If you own a welder and some other tools like a grinder, tube notcher etc you can make your own bumper for a fraction of the cost of retailers prices.
I had some 2" pipe left over in my garage from when I built my sliders/steps so I decided to make a simple rear tube bumper that I could add to later on if I wanted. I looked every where for some weld on 1" thick clevis shackle mounts but could not find any locally so I went to metal supermarkets and got two 1" thick by 2" wide solid bar cut to 5" long each and then I just need to get some 1" holes drilled into the ends and the clevis mounts will be done.
Im going to weld the shackle mounts to my old trailer hitch mounts that will bolt right to the frame of the truck. Now I can build my tube bumper off the shackle mounts. Here are some pics of every thing cut to length and ready to be welded and bolted on tomorrow.
Just using a std hole saw or a specialty cutter? May need to find me a notcher if it's that quick. What I use now is not slow and is very precise but setup can take time and tooling is expensive.
Thats pretty heavy duty! My tubing is 1/8 thick wall and im just using a makita 2" hole saw bolted onto a 50 dollar notcher. Im sure my set up will cut through 3/16 wall tubing easily too.
looks like it's going to be sweet. after seeing the pics thought it would be cool to make my own bumper. then realized I'm a woodworker not a metal artist. turned walnut with a butternut inlay would look nice but probably not great in a crash. [not to mention flammable]
Here are the pics of every thing getting welded up and then prep and paint.
I had to cut notches out of the quater panel plastic fender things for the tube to clear.
Took my 1" thick clevis mounts to the machine shop to get 1" holes drilled so I can mount on some 3/4" clevis shackes with a 7/8 pin diameter, cost was $20 to get the holes drilled.
After welding cleaned every thing up with wire brush, 220 grit sand paper, wax and grease remover.
I used adhesion promoter, self etching primer and then many thin coats of flat black dupli colour wheel enamel then finished it off with 3 coats of clear enamel.
Now lets look at the total cost of this build.
$40 for all the steel purchased from metal supermarkets.
$20 to get the massive 1" holes drilled into the 1" thick clevis shackle mounts.
I already had the paint supplys left over from when i painted my wheels but If you bought adhesion promoter, primer and paint you could get it all and have left over for $40 or less.
so grand total for me was $60 and one day of work.
looks good, bbut will that be "solid" enough for recovery purposes being that the bars are so thin? just curious. not trying to hate or anything. im new to xterras so curiosity in me is high as to what i will be able to do.
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