Front Bumper Design

[Philberto]

Another day at work, another design idea

I decided to design a tubular front bumper after checking out the "stinger test" thread, and went to work on one of James's pics from the OS. Let me know what you think about it! It was done in paint, so it looks horrible, but should give you an idea of what I want it to look like.



The blue rectangles are where I'm planning to put shackle mounts... the idea is to weld plate steel onto the frame ends and weld the shackles onto those.

The red square is a planned 2" receiver for a winch mount.

[Trail X]

I like the overall design. I'd still stick to a boxed center base for the design. The stresses associated with a winch are very high. It's hard to beat the strength of a steel box. You'll get a lot of radiator protection from sheet steel being in the center, vs tubes. It will also make it easier to add on shackle tabs without welding it to your actual frame.

At least that's my pov.

[bgwolfpack]

I like it. Fab it up and they will sell. A little heavier tube though than what you have represented.

[irishboy02]

Awesome design!

There is a offroad fabrication place by me that i have been talking to that would be willing to setup groupbuys with fabbin up a front bumper and possibly rear. Just wondering how you would feel if i was to throw this design to them? I have two that Foosh and I have been drawing up and tweakin around with aswell.

Reguardless thats a beautiful setup. What are your plans for materials?

[That1Guy]

I like the overall design. I'd still stick to a boxed center base for the design. The stresses associated with a winch are very high. It's hard to beat the strength of a steel box. You'll get a lot of radiator protection from sheet steel being in the center, vs tubes. It will also make it easier to add on shackle tabs without welding it to your actual frame.

At least that's my pov.

I would talk to a long time fabricator... Round steel is stronger than square...

[foosh]

Pretty cool man... have you thought of making part of it in steel sheet and tubing out from there... Like having the hitch area all boxed style steel (supported of course) from frame rail to frame rail and thn doing tubing out from there, it would also give you a place to possibly mount a winch later on down the road.

[Trail X]

I would talk to a long time fabricator... Round steel is stronger than square...

I wasn't implying to use square tube. I was implying that it would make sense to use sheet steel for the center portion. With proper inner gusseting it would be a stronger base than the tubing. Plus it adds radiator protection that tubes don't.

EDIT: Something like this for a center section was an interesting concept... notice the dual receiver points... kinda cool. Also note, it appears they used a tube bumper as a skeleton, but used the sheet to strengthen the center section.

[That1Guy]

I would talk to a long time fabricator... Round steel is stronger than square...

I wasn't implying to use square tube. I was implying that it would make sense to use sheet steel for the center portion. With proper inner gusseting it would be a stronger base than the tubing. Plus it adds radiator protection that tubes don't.

EDIT: Something like this for a center section was an interesting concept... notice the dual receiver points... kinda cool. Also note, it appears they used a tube bumper as a skeleton, but used the sheet to strengthen the center section.

ohhhhh Gotcha. See thats what I would call plate... I was confused in the terminology...

[foosh]

I actually really like that idea there... Plate lower for stronger sturdier base and tube upper filled with thinner plate to fill in the gaps. VERY COOL! I like Hardtrails idea of getting it to sit really close into the truck... the less weight forward, the less strain it exerts on the front end and front end wearible components.

[EwingJK]

ohhhhh Gotcha. See thats what I would call plate... I was confused in the terminology...

Plate is classified as being between 8" and 48" in width and .230" or greater in thickness. Over 48" in width, the thickness is .180" and greater. Typically, the flat material used for bumpers is .188" thick (3/16"), therefore, it's a sheet metal bumper. 2" Ø std. pipe has a wall thickness of .154". James is correct that the boxed section would be much stronger than the tubular bumper.

[NeilageInc]

I like the design accept for the V section because it does not apply to your kind of off-roading. I am working on a few ideas and anyone of them can be altered for your specific taste. If you want that style now I can build it and send it out. The tube should be as so; the center tube should be .188 wall, the frame horn should be 1/4" sides with 3/16" front and rear, and all the other tubes can be .120 wall. Let me know what you think. Thanks Neil.

[Philberto]

I like the design accept for the V section because it does not apply to your kind of off-roading. I am working on a few ideas and anyone of them can be altered for your specific taste. If you want that style now I can build it and send it out. The tube should be as so; the center tube should be .188 wall, the frame horn should be 1/4" sides with 3/16" front and rear, and all the other tubes can be .120 wall. Let me know what you think. Thanks Neil.

The V section is more meant as a cross-brace for the receiver in the center, since I wanted it to be reinforced for a winch to be mounted on it.It should actually be in-line with the existing frame crossmember in the front, since I'm going for little front protrusion as possible.

[Philberto]

I like the overall design. I'd still stick to a boxed center base for the design. The stresses associated with a winch are very high. It's hard to beat the strength of a steel box. You'll get a lot of radiator protection from sheet steel being in the center, vs tubes. It will also make it easier to add on shackle tabs without welding it to your actual frame.

At least that's my pov.

so something more like this?

frame-frontmodified2.JPG

(160.65 KiB) Not downloaded yet

I really only need the added strength in that center attachment section, since that's what the receiver is attached to. I'd like to save weight in the other sections by going with tube.

Neil, the tubing you're suggesting sounds great. I'm not expecting to be able to afford this yet, but do you have any idea how much I'd be looking at to get this done?

[Philberto]

Still looking for you to get back to me on how much this would be, Neil. Fire me a pm if you want, but I'm just looking for a rough estimate.

[dirtychevymama]

Rough draft looks very promising