Making Custom rear bumper...

[Trapper14]

Hello, I am looking for a stronger, more rugged looking bumper. So I have decided to make one out of
(2) 3in dia, 1/4inch thick pipes

now has anyone done this before, and I am a little worried about where exactly I am going to the license plate and the lights. My friend is going to help me, and hopefully it will look nice. Please any comments suggestions.... post em

 

[madmike]

well you could make the center of the rear open like ummm how do i say, like a mouth kind of ya know, or you could weld tabs on it and mount the plate that way. if you space the bars enough you could mount the lights on the bottom tube and the plate behind the bumper so you could see in the middle. the possibilites are endless but would like to see when you get done. good luck

 

[Trapper14]

ya sure mounting it behind the bars isnt illegal, even though you cna see the numbers, the state would be blocked out... hmmm cmon guys more input please!

 

[Hartman]

hmmm cmon guys more input please!

Move to Indiana where front license plates aren't needed.

 

[yeti]

All the four wheel shops sell a few different aftermarket licensce assemblys, for the rear i just bought one of these and attached the plate off to the far right side. my problem was that my spare tire mounted on my rear bumber was blocking the hatch mounted licence plate. the assemblys come with a light as well, think i paid 30 bucks canadian.

 

[Trapper14]

lol, hartman this is for the REAR bumper.


Yeti: Thanks I will take a look around and see if I cna find anything, thanks alot!

 

[CoryL]

My suggestion would be to use tubing rather than pipe. Big difference in the strength (read: pipe isn't strong).

I would also opt to use something smaller in diameter (2" tops) with that wall thickness. That thing will be heavy as hell otherwise.

Take a look around the web for pics of rear bumpers. Anyone with a bender and a welder can make one for you.

 

[Trapper14]

I am not worried about having the tools to do it, and I decided that 2" pipe would look to small and very stupid.

What is the difference between tubing and piping?

 

[Anime]

built

Just a suggestion-

You might want to look at purchasing a James Duff (www.jamesduff.com) or smittybilt bumper for your needs. The James Duff bumper is 2" tubing and is even available with a Class III hitch option! They include plate mounts. The smittybilts use 3" tubing but aren't suppossed to be as strong or off-road tough as the Duffs.

I only suggest this because I was looking into making my bumpers as well, and actually found for the price of materials plus all the time and trouble, (especially if you dont have a great welder and all the equipment) the Duff bumpers were tougher and actually cost me LESS that it would have been to do it all myself!
($250 for the front, I havent bought the rear yet but its around $150-200)

This probably doesnt apply if youre an experienced welder with alot of equipement and access to tubing.

 

[Kirby N.]

I built my Front bumper. I used 2" tubing and 1/2" flat stock. I used a Oxy Acetyline torch, a tubing bender, a grinder and a arc welder. I turned out nice but the kicker is that my best friend and I each had 40 HOURS in the thing. We had alot of fun though. Check out pics here---Dead Link Removed

Tubing is O.D. , piping is I.D.--- Madrel bent w/o seams are best but you can get stout used piping for cheep.

 

[CoryL]

I guess tube diameter is an opinion call.

There is a lot to the differences between pipe and tube.

Pipe is made to carry gas, water, fluids, etc and the grade of steel used is very low.

If you can buy it at Home Depot, you don't want to make a roll cage or bumpers out of it.

Tubing is made from a higer grade steel than pipe. There are several grades to tubing as well.

The big names are HREW, DOM, and Chromoly.

Open the Yellow Pages and look for steel suppliers. I would suggest .120 wall and HREW or DOM. HREW will be MUCH cheaper.

 

[Maniak]

When we created our front bumper I used 1/8" flat stock and 2x3" square tubing..

Came out well.. is plenty strong (I use it alot... actually I use the high lift in front of the bumper as the bumper sometimes)..

Here is a pic..

I think the 3x2" square tubing works well.. and square tubing may not be quite as strong as round (not sure about that) but it sure was easier to use.. (I don't have a tubing bender)..

~Mark

 

[Trapper14]

I am glad this discussion is heating up!

Well first off, I am not really gunna spend a crap load on the steel, if it is to much money I will just buy one. I jsut thought this would be an excellent project for me and my friend. He works (and owns) at a tractor repair/sell store. So we have access to multiple welders, torchers, but the bender we were afraid couldn't handle 1/8 tube/piping whatever.

BTW maniak, slick looking bumper, right now I ahve a grill guard up front, but I jsut wanted to rear bumper to be stronger, and look more rugged.

I was also trying to save some cash, the shipping coule be killer if I odered it wouldn't it?

 

[Maniak]

I spent about $75 on the steel.. and gave the rest away.. I had enough to build 3/4 of another bumper..

I spent about $15 on rubberized undercoating paint.. next time I'll use herculiner..

I took 2 of us a weekend to make it.. and that was him teaching me how to weld.. he only had to redo a few of my welds..

We used the square tubing becuase we don't know how to bend tubing correctly.. cutting angles on the square tubing was easy.. which is possibly why it didn't take so long to make.. we spend a good 3 hours just figuring out what we wanted in the end.. so we did a mock up first.. (used wood).. sooo.. if you are ok with square tubing, I say go for it.. it is worth the effort.

~Mark