I had a bunch of parts come in today... The one that is confusing me the most is the Trail Gear rear bumper. I have no idea how to mount it, without fabricating mounting brackets. The truck (86 4runner) has an existing hitch, in one piece, that mounts directly to the frame. There are no brackets. If I remove the hitch, I remove the mounting brackets. I tried searching various forums, and online for advice. I found nothing. I also found no after market brackets that I could simply buy. Any advice?

 

Here is a little more information:

The hitch...


The hitch mounted to the frame


(ignore the busted shocks and leaf springs, those are the things I'm replacing in the parts that arrived)

 

the bumper slides into the frame rails...

you need to remove the hitch. As you can see the lazy S on the bumper... you literally slide the bumper into the frame rails and bolt them to the side of the frame rail.

notice that cut out of the rubber that hangs... the original bumper brackets went that high, so the rubber "surrounded" the gaps. - if that makes sense.

 

Well, that simplifies that. Thanks!

 

I didn't see them in the pics, but make sure you get the extra legs for the sides of the bumper - they triangulate the side rails back to the frame. It's a separate piece for the 4runner bumper due to fender interference. another thing a lot of people like to do once you bolt on your bumper, is to add a few weld stitches to it so someone can't simply unbolt and walk off with your new bumper.