Rear bumper questions/thoughts

I recently bought a Tomken rear bumper secondhand. My stock bumper rusted off and I just needed a replacment. It has an integrated hitch but only mounts to the stock bumper mounts. I know this is a bad idea and I do not plan to tow or use it for recovery. In the future when I finish the rest of my projects I will add frame mounts so that it will be strong enough to tow with.

I emailed Tomken and asked
"What is the rating for the integrated hitch on the
TMR-0720-B bumper? Is it suitable to pull a trailer, if
so how many pounds, tonque wieght and gross. Is it
suitable for recovery?"

Their response
"All Tomken bumpers are made with class 3 2" recv 3500 tow capacity. fine
for towing and recovery."

I found it pretty amusing that they would say that a hitch mounted to bumper mounts would be ok to pull 3500lbs. On that note has anyone ever seen the bumper mounts fail, I would love to see a picture.

Thanks for taking part in my rant.
K

Here is a picture of it temporarily mounted

I don't think that I would trust it. Now after a little searching on the web I found this.

Our heavy duty Rear Bumper is made from 1/8" wall 2" x 6" rectangular tubing contoured for rear of vehicle and utilizes factory end caps. Integrated frame plate brackets provide better pulling capacity and rigidness.

Sounds like they up graded the new bumpers with some brackets that slide inside the frame rails.

This would not be hard to fab to give you piece of mind.


______________________________________________________
90' Xj Re 5.5", 4.88's, Detroit locked Dana 44 rear, rolling on 35" Xterrains with lots of trimming.

Visit us at www.pa-wheeling.com A site that has a lot to offer.

well, have you seem tomkens tow hook brackets?

:gag:

Tomken's bumpers have always used nutstrips to capture the mounts under the frame. It sounds like you used bumper didn't come with them.

-Jon

That is interesting, were they welded to the bumper or sort of a bolt on after thought? They do not provide any pictures of the mount on thier website but the bumpers look exactly the same.
As i reread the quote above that comes from the site they say "integrated"
I will ask the guy I bought it from, he replaced it with almost the exact same thing and it did not come with integrated frame mounts

Here is the link to the site
http://www.tomken.com/detail.php?id=125

Here is the link to the one that he bought that I saw mounted on his truck.
http://www.tomken.com/detail.php?id=126

here is the picture they provide

There should have been two flat "S" shaped braces included with the bumper.They bolt to the underside of the bumper and the nutserts in the frame rails.
The Tomken units looked kinda "weak" but have held up well,bend up a couple 3/16 x 1" straps,they should work just as well.
Wayne

I was planning on building my own bumper when I found this one so I have some mounts built I just have to figure out how to adapt them to the new bumper.

K