Prerunner Bumper

[BMXplorer]

I've been working on this Prerunner bumper and some have seen it at Truckhaven. The bumper's still in progress. A goal of mine with this bumper was to learn new fabrication skills and incorporate them into the bumper.

I used a 1 3/4" die on a Pro Tools 105 hd, and a friend let me use his JD2 to bend some 1 1/2" tubing.

A couple more pictures are here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/509527/7

Later, Chris.

 

[mitch]

that looks really good. are you going to be putting lights on it? how about a winch? if you really wanted to make it strong weld those plates you used as brackets to the frame. other wise good bumper

 

[DeRocha]

Looks sweet...
Did you think about ditching the oem bumper and just using your new one?

 

[mrprerunner]

Looks good. ditch the stock bumper.

 

[BMXplorer]

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments everyone.

Mitch
Lights might be added in the future. It'll be winchless, I'm still a novice at offroading and can't justify owning one at this time.

I made a prerunner bumper a couple years ago and liked how the bumper bolted to the frame that way if I get sick of it I can remove it with little problems. That bumper is here: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110002&highlight=front+pre-runner+bumper

I'm also working on a crossmember that will bolt onto the bumper in one location and onto a rippled crossmember that is welded onto the frame (from the factory). This will be so the bumper is mounted to the frame in more areas.

DeRocha and mrprerunner
I thought about ditching the stock bumper, but decided to keep it on. The other thing about the prerunner bumper is that the tube was bent to mock the lines of the stock bumper and is also spaced farther away from the frame/ front end.

 

[BMXplorer]

Here's an update.

I welded some caps on the open ends of a few tubes, and painted the tube bumper. The crossmember that I mentioned I was working on in some other post turned out to be a succesful idea and not a fancy looking paperweight. The X crossmember supports the tube bumper and connects it to more frame area. It makes the whole tube bumper less likely to pivot downward due to the round bolts I used that are located in upsidedown triangle holes(came this way from factory). Guess it's fitting to make an X crossmember for an Explorer. More pictures (I took a ton) along with a list of tube sizes used are here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/509527/7

Here are a couple pictures of the completed tube bumper:

Pre-paint.

After Paint.

Later, Chris

 

[mitch]

wow man looks great

 

[BMXplorer]

Mitch,
Thanks for the compliment.

Chris

 

[RockRanger]

Nice. I liked it when I saw it at truckhaven and it looks better painted.

 

[SkanlaxJMO]

that looks sweet...do you have a plna for the bumper( mesurments etc...)

 

[BMXplorer]

RockRanger,
Thanks, yeah it only took 2 1/2 months since Truckhaven for me to paint it... along with adding a few other tubes.


SkanlaxJMO
Thanks man. I can't provide any measurements, due to the fact that I measured, bent, cut as I went. If your thinking of making a similar bumper my advice is to sketch some ideas and go for it.

I'll give a quick run down on the build process for this bumper for those that might be interested. I built this bumper from the frame mounting plates up, the tube that has two 90 degree bends and connects to the frame mounting plates was made first. The horizontal tube that runs around the stock bumper made 2nd (this was made by measuring the stock bumper and placing bends in the 1-3/4 tube to mock the stock bumpers lines), the two vertical tubes that connects the 1st two horizontal tubes were made next and tacked in place. The upper tubes both 1-3/4 and 1-1/2 were bent and added next and the crossmember made last.

This run down is vague, so if anyone has questions or needs clarity on something feel free to ask.

Later, Chris