Well, I talked to a co-worker this week and he originally came to Montana to start an off road company, but he ended up not pursuing that for a bit and is working in the same shop I am. I was talking to him about bumpers and he mentioned that he has all the equipment to bend tubing, and is willing to let me use his stuff. So, I scratched the plate design for now and am focusing on a tube bumper, which is originally what I wanted to do but didn't have any way of doing it.

Here are the first steps to the design. It's fairly close to scale, things here and there will be altered. I haven't gotten to the side bracing yet, but that will be incorporated into the brackets that already exist. I'm going to hack off the front and weld in a 2x3 crossmember and figure something out for the front mounting. Also haven't quite gotten to the mounts but that will come as the design progresses.

The Front


The Side/back...Those tabs in the corner I plan on using for bolting in aluminum filler if I decide to put the blinkers in there. Might just re-wire them to the parking lights.


and the top


This is what I got done in a couple hours this morning, I'm sure it will be changing. I'm also going to incorporate a winch plate in there as well as a light bar as well, so I don't have to drill through the tubing.

 

cool beans, looks pretty stout

 

Thanks man, that's what I'm goin for the deer and elk here love to have parties in the road.

 

lmao nice

 

Well, I added a couple aluminum filler plates...

 

wow looks nice.
That done on auto cad?

 

I'm designing it in SolidWorks, so pretty close. Here is some more eye candy. Probably the last update for the evening. More filler and the brackets are placed correctly....that was kind of a pain.




Sorry for the big pictures I can try to downsize the next time...

 

Heh Solidworks is a fun program thats for sure!

 

wow looks sick

 

ill have to check out solid works.
i like the ones with more filler, it provides more protection for the engine compartment and radiator?
Will you be actually putting this design into production?
at the right cost im sure youll have many many potential buyers, especially with x-mas comin up (me being one of em)

Also what about closing off the wings and connecting them for more support, having them non connected would not be very sturdy i would think

 

Yeah I really like SolidWorks. As far as the filler, the places that aren't filled most likely will have tabs that I can bolt filler on... like the triangles...and I can remove when I get more driving/fog lights, which will go in the spots that are currently open.

As far as production, probably not, at least as of now, this will be for my truck. I don't have the capability to produce a lot of these, or the time, but we'll see.

By closing off the wings do you mean the two tubes that wrap around the side? If so yeah I will be connecting those and they will be bolted to the side support, which I haven't drawn in there...I will modify/ incorporate the stock mounts.
If you are talking about the bottom wing that looks like it just runs into the other tubing, me and SolidWorks were not getting along...I was having a hard time meshing that part of tubing to to end of the other because I was going off so many different planes...

Thanks for all the compliments guys any ideas or anything are welcome and I'll keep posting the progress.

 

yes, by wing i meant the side wrap, i kind of figured thats what you were doing
as far as the bottom, i figured it was ust the program being lame. when i work with autocad in 3d with tubes it tends to act up with so many planes some times

 

i want one!!!!!!!

 

Me too!! I can't wait to get some funds to start... probably won't get to do any design tonight but I'll keep photos comin as I progress...

 

where in montana do u live?

 

Live in Bozeman. Well, I'm going to try to mock up some frame elements as well as the side bracing. If I get anywhere I will post it up

 

Well, here is an update with some frame rails and side bracing...

Bottom/Front


Bottom/Back


In her unbuilt, hopefully soon-to-be glory...


I will be adding a winch plate which i will bend up out of 0.25" plate and bolt directly to that 2x3 crossmember. Things could definitely change, but this is the tentative plan. I did a quick calculation of the weight and w/o any aluminum filler it came out to about 45lb, unless I missed something completely drastic. Add some plate in there and probably looking at 65+, but we'll see.

Forgot to mention 1.75x 0.095, oh and I just noticed I forgot the skid plate. I'll put that up later...

 

how far is that from great falls?

 

Its about 2.5 hours

 

Nice! Estimated weight?