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My Jeep came with these monsterous tube bumpers that are made of at least 3/8" thick steel tubing. They are great for plowing a path through thick brush, or crowded park with all thoughs people in the way! Those bumpers just push them aside. O.K., maybe not people, but you get the picture. Cool for that, but bad for clearance. Those things where hitting everything, and worked more like a plow, than a bumper. To improve my clearance, I decided to get a different front bumper. I looked at premade bumpers and thought, "I have a welder, I'll make my own!" So I went down to the local fab. shop and had them cut me some square steel tubing, and some flat stock to make the brackets and end caps with. The tubing I wanted was 3/16" thick, but they didn't have it in the size I wanted, so I had to use 1/8". It's marginal for strength, but it should last against most its enemies. I'm sure that if I ever lost control and went sliding down some steep obstacle into a big boulder, the bumper with give up it's straightness. But hey, It's only $35.00 in material, and a little time! The square tubing is 4" high, 2" wide and .125"thick. I cut is to 44.5" in lenght and then hacked off the corners a little to get most clearance as possible, and have that cool look. The flat steel is 3/16" thick. I used it to make the end caps, and mounting tabs. I used thicker steel in these locations, because those are the spots that will take the most stress. I also made the mounting tabs longer than neccessary, to improve the strength of the bumper, and allow the top bracket to be used as a spot to mount lights. The top tab is 8" long and 1.75" wide. The bottom tab is 6" long and 1.75" wide. I welded the hell out of these on both sides to ensure that the bumper would not come off the Jeep if I had to use the bumper as a tow point. |
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