makin my own tube bumper

[bama16]

it's a long ways from finished but it's gonna be sturdy when done....doing some gusseting tonight...the bracket that holds it on utilizes all 3 holes on the front on the crumple zone..i'm still lookin for another area to attach it....not too many spots though.


with all the talk about tube bumpers i decided to make my own...i got this far todayhttp://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/bama16/Picture005.jpg


my cost so far is about 90 bux...and that's for the steel....i'll just paint it up now and PC later....coming along alright...it would be nice to have a better bender than the hydraulic one i have...but it gets the job done....this one should hold up to snow banks a bit better than that plastic one...everytime it touched something i'd find another part of it flappin in the windhttp://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/bama16/Picture006.jpg

constructive criticism from anyone would be nice...i'm gonna plate some of the holes...i don't want the washer bottle or radiator to get broken from a rock hittin it...the stinger part will be filled too...some lights are goin in it along with a sheet of aluminum...stinger is a bit big but it's all i could do with the bender i have.

[GarrettE]

Looks really good!

I especially like the way it wraps around the bottom of the front end on the drivers side (the part the passenger side doesn't have).

Can't wait to see the finished design.

[bogof]

Looks good! The only thing I see is that the stinger is kinda odd shaped but you said it's all the bender will do. Are you going to wrap aluminium around the corners? If you put a bar across from the lowest bend on the stinger you could run some aluminium there and it would clean it up nice.

What tube bender are you using I'm looking at getting one.

Edit... At second look it looks like it is about 1 in to low.

[bama16]

the bender i have is similar to the HF ones but this one is like 16 tons....when bending you have to put a piece of pipe that's been cut in half on the roller or it will put dents in the pipe....makes bending a little slower. it is like an inch low...but i wanted to leave a little buffer so it wasn't right next to everything.

if i need to i will cut the stinger and add metal in the shape i want....but i was tryin to get this piece done with just bending the metal...we will see...not sure what i want to do yet. thanks for the kind words!

[Alex Topousis]

how are you going to support the stinger? basically what I am saying is if you ever come into a situation where the stinger is going to be basically holding up the weight of the truck, what is stopping it from bending back? On the other side of the spectrum, if you were to get a winch what is stopping the bumper from bending forward?

[bama16]

the stinger is gonna have some tubes, one on each side, that run back from the stinger...bend downwards and attach to the rear bolt holes where the stock bumper brackets were...this will keep it secure from going back or foward...i just didn't get that far today...i'm lookin for other spots on the frame to mount some support so they aren't all in the same location...but it might have to be something i have to fab...thanks for the advice!

[Packman5280]

have you tried filling the tubes with sand before you bend them? fill them up and tape off the ends, it will help keep the tube from crushing.

[Alpine Spirit]

Looks Great!!!!

Not to nit pick but you need to attach it to the frame better, the crossmember just is not gonna cut it with the 2 bolts.

[CurleyMan]

https://www.spydercustoms.com/Crawler/Imga0091.jpg
Sweet shackle mounts although a little pricey they are super thick and easy to weld to your dom tubing.
https://www.spydercustoms.com/gussetts/dsc03629.jpg
Thease can add style and strength to your bumper.
I would recommend running a tube back to your frame as i'm sure you will. The other thing to keep in mind is that a plate infront may restrict air flow to your radiator. The bumper/stinger look sweet though i doubt i could do that well myself..

[bama16]

thanks for the links and the kind words....it's definately gonna be attached to the frame better....it's gonna get some bars from the stinger goin back and then down to the frame...along with some bars form the corners over to the frame...hopefully i get some more time to work on it here pretty soon

[zonianbrat]

So far I think it looks really good.

[ChefTyler]

Dude, that's awesome. I like the shape of the stinger that way almost better than I like any other stinger I've ever seen, looks great!

[Lance T]

Dude, that's awesome. I like the shape of the stinger that way almost better than I like any other stinger I've ever seen, looks great!

X2...nice work.

[cuong nguyen]

are there pictures posted? Only one I can see is that in the avatar.

[bama16]

there is a post below with progress i made....lights are gettin mounted as we speak....i broke the link when i moved the pictures to dif albums in photobucket. i linked em again in the post below