I wanted to see if I could make a functional tube bumper cheap and with tools that a lot of us have or have access to:
Tubing I had left over from roll cage 1 3/4 X .120 DOM
welder
Harbor freight bender (the 1 1/4 pipe die worked great )
harbor freight tube notcher (I only notched a couple of pieces so a grinder would have worked just fine)
4in grinder
I started by bending the main bar 18in from the ends
I wanted to keep it simple so I re-used the original mounting brackets
I cut and notched two 3in pieces of tube and welded them to to brackets and then attached the main tube
next I cut two 8in tubes to connect the bottom and cut two tubes to complete the outer ends
then I took a winch mounting plate and another piece of tube for the center and welded it all together.
Its not bolted on tight so its sitting about a inch low
here is what it looks like off and painted
A few extra things to add. I capped the frame for looks and I probalby will plate the crumple zones for strength.
I kept the original mounting brackets to keep it simple but when I plate the crumple zones I plan to gusset the back of the piece that is welded to the frame.
The harbor freight bender work great for just these light bends, if you had to do anything more then a few degrees I would have used a different bender.
I hope to get this completed tomorrow so I will hopefully have more pictures to come.
Tubing I had left over from roll cage 1 3/4 X .120 DOM
welder
Harbor freight bender (the 1 1/4 pipe die worked great )
harbor freight tube notcher (I only notched a couple of pieces so a grinder would have worked just fine)
4in grinder
I started by bending the main bar 18in from the ends
I wanted to keep it simple so I re-used the original mounting brackets
I cut and notched two 3in pieces of tube and welded them to to brackets and then attached the main tube
next I cut two 8in tubes to connect the bottom and cut two tubes to complete the outer ends
then I took a winch mounting plate and another piece of tube for the center and welded it all together.
Its not bolted on tight so its sitting about a inch low
here is what it looks like off and painted
A few extra things to add. I capped the frame for looks and I probalby will plate the crumple zones for strength.
I kept the original mounting brackets to keep it simple but when I plate the crumple zones I plan to gusset the back of the piece that is welded to the frame.
The harbor freight bender work great for just these light bends, if you had to do anything more then a few degrees I would have used a different bender.
I hope to get this completed tomorrow so I will hopefully have more pictures to come.