James Duff Bumper on Explorer?

[badge49]

Tire Carrier Complete

I just finished fabricating and installing the tire carrier. The main body comes from a Jeep Cherokee carrier, but I also used parts from an early '90s full-size Bronco and a BII. The biggest hassel was getting the latch system to work since it came off the Bronco carrier and I had to adapt it to a Jeep carrier. See the pics:

Here's the mock-up, you can see the cut bracket on the ground (used to be on my OEM Explorer bumper as seen above):

A little bit of welding...my welds are getting a little better with practice :

The latch and handle release were a pain, but they turned out great:

I secured the rear hatch-mounted clasp with four self tapping screws and rubber padding/sealing:

Here's how it looks without the tire:

And here it is (minus the lug nuts) :

Dual jerry can swing-arm comes next week as long as the weather holds out

 

[91exploreron37]

Looks awesome but I dont think those screws are going to hold for long especially if you decide to put a bigger tire on it.

 

[FireZapper]

Id be afraid of the latch being pulled off the lift gate when the frame flexes.

 

[badge49]

The screws that go into the rear lift gate only hold the weight of the clasp. The only time they will have any pull on them is when the truck is on an incline. The hinge welded to the bumper doen't allow any "bounce" so it takes all the weight.

I thought about body vs. frame flex being a problem, but the way the latch secures to the clasp allows some odd angles. It's hard to explain in writting, but it all worked out really well. I may replace the body mounts with solid alum. in the future, if I find I have problems.

 

[Xan]

I'm not too sure about the screws either, but if they do fail you'll just have to clean up the holes and put bolts , nuts, and large washers on there. I hope you're right and they don't fail though.

 

[badge49]

If they do, which shouldn't happen since there's very little weight on them, I could always replace them with longer bolts that go through into the other side of the hatch. The lower two screws actually go through two layers of sheet metal, since the inside of the hatch has bracework.

Thanks for the concern guys, I appriciate the ideas. The next swing-arm (jerry cans) will latch to the bumper rather than the hatch.

I took a mock-up picture when I was playing with the tire carrier:

Here's the thread I made about my jerry cans:http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210367

The caps are now flat tan and the Blitz brackets are bedliner black. Hopefully I can sneak away from Easter family stuff long enough to do some work on them today. :navajo:

 

[badge49]

Update (Big post)

I've been sidetracked with a million other projects, including fabbing a kick-ass front bumper based on a Warn Trans4mer push bumper I bought off RangerX a while back, but I got some more work done on the rear bumper.

Although we were all skepticle about the strength of the tire carrier latch, it has proven itself plenty strong. I did replace the sheet-matal screws with some spare Grade 8, but only because the screws were vibrating loose. The new bolts go through the inner support bracketry for the wiper motor, so they are well re-enforced. The hatch sheet metal is still flawless, so I'm going to leave it like this unless things fall apart.

I permanently mounted the aux. rear lights and wired them in. Then I re-enforced the Ford bumper brackets with some Grade 8 and 1/4" steel plating:

Before:

After:

I also cut some steel diamond-plate to cover the gap between the bumper and the truck. I used a ton of sheet-metal screws to hold it down and painted the plate bedliner black. It turned out really nice, especially with the plastic doorsill replaced:

I'm still working out my plans for the jerry-can swing arm, so I'll post more on that when it's done.

 

[Xan]

Thats sexy, hmm maybe paint the secrews black too though? Man you got some fabricating skills, i can't wait to take my welding and metal working classes next quater and figure out how to make custom stuff like this

 

[98xploder]

black screws for sure. they stick out like a sore thumb.. still looks great. i may clean out the garage and fab up a bumper like this..

 

[91exploreron37]

X2 black screws would look so much better. Looks better and better. Now about that front bumper.

 

[badge49]

X2 black screws would look so much better. Looks better and better. Now about that front bumper.

Ok, black screws is will be! The best part about painting stuff bedliner black is that I can add more layers of paint and it only looks better!

The front bumper isn't finished yet. I will soon be installing a 3" sloped BL (thank you Section 525!), which will bring the body level with the push bumper. (The BL is required to fit my 35's) I'm also adding a 2" Class III receiver in the next few days, which will help fill in the huge gap I now have up front. Then it's getting an aluminum skid-plate from the frame rail ends to the IFS cross-member. I'm doing some side-project aux. coolers and filters behind the grill, so everything with the front bumper has been going pretty slow. I'll post up more pics of the front when it looks a little better.

 

[Paraphoe]

Badge, this is some nice work. I am very impressed. I love that rear bumper, the diamond plate top really finishes it off. Great job!

 

[badge49]

Thanks! I appriciate the compliments and ideas. I'm brand new to fabrication, so I'll take as much feedback as I can get.

 

[xplrsport01]

wow man you made alot of progress since i've last been on here its looking good!

 

[chumbucket]

Great design and fab. work.

Any updated pics? :scratch:

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Yes, very nice, would love to see some update pics as well.

Rick

 

[CrazyAlaskan]

After i have seen what others are doing on here, Im thinking about building my own front and rear bumper for my X. I really like the rear bumper man! especially with the mock up of the gas cans and extra tire!