AH64ID

I may look at it agin, its a rather large piece of the bracket that has to be removed, but I am sure a little welding will make it plenty strong.... well see.... i'd like to see someone with an ARB and SAS on a 2nd gen..

rockota

What pics do you need to see? As I've said, I've done this twice in two different ways and it is NOT that hard. It's much easier than doing an SAS. Took us all of 4 hours to get it re-designed and bolted up.

I'd highly recommend, regardless of the route you choose, to weld in an FRORF frame brace while you have the front end torn apart.

AH64ID

I'd like to see photos of how it was redesigned, and how it mounts... thanks...

rockota

I'll see what I can dig up...

rockota

Okay... Here are a few pics that I could find. Nothing amazing, unfortunately.


This is the pic of the bumper when the truck arrived. The previous owner cut off the mounting sections below the front of the frame crossmember and welded the bumper to the two spring hanger locating tabs that All-pro supplies. He used those tabs, ultimately, to bolt the bumper in place. He also cut off the up-rights below that point and replaced them with small pieces of steal that then bolted to the front spring eye bolts.



Since this is actually the wrong bumper for the truck (it's a 90+ 4Runner, 89+ pickup) and mounts to the body mount as well, he fabbed up a larger body mount and bolted it on.

NOTE: This is not the right way to do it. The frame was cracked in numerous places and the bumper was not in very good shape overall.

On to the fix:

The first thing we did was weld on an FRORF crossmember brace. Since the upper bolt mounts were missing (those cheap ones that bend easily), we needed this to help replace them and add additional strength.


Then we welded the FRORF hanger in place with extra bracing:

We mounted it 1/4" forward to be flush with the front of the FRORF crossmember brace. We added a 45 degree brace to help with the fore-aft movement, and also some bottom frame plates to help ensure trueness and prevent cracking.

This leads up to the bumper:

We cut off the front mounting plate using a plasma cutter.



Unfortunately, that's all I have for pictures. But what we did is essentially this:
1 - cut the mounting plate off - something you WON'T need to do if your bumper is in good shape. As you can see, this one is hacked.
2 - replace it with some 3/8" x 4" plate with holes punched in the proper locations for all of the crossmember mounting points (6, I believe)
3 - brace this side to side against the uprights of the bumper to add strength. We used left over braces from the FRORF crossmember and fabbed some others.
4 - bolted the bumper in place. From there we noted that 6 mounting points would not be enough, so we added two more. We extended the uprights (that were cut-off by the PO) and bolted them to the spring eye bolts in a similar fashon to the PO, but in much better execution. From a distance, it looks factory, but up close you can tell that it's much stronger.
5 - bolt it up.

So arguably, you're only talking about removing a small section of bumper, assuming you do it right. I would HIGHLY recommend the FRORF crossmember for use with this bumper. Since it isn't nearly as tall as A/P, Marlin, TG, etc, it lends itself to this type of mod. Another possibility, and on I think you shoudl consider, is using two custom made front spring hangers w/o the added crossmember. Just make sure they are a good 6" inches long so you can weld them along the bottom of the frame rail. That will also give you the opportunity to "bolt them" to the ARB and add some small triangle braces to add up for the lost strength by removing the crossember portion we are so used to these days.

Sorry I don't have more pics. Truck is 15 miles away from me sitting in my mom's driveway.

AH64ID

Thanks, gives me an idea. My truck is 8000 miles away so its hard to look at. If I do this it will be next springish, so just doing my homework for now.