This is what happens when you jump a truck with a plate bumper (broken frame mount)

Took my All Pro bumper (and winch) off the truck so I could plan out my tube bumper that I plan on building soon.

Discovered that the driver side frame mount was broken off on the outer most side. The pictures speak for themselves.

Welded the broken piece back on and grinded the surface smooth. Tomorrow I'm going to go down to Lowes and pick up some 1/4'' plate steel and make a new face for the frame mount (welded to the old, to increase the thickness and strength) and gusset the backside of the mounts.

Granted, I haul ass. Blitz whoops, jump the truck, etc, so I wouldn't call this typical of plate bumpers; but I wouldn't doubt if others with heavy bumpers have the same damage.

The damage:



Repaired:



Making sure it won't happen again:

1/4'' steel brace plate welded on all four sides to the stock mounting plate.



Both sides on, welded, and painted





Can probably be attributed to stuff like this:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rItsRhX6Lyc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQAgJpLCJLQ

 

Oh! That's gonna leave a mark.

 

Sick!

 

nice

 

So that one side was being held on by one bolt? You pay to play sometimes but at least you're not paying someone else to fix it.
Edit: I love the undercarriage camera view. Is it a GO-Pro?

 

Yea, one bolt. And yes, it's a go pro, one of the original (non-HD) ones.

The other side had a small crack developing to. Rough guesstimate but I don't think it had too many wheeling trips left in it before that sucker would've just broken both mounts and fallen right off.

 

whats your rear set up like?

 

Nice. I did a similar thing to my first Toyota pickup. I had an 84 xcab with tube bumpers front & rear. Not the wimpy kind, but these were 4 inch diameter tubes and the front had a mounting location for a winch. My buddies and I used to go high speed running on the gas line roads which have small jumps on them every 100 yards or so. Well, if you hit them at 40 you get some good air. It took me a week to figure out what the clunking/grinding noise was. I cracked my frame by the front shock towers on both sides. One went all the way through the other only about halfway. My tube bumper was holding the frame together and that was it!

Good work on the welds!!

 

YIKES!!!!

 

And thats why I include brace plates for that mount with my bumpers. Those mounting plates are just way too thin for bashing and winching.

 

What are you running for rear suspension?

 

Rear suspension is an AP leaf pack, Fox 2.0's, U-bolt flip, and an energy suspension bumpstop striking off of the U-bolt flip plate.

 

I broke a motor mount a while ago. It would only make noise when put in reverse, and it was the fan making contact with the fan shroud.

That one took a lot of hunting and pecking to figure out what it was.

 

1/4'' steel brace plate welded on all four sides to the stock mounting plate.

 

Please tell All-Pro that because they don't believe me.

I love your bumpers.

 

nice fix OP!

 

Hey OP, with all the jumping that you do, how come you didn't go with a lighter tube bumper first?

 

I ask myself the same question. When I bought the plate bumper and winch, I had been doing a lot of trail running/exploring and had been getting stuck a lot. At that time I was also just on C/O's and UCA's.

Once I went LT, and started driving faster and faster, I started to want a tube bumper. All I'm waiting on to pull the trigger is to buy a tube bender and shop press with brake/plate bender kit.

 

Both sides on, welded, and painted

 

A lot of other things on the truck will fail prematurely, when you start doing jumps. The tail lights are apparently a frequent casualty, too.