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Easy to build tube bumper & CHEAP

57K views 57 replies 40 participants last post by  CS79bronco 
#1 ·
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.
 
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#8 ·
Check out the Harbor Freight site...they have good pics on most of their tools. The lift lying on the floor is either a motorcycle or a RV lift. Great item to have if you're when you're fabbing steel. A neighbor built his T-bucket frame on one in his garage.
 
#12 ·
Answers:

Yes I am putting a warn winch on it (hopefully today)

The lift is a bendpak scizzor lift capable of lifting 6000 LB It lifts the bronco with no problems


I have a jd2 bender for the cage

I will post some more pics along with the bender, notcher and winch later when I get it all mounted up

Here is a pic of the bronco on the lift it actually goes about a foot higher but with the garage door open i cant lift it that high

 
#23 ·
Did you use that hydro. pipe bender for the roll cage as well?
 
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