Front and rear bumpers

I have been toying around with the idea of building my own bumpers. I CAN afford to go out and buy a set, but I'm one of those guys that wants to say "Yup, built em myself"
So, after looking at all the designs out there, I gotta ask this question: Are there any "plans" available? Or do you guys fab it as you go?
While I really want to build them, I'm really not in the mood for a lot of trial and error.

I have often thought the same thing.

But, there is no better plan than YOUR actual XJ (I'm still in the process of trying to learn this myself)

Think about how you are going to mount/tie them in to the uniframe first, design and aesthetics come later.

If you did a search, like I'm sure you have, you would see how all the good bumpers are tied in extensively to the suedo-frame rail for a good amount, aka lots of surface area and bolts.

But there are no "plans." I have tons of "plans" in my head, but if I put them on paper, it would look like a 3yr old with a crayon was bored.

Form follows function. Decide what you want them for, and then ask specific questions. Play with cardboard and duct tape, draw ideas, whatever......
er, sorry. Hope this helps a little

It sorta helps...
I do have extensive knoledge of AutoCad, so I will probably spend a Saturday dimensioning up my whole front end. That way I will be able to really make a set of plans BEFORE I actually make the bumpers.
I will keep you guys posted

i myself wanted to fab them up
for the front to keep it looking good i settled on a stock bumper with a custom bull bar that only has one purpose....pulling
for the rear i am in the process of making a bumper/ gas skid all in one because this past trip i really hammered the back and the way i hit i realized that if the bumper is only tied into the frame in two places (like stock) it will certainally bend up as did my stock bumper...

hope i gave you an idea or 2

Autocad... smotocad... Cheerios boxes are all you need...

Fire up the saw and the welder and let the sparks fly!

I would agree with Robs, I built my bumper out of scrap cardboard before i ever fired up the torch. Just take a whole lot of scrap cardboard, tape everything into place then cut out the shapes once you are happy. I built my bumper cuz everyone wanted $500 or more and I couldn't find one that worked with an 8274. My bumper cost me less than $40 in scrap steel an materials (bolts, steel and welding rod) plus a couple of weekends.

heres a plan:

rear bumper: Take stock bumper off detach stock bumper mounts drill 2 holes in them bolt them to 60"x4"x4"x.25" tube steel. Bolt back on. My bumper eats rocks for breakfeast and has saved my rear hatch from being smashed by trees and rocks many a time.

Front bumper: Stock brackets drill 2 holes bolt them to 59" x4x2x.25 weld some 20" long pieces of 1x1x1/8 inch tubing and one across the top of them and you got a brush gaurd. Now I can purposely ram things and not worry about damaging it! Also the bumper has held up to a lot of extractions no cracks or wear in the stock mounting brackets after being towed on many times.

Not only are they effective but they scare people who see it so they dont tailgate me or they wave me through intersections when they odviously got there first I guess they dont want a jagged piece or .25inch steel tube that I cut with a hacksaw tearing through the plastic body of their honda civic.

Total price: 10$ for rearbumper tubing free steel from uncle for front and 3bucks in bolts, being able to grind down rocks with them: Priceless

Inisadow said:

heres a plan:

rear bumper: Take stock bumper off detach stock bumper mounts drill 2 holes in them bolt them to 60"x4"x4"x.25" tube steel. Bolt back on. My bumper eats rocks for breakfeast and has saved my rear hatch from being smashed by trees and rocks many a time.

Front bumper: Stock brackets drill 2 holes bolt them to 59" x4x2x.25 weld some 20" long pieces of 1x1x1/8 inch tubing and one across the top of them and you got a brush gaurd. Now I can purposely ram things and not worry about damaging it! Also the bumper has held up to a lot of extractions no cracks or wear in the stock mounting brackets after being towed on many times.

Not only are they effective but they scare people who see it so they dont tailgate me or they wave me through intersections when they odviously got there first I guess they dont want a jagged piece or .25inch steel tube that I cut with a hacksaw tearing through the plastic body of their honda civic.

Total price: 10$ for rearbumper tubing free steel from uncle for front and 3bucks in bolts, being able to grind down rocks with them: Priceless

Click to expand...

NO

The only way the front is remotely safe is if you have OEM tow hook brackets (which frankly it doesn't sound like...) and beef the hell out of the bracket to bumper mating surface, the stock (non tow hook) bumper brackets hold in with three bolts, this is not enough for a pull!

The rear bumper brackets are a joke! A hit at approximately 10 MPH from an Izuzu crushed and tore one of mine. Again, do not pull with the OEM bumper brackets!

Inisadow, you should remidy this problem immediatly before you get yourself or somebody else seriously injured.

Sequoia

the bracket will tear apart before anything else and I have seen after martket tow bumpers that use the same bolt locations, and I have towed off it several times. The most that will happen is my bumper gets torn off where the bracket bolts to the bumper. I researched the tow hook brackets and they are not a solution at all they bend and warp after a few hard pulls probably from the way the hook mounts to them. When I find someone who has the equipement to fab me up some real mounts I'll pay 'em in beer but until then the stock brackets work fine.

I have a reciever hitch on the rear I dont tow off the bumper odbviously it's not strong enough. Never said I towed off the rear bumper.

me im lazy. i would just slap on front and rear hitches and call it good. the hitches give you solid tow points and you can mount a winch font or back depending on the stuck.

fab on the run, the cardboard way is smarter, but i did it as i went.


also i allready know about the new thing called paint.
in case of red X's
http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/108230/0.jpg
http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/108230/1.jpg

Inisadow said:

the bracket will tear apart before anything else and I have seen after martket tow bumpers that use the same bolt locations, and I have towed off it several times. The most that will happen is my bumper gets torn off where the bracket bolts to the bumper. I researched the tow hook brackets and they are not a solution at all they bend and warp after a few hard pulls probably from the way the hook mounts to them. When I find someone who has the equipement to fab me up some real mounts I'll pay 'em in beer but until then the stock brackets work fine.

Click to expand...

You obviously have not been really stuck and yanked hard on those brackets.

I hve the Warn Combo mount on my XJ,when I bought it (used) I didn't get all the brackets for it so it was pretty much mounted to the front bumper with stock bumper brackets. After a few tugs one side of the bumper was sticking out about 2" more than the other. On inspection the bracket had begun to tear where the bumper mounts!

The purpose of the factory brackets is to transfer the load directly down the bracket to the frame. Because the hook is mounted low, no stress is put on the flimsy part of the bracket that the bumper mounts to. The only way to bend them is to yank insanely hard on them at a nasty side angle or smash into them. You'll be doing yourself a favour(and those you wheel with) by making it your next project to upgrade the brackets. You don't have to buy a factory kit, just use the same mounting points and some heavier metal.

88woody said:

I have been toying around with the idea of building my own bumpers. I CAN afford to go out and buy a set, but I'm one of those guys that wants to say "Yup, built em myself"
So, after looking at all the designs out there, I gotta ask this question: Are there any "plans" available? Or do you guys fab it as you go?
While I really want to build them, I'm really not in the mood for a lot of trial and error.

Click to expand...

Check my web site, I have CAD Drawings of mounts.

Im new here to the forum but I might as well post.
Having a job that requires me to sit and draw in both 2d and 3d cad packages I though that would be the way to design a bumper. The more I drew the more frustrated I became. I finally just made some pencil sketchs took some rough mesurments and started cutting card board and then steel. I coppied the factory tow hook mounts for my bumber so it is plenty strong. I did find it was easier to mount the mounting backets and then line the bumper up to them an tack it together on the vehicle do it lined up.

I will try to post some picks this evening.
Its a good mix of sq. tubing, diamond plate, DOM and 1/4 plate.

Inisadow said:

The most that will happen is my bumper gets torn off where the bracket bolts to the bumper.

Click to expand...

Yeah, and when things get busted and torn and the metal and strap is flying through the air what then? People can get hurt like that!!

I researched the tow hook brackets and they are not a solution at all they bend and warp after a few hard pulls probably from the way the hook mounts to them.

Click to expand...

So what that the tow hook brackets bend?? Even bent they are still safe. Also you can reinforce the bracket and protect it against bends by welding a piece of angle iron within the L part of the bracket: I almost did that myself before I sold them off (after pounding one back into shape and rewelding one seam).

Making a bumper yourself. It's not as hard as it sounds provided that you have a welder and can kind of weld (I fall into that category: the boogers are not pretty but they hold) or have a friend that you can bribe into welding (beer, $$, parts). I have spent about 2 weekends on my front bumper. I still need to finish it off (cover up the top) but that can wait. The cost of the parts for this bumper was about $100 in steel and I still got whole bunch left for other projects.

The rear bumper that I am planning to make will utilize the nutstrip location and in essence will be kind of an inverted hitch that will slide in there (flip the hitch brackets upside down and slide inside) and will utilize the main part of the hitch for it's main potion. Anyways, it's kind of hard to explain but it should work out fine and be prety strong.

Jay3XJ+ said:

I coppied the factory tow hook mounts for my bumber so it is plenty strong. I did find it was easier to mount the mounting backets and then line the bumper up to them an tack it together on the vehicle do it lined up.

Click to expand...

That's what I did as well. It made it fit perfect.

Inisadow said:

the bracket will tear apart before anything else and ... and I have towed off it several times. The most that will happen is my bumper gets torn off where the bracket bolts to the bumper.

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The first real hard pull you do those brackets will tear apart. And when that happens you run the risk of hurting somebody with flying metal, let alone not getting pulled out of a jam.

What do you use when you tug the Jeep out of a spot to pull with, I sincerly hope that you're using a nylon strap without any metal hooks, because if you're using chain or a strap with metal hooks you're asking for serious injury.

Inisadow said:

I researched the tow hook brackets and they are not a solution at all they bend and warp after a few hard pulls probably from the way the hook mounts to them. When I find someone who has the equipement to fab me up some real mounts I'll pay 'em in beer but until then the stock brackets work fine.

Click to expand...

You are correct in saying that tow hook brackets bend, but they are still a hundred percent better that what you describe. First of all, with OEM brackets you need to have the brackets themselves, the cross brace (goes from the tow hook to the bumper at a 45º to strengthen side pulls), the other part is a big of angle iron that strangthens the mount at the front of the vehicle. Both of these parts are supplied in the orignal OEM Mopar tow hook brackets on early models, I am not sure about the later (1997+) body style. Many people do not have these parts on their brackets, they get them from junk yards and forget these parts.

OEM brackets are perfectly safe for forward pulls, they can (and will) bend on hard side pulls, even with the extra bracing.

Inisadow said:

I have seen after martket tow bumpers that use the same bolt locations

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Please let us know what after market bumpers you refer to so that we can steer clear of them. Using those three bolts is just absurd! A proper bumper has longer arms that tie into more "frame" points, somebody here can provide pictures I'm sure.

Inisadow said:

I have a reciever hitch on the rear I dont tow off the bumper odbviously it's not strong enough. Never said I towed off the rear bumper.

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I am glad to hear that you do not pull off the rear bumper.

Now, understand that I am not flaming you, I realize that I am coming off a litlte harsh here, it's just because this is an unsafe way to recover a vehicle and I'd rather not see you, or anybody else, hurt.

Sequoia

This is the OEM Tow hook brackets. The only thing on here that is not necessary is item 31.

Items 5 are the cross braces I was refering to, items 28 are the "angle iron"

Thanks for the blown out picture of the towhook brackets that shows a lot more detail than I have seen any where else. Looks way stronger and I would have to do little modification to adapt them to my setup right now. One question how does the rear most bolt/nut(34/33) attach to the frame? I see no holes to mount it on my jeep, except one possibly, does it go all the way through and get tightened down? How much will I have to drill to mount them? I didn't think they came with the angle iron piece to strengthen the front mounting point or the cross brace piece.

I use a nylon strap for towing.

Inisadow said:

Thanks for the blown out picture of the towhook brackets that shows a lot more detail than I have seen any where else. Looks way stronger and I would have to do little modification to adapt them to my setup right now. One question how does the rear most bolt/nut(34/33) attach to the frame? I see no holes to mount it on my jeep, except one possibly, does it go all the way through and get tightened down? How much will I have to drill to mount them? I didn't think they came with the angle iron piece to strengthen the front mounting point or the cross brace piece.

I use a nylon strap for towing.

Click to expand...

Your jeep should have all the holes that you need (I haven't seen one that didn't yet). And the rear most bolt goes completely through the frame rail.