overkill, but id rather have the center boxed and add another weld to the receiver tube than put alot of tounge weight on single thickness plate like that.

nice work!

 

we dropped the boom on a crane on top of it and it didnt even flex. Thats thicker then the frame rails too so I'll trust it. We also added supports behind it. And if I boxed it I wouldnt be able to get the pin in behind it.

 

did you drop the crane on the face of the bumper or on a tube stickin out of the receiver? different direction of the forces

i see your issue with the pin placement.

 

I dropped the boom on the receiver itself while the bumper was supported by 2 4" square stock. I was trying to give it a slight radius like the truck but it stayed straight. The boom had a set of jaws on it so big they cut through I beam for demo work. I think it's really called an excavator but to me it looks like a crane. I'll probably never tow anything anyway But I'll consider it. Thanks.

 

That bumper looks perty darn good! I like it.

 

Thanks Trigger! Not bad for free right?

 

Free is the best way to go!

 

hope not run into the back of you anytime soon!!

 

It would probably buckle my chasis haha. The only thing that would be slavaged would be the bumper.

 

Now that looks nice. Think that you want to do another one for my Sport Trac?

 

I thought about making more but it would be to much money. I figured the materials plus the hours it took me would be about $400. Just not worth it. Thanks though.

 

Is it bolted straight to the frame or to the stock bumper brackets?

 

I dunno I havn't seen anything like that for a sport trac and so I think i may like 400 for it, I would like to try and find one thats boxed just because i do tow so much

 

I made my own bracket out of 1/4" angle iron that bolts directly to the frame rails with 3, 1/2" zink plated bolts on each side with lock nuts. The brackets are welded right to the bumper as you can see in one of the pics. Here is one from the back mounted. You can see how heavy duty it is...

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...25_29_full.jpg