When I first acquired my 89 Runner it had damage to the front bumper and the lower, painted part of the bumper had been torn off. I found an upper bumper on Amazon for $30 and installed it. It looked pretty good but I wanted something different to replace the missing lower part of the bumper. I considered a winch bumper but wanted to keep what I could of the truck's original look.

The other day I was starting to think about building something when I tripped over the roll bar from my parts truck. I started looking at it and realized that there was just about enough metal in in to make a tube bumper. After a little measuring and cutting I got to work on a design.

I used the front legs of the roll bar to build the top piece of the bar. Since I had to weld them together anyway, I decided to weld in a receiver tube between the sections. I used the top section of the bar for the bottom piece of the new bumper. All I needed to do now was build brackets to attach it to the truck.

Built the brackets, drilled holes for the original bumper hardware and added brackets where the tow hooks attach, stuck it all together and ended up with a pretty neat looking bumper.

I just finished and it's late so I'm just going to post some pics I took during the build to show what I did. If anyone wants some more information or measurements, just let me know.

 

Nice. YOu could then get a hitch-mount winch that's transferable between front and rear depending on which direction you need pulled.
However, why not replace the weak stock bumper with that tube one you are making? Then you do not sacrifice approach ange/clearance?

 

Yea, A custom upper bumper would be the way to go if you wanted to do any real wheelin but I've got a dented up and lifted 3rd gen for that. That one's kind of my baby and I wanted to keep what I could of the factory look and at the same time, build something that I hadn't seen before out of something I already had. To tell you the truth, I was just bored and wanted something to do that wouldn't cost me any money.

 

I think it looks good! Like a beefy valence.

 

Absolutely beefy.
A thin low-profile LED fog lamp may also fit in between the two bars.

 

The "Roll Bar" as many people call it was actually marketed as a "Sports Bar." Not really meant to protect in the case of a rollover although I'm sure it's better than nothing. It was more for looks. I'd really worry about using that thin material on the bumper as a recovery point. If you look at the tubing used for hitch receiver cross bars it's usually somewhere between 1/8 to 1/4 wall tubing depending on the class rating and application. Wouldn't want to see your hitch receiver and half your bumper turn into a projectile.

 

You are absolutely correct in saying that. The tubing is 1/8 and is probably not the best choice for a recovery bumper. I really should have mentioned that in the first place. No, I built this thing more as a replacement for my missing lower valence and as a conversation piece. I never really intended to hang a winch on it. It did, however, turn out a lot sturdier than I was expecting. The receiver tube is welded securely to both the upper and lower bars and its 6 brackets and 10 12mm bolts holding it to the frame should make it pretty tough. I actually wouldn't be afraid to pull on it if I ever had to. I probably just wouldn't stand in front of it while I did.