Made myself a rear bumper last week

panion · 12-10-2007, 09:08 AM

Spent a lot of time and effort building a new rear bumper with my Dad. Thought I'd share my work with those who may be able to appreciate it. Total cost was 1800 dollars but includes a chop saw and plasma cutter. Only 400 in bumper parts. Took us about 100 man hours. It was completely worth it, and now I have some extra tools for the next project.

See more here: www.sportsmobile4x4.blogspot.com

**BroncoHauler** · 12-10-2007, 10:05 AM

Looks great. What size spare tire do you have there? I would keep an eye on the tire carrier to make sure it doesn't start fatiguing the supprt or the bumper mounting point, since it looks like all the weight is solely on the bottom mount.

How did the plasma cutter work for you? I've always been tempted to buy one, but can't justify spending the $ without a lot of projects to use it on.

Herb

jeff@work · 12-10-2007, 10:18 AM

That does look great, awesome job!

I've been wanting to do a front and rear bumper set myself but it's tough to pull the trigger on those plasma cutters!

panion · 12-10-2007, 10:27 AM

The tire is 33". I'm not worried about the swivel mount because it's an axle spindle rated for over 1000lb side load. My problem will probably be my bracket/rack. I'll definitely watch it for fatigue.

The plasma cutter is really nice. It allows you to do a lot of quick and easy cutting which helps me do things right. I have a bad habit of making something work to get the project finished. With the cutter you can make short work of putting the perfect bracket together.

panion · 12-10-2007, 10:31 AM

The other picture that didn't come up in the first post.

**BroncoHauler** · 12-10-2007, 11:59 AM

Are those ligths in the bumper turn signals or backup lights? Looks like they're LEDs and I was wondering how much light they contribute when backing up?

The axle spindle is a great idea!

Are the swingarms "checked" at some point so you don't inadvertantly allow them to swing too wide open and hit your van body and/or van tail lights?

Herb

panion · 12-10-2007, 02:30 PM

Herb, One set of stop/tail lights and one set of backup lights. They are all LED. Yes the backup lights work surprisingly well. My bro put them on his truck and after seeing how well they worked I decided I needed some.

Unfortunately the open stop still needs to be done. I couldn't come up with an easy way to limit them so it's up to the tail light lens for now. I just ran out of time. I work 12 hour days till Thursday, and leave for Baja Saturday. One day to pack and load for a 3 week trip. I'll come up with a stop after I buy a couple of lenses. Bet they are expensive too.

Velogeo · 12-10-2007, 05:43 PM

That's sharp work.

Jeffrey · 12-10-2007, 07:47 PM

Damn, that's nice and clean. I've always hated those silly wrap around rear light protecting bars that Aluminess uses. Pretty ugly, although I've gotten used to them.

I like your bumper!

alta825 · 12-10-2007, 08:35 PM

i've been going back and forth on the idea of a custom rear bumper and in a recent conversation w/ Aluminess they said they would do a bumper w/o the wraparound light guard thingies.

Only kicker was that I couldn't load up the boxes much more than 90lbs or so (about what a spare tire is) because the wraparounds provide a little extra stability supposedly.

-d