Mike's brother
Elite Explorer
- Joined
- September 11, 2011
- Messages
- 156
- Reaction score
- 1
- City, State
- Ithaca, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2001 Explorer Sport
Greetings everyone.
In the process of figuring out how to add a new Westin brush guard to the front of my 01 Sport with a 3-inch body lift, I came up with the idea for a set of brackets that used angle steel bolted to the frame and extended from the front of the frame right out through the gap in that plastic nose. That should give me plenty of room to mount the guard, and with an added upper mount through the plastic and into the top of the bumper (I saw that on some local police cruisers), the guard itself should be pretty strong, for a brush guard, that is.
Since two of the three bolt points the custom bracket uses are the mount for the factory front tow loops, my orginal plan was to simply reinstall the tow loops, just on the underside of the new bracket. That, with a body lift, of course means cutting a chunk out of the front bumper, as well as biting a few pieces out of the lower nose.
When making and test-mounting the brackets, however, it hit me -- why not mount a bolt-on clevis mount for a D-ring right onto the bracket, or even just drill the bracket and mount the D-ring right to it. Two good questions, but a bit out of my league when it comes to engineering or instincts. So I thought I'd bounce it off you folks here.
Here's a quick rundown on the brackets and how they mount. Does anyone have a definitive feeling, yea or nay, to whether they're strong enough to mount a tow ring to?
The stock I'm working from here is 1/4 angle steel with 3-inch legs. I picked up the stock from Fastenal, and it's ASTM A36.
I then cut the steel to allow one leg (horizontal) to fit around the frame rail head and slide under the factory tow loop mounts, while the other leg (verticle) fits inside the frame rail and mounts to a stock hole just above the perch for the tow loops.
So that means each piece is mounted to the frame with two 1/2-inch grade 8 bolts on the horizontal leg, and a third 1/2-inch grade 8 bolt on the verticle leg.
Riight now, about a foot of the 2-foot sections of angle steel stick out beyond the frame. Once I fit the brush guard to these, I'll likely be able to trim the ends of these brackets back 6 inches or more. The guard will mount to the outside of each verticle leg, with about a 3/4 inch space between them (I'm using grade 8 bolts and sch 80 steel pipe to tie them together with the right space off). That means I could easily bolt a clevis mount under the horizontal leg, and might even be able to drill the verticle leg near the end to allow a D-ring to pin right through.
Here's how the brackets look bolted to the frame.
So, the question is, will the brackets be strong enough support a tow point? Keep in mind, the brush guard will connect the two brackets and reinforce them a bit against bending sideways, but I'd rather not count on the strength of a piece of metal designed to fend of saplings and scare Volvo drivers.
All advice and opinions are welcome. I appreciate the help.
:exp:
In the process of figuring out how to add a new Westin brush guard to the front of my 01 Sport with a 3-inch body lift, I came up with the idea for a set of brackets that used angle steel bolted to the frame and extended from the front of the frame right out through the gap in that plastic nose. That should give me plenty of room to mount the guard, and with an added upper mount through the plastic and into the top of the bumper (I saw that on some local police cruisers), the guard itself should be pretty strong, for a brush guard, that is.
Since two of the three bolt points the custom bracket uses are the mount for the factory front tow loops, my orginal plan was to simply reinstall the tow loops, just on the underside of the new bracket. That, with a body lift, of course means cutting a chunk out of the front bumper, as well as biting a few pieces out of the lower nose.
When making and test-mounting the brackets, however, it hit me -- why not mount a bolt-on clevis mount for a D-ring right onto the bracket, or even just drill the bracket and mount the D-ring right to it. Two good questions, but a bit out of my league when it comes to engineering or instincts. So I thought I'd bounce it off you folks here.
Here's a quick rundown on the brackets and how they mount. Does anyone have a definitive feeling, yea or nay, to whether they're strong enough to mount a tow ring to?
The stock I'm working from here is 1/4 angle steel with 3-inch legs. I picked up the stock from Fastenal, and it's ASTM A36.
I then cut the steel to allow one leg (horizontal) to fit around the frame rail head and slide under the factory tow loop mounts, while the other leg (verticle) fits inside the frame rail and mounts to a stock hole just above the perch for the tow loops.
So that means each piece is mounted to the frame with two 1/2-inch grade 8 bolts on the horizontal leg, and a third 1/2-inch grade 8 bolt on the verticle leg.
Riight now, about a foot of the 2-foot sections of angle steel stick out beyond the frame. Once I fit the brush guard to these, I'll likely be able to trim the ends of these brackets back 6 inches or more. The guard will mount to the outside of each verticle leg, with about a 3/4 inch space between them (I'm using grade 8 bolts and sch 80 steel pipe to tie them together with the right space off). That means I could easily bolt a clevis mount under the horizontal leg, and might even be able to drill the verticle leg near the end to allow a D-ring to pin right through.
Here's how the brackets look bolted to the frame.
So, the question is, will the brackets be strong enough support a tow point? Keep in mind, the brush guard will connect the two brackets and reinforce them a bit against bending sideways, but I'd rather not count on the strength of a piece of metal designed to fend of saplings and scare Volvo drivers.
All advice and opinions are welcome. I appreciate the help.
:exp:
