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A 17 year olds garage built rear bumper!

What other mounts are you using? Also why not ditch the receiver and build it into the bumper.BTW,what wall is the tubing,in the one "end cut" pic it looks like .120"?
 
Hey Cole93: I have a baby son who hit 10 months old today. I have a lot of dreams for him ... I hope he'll do whatever is in his heart. He can be a doctor or carpenter or whatever he wants, as long as he puts his heart into it and holds himself to high standards of work. And I'll tell you this ... if he grows up and can do this kind of quality during 2 weeks of a summer break, I'll be a very proud dad.

Good work.

PS: He's not allowed to become a lawyer ... LOL
 
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since this is naxja & not pirate i think some of the comments have been tempered, especially given your young age. your build quality is great, but the design has a lot of weak spots in it, such as the latch, the bearings, the tube thickness, lack of gusseting on the hoop, etc. still this was a high quality build. i think it looks great, but would fall apart on the first trip to hollister (the way i drive anyway).
 
knucklehead 61 said:
since this is naxja & not pirate i think some of the comments have been tempered, especially given your young age. your build quality is great, but the design has a lot of weak spots in it, such as the latch, the bearings, the tube thickness, lack of gusseting on the hoop, etc. still this was a high quality build. i think it looks great, but would fall apart on the first trip to hollister (the way i drive anyway).
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I understand everything you said about the design except the bearings. What was wrong with those. Thanks for any extra info you can provide.

And I agree with you that the quality of his workmanship was excellent.
 
What did you use to cut the recessed part out of the main tube? Plasma, torches, cutting wheel, sawzall??? I've got a piece of steel just like that and would like to replicate what you've got going on there. TIA for any advice!
 
Nice Job dude, I like seeing what Young guys can come up with, Wish I had a welder so my dad could show me some tricks. Tyler(Team Willys) the owner of Rocksolid 4x4 Fab is only like 23 and he has built some sick rides from an LS2 swapped XJ to Betty his willys to the JK he is swapping a 6.0 truck motor into. Keep up the good work man and you might have a great future in this! :thumbup:
 
montanaman said:
I understand everything you said about the design except the bearings. What was wrong with those. Thanks for any extra info you can provide.

And I agree with you that the quality of his workmanship was excellent.
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i could be wrong, but they look like open bearings from a hand truck wheel.
most real tire carriers use tapered timken wheel bearings as they are a t-o-n stronger & can handle loads in all directions. a spare tire is what, about 75 lbs or so? raise that up 2' or so above the pivot point, bounce it around offroad (or just drive on our craptastically paved california roads) & you will quickly find out the weak points.
 
knucklehead 61 said:
since this is naxja & not pirate i think some of the comments have been tempered, especially given your young age. your build quality is great, but the design has a lot of weak spots in it, such as the latch, the bearings, the tube thickness, lack of gusseting on the hoop, etc. still this was a high quality build. i think it looks great, but would fall apart on the first trip to hollister (the way i drive anyway).
Click to expand...

first off i appreciate your constructive criticism, i just have a couple questions. yea the latch is not the best i agree. but i dont see what is wrong with the bearings. they only have to go 90 degrees there is no load on them other than when the tire swing out is open. the bearings are just cheap universal ball bearings that i picked up at ace. and are you talking about the thickness of the main square tube or the tire hoop tubing. and where you you place gussets? across the front of the square tubing because lateral gussets would not be necessary.
 
RCP Phx said:
What other mounts are you using? Also why not ditch the receiver and build it into the bumper.BTW,what wall is the tubing,in the one "end cut" pic it looks like .120"?
Click to expand...

ya its 3/16 wall. and thats whty i didnt incorporate the hitch into it. the tubing isnt too thick. i wanted to keep it light.
 
Cole93maxxxj said:
first off i appreciate your constructive criticism, i just have a couple questions. yea the latch is not the best i agree. but i dont see what is wrong with the bearings. they only have to go 90 degrees there is no load on them other than when the tire swing out is open. the bearings are just cheap universal ball bearings that i picked up at ace. and are you talking about the thickness of the main square tube or the tire hoop tubing. and where you you place gussets? across the front of the square tubing because lateral gussets would not be necessary.
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if you look at other commercially available swing our carriers would you see a cheap ball type bearing?
what is the tube diameter & wall thickness or the hoop? is it "let in" to the swing out bar or surface welded? what is the wall thickness of the swing out bar? i am thinking the weak point is the tube to swing out bar joint.
your idea of using an axle shaft to mount the tire is good & it looks like it is suspended in double shear which is a solid way to secure it.
 
The design looks great, but as said above, has a few little flaws to work out.

When I saw that latch, I was hoping it was just a temporary thing but obviously its not. Those are made to hold drawers closed, not something that weighs close to 100 lbs mounted to a vehicle.

Use something like this and it'll be much stronger: http://www.mcmaster.com/#draw-pull-latches/=djkjt8

5071ac1l.gif


While you're at it, throw some gussets on the tire carrier tube to hold it more securely to the base swingout. It'll help a lot when you get a bigger tire on the back.

As for the bearings, I can't really tell what kind you have in there, but I wouldn't use something so 'cheap' as you put it. And there should probably be some way to grease them unless they are sealed. Check out Poly performance and A to Z Fabrication and see what they sell for tire carrier hinges. They have kits with the tube and bearings all together, and you can at least see the type of tapered bearings they use.


All that being said, you definitely have some skill man. Lucky you to have some nice tools and a place to work at your disposal at such a young age.
 
Awesome work man. I'm only 19 and wish I could fab like that. I'm learning but slowly (school) got the welding down but the rest...eh need the tools and experience...but hey like everyone else said very impressive in the time frame you had and your age definitly made me a lil jealous that I can't do that yet. Great job.
 
Outlander560 said:
Awesome work man. I'm only 19 and wish I could fab like that. I'm learning but slowly (school) got the welding down but the rest...eh need the tools and experience...but hey like everyone else said very impressive in the time frame you had and your age definitly made me a lil jealous that I can't do that yet. Great job.
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im 20 and wish I had those skills too! Going to school to get my BA in Welding engineering at Penn Tech as we speak!

Do you have a MIG or a stick machine? I kinda wanna get a stick machine because im pretty good at it now, and there is nothing to jamb up. Or maybe its because ive only used el cheapo mig units.

Also DAMN you have a clean cherokee. I would daily drive the crap out of that. Gas milage aside, there is just no better driver then an XJ. Especially when you throw bumpers on one, no worries about fender benders!
 
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