Well, after some prodding, I took the truck down
a creek embankment, through the creek, and over to
the other side. I had never done anything quite that
extreme before, and to be honest, I was a little
wary. The clinometer was reading about 25 degrees
as the nose of the truck sat in the creek bed, what
seemed like INCHES from the bank on the other side.
It never touched. However, once the front end was
climbing the other side... you guessed it...
SCRAAAAAAAAAPE!! Dragged the backend, and sounded
horrible. Didn't actually do any damage, the bumper
was tilted upwards, but after standing on it, it
went right back into place.
Now, I guess my question is, what have you guys (or
gals) done to give you a better departure angle,
short of bobbing the bed? (which is something I would
rather not do at this point.)

~Wade

 

I don't believe too many on this board have done much if anything for this. Normally, an aftermarket bumper is the only alternative (short of a chop job), but that can only do so much for our vehicles, but they do provide much more damage resistance/protection when going through the scenario you described.

The other possibility is to add a low profile hitch receiver that attaches to the frame that would protect the bumper and you could drag it instead.

I missed mentioning a lift, which will also help.

 

bigger lift!

 

I took the whole thing off!