1st Gen Bumper Design

Hi all I am a new user to TW and just recently purchased my tacoma this past summer after being a summer intern at Toyota in their crash safety department. I am a mechanical engineering major in college right now. They are amazing trucks so I knew I had to get one (especially if I was wanting to work there after I graduate..... ). So that is my short introduction.

I am working on a design for a new front bumper to mount to my truck. I just wanted to get some feed back from the real experts on this forum. What do you all think about and also what are some things I should consider changing or adding? I want to build it this winter break when I have some time off school.


Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

Looks great! Any idea on what your prices would be?

 

Personally I would be more interested in an assembled piece but you should go for this. Good little side business and add some competition to the market

 

Would you think of selling the prints .

The shipping of the precut parts could be a deal breaker .

Since most bigger shops now have a plasma or water jet .

Post some prices see what happens !!

 

Odd coincident. I was just turning on autocad to do the same thing. I have access to a waterjet table and a plasma table. I have lots of welding gear. After seeing a handful of CNCed plate bumper kits (as you described) on the web, all for more than i was willing to pay, i figured i would make my own. ($500 aint cheaper) DIY will allow me to make something smaller than the typical plate bumper kits i saw. So smaller/lighter or cheaper might be a niche for you.
Honest i was just going to open source any .dwg or CNC files i came up with.

I have been poking my head under plate bumpers for years. Still not sure how i want to tie into the frame on a Gen1 Taco. I notice you are only supporting the bumper by bracing forward of the ends of the truck frames. Some come out to the sides also. I started a thread asking for photos of how people have been bracing tacos here a i am not sure how important it is. It was well received (no responses as of yet ).
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ng-for-bumpers-front-hitches-on-gen1s.403879/

For recovery and maintenance I would really like to see 2 T slots for a hi-lift in bumper designs. Especially on Tacos because you can't use hi-lifts stock. That might be a niche for you.

Maybe 4 locations. Land cruisers and land rovers used to have T slots. Some here might argue the T slot shape is bad when using your hi-lift for rare recovery techniques. I would love to hear peoples thought on better shapes. I really do not want to have to carry one of these:
It is just one more thing to loose or hit you in a roll over. But you should ask people if bow shackles/D bolts/Recovery points are important.

Perhaps i am just a curmudgeon who refuses to advertise for a company that does not sponsor me... but i would loose the "tacoma" cutout and use the shape that best allows air to the radiator while maximizing the protective integrity of the skid/plate. For me it is a turn off. But if you are CNCing these as they are ordered making that say whatever a customer wants would appeal to the mall crawlers, maybe?

Obviously approach angle is of key importance to people. And clearance for bigger wheels. This is why we can not keep a stock bumper.

Hard to tell how your design matches up to the body.

I noticed you don't have a front hitch. My work trucks all had bumper mounted winches. I envy the flexibility of a hitch mounted winch as do some others on here. Also I like my mt bike rack up front. Many people here have a front hitch for other things. But not all plate bumpers allow or include it. You might test the waters. Is it important? Where you should put it. People in the off road world like front hitches HIGH. Maybe not important. I am designing a bumper with 3 hitches as i need one for the bike or winch and 2 on the sides for a hang glider rack.

My profession is toxicology, but aeronautical engineering is/was a hobby. Plate bumpers adversely affect handling and noise at high speed. Some of this is mass. but most is windage. You are an engineer. If you have access to fluid-flow programs or a wind tunnel and you can come up with a plate bumper that does not compromise approach angle but solves the other problems you have a BUSINESS PLAN.

Weld at home kits of any type are best when the designer considers warping from heat. consider that. Reduce need for long runs. Pick scantlings accordingly. Be prepared for amateurs like myself to call pissed that the thing is asymmetrical. Cover your butt with good instructions about where to do what type of weld and in what order.

I could keep going but i already feel like a thread hogger.

 

Most who can weld can measure and cut too. $500 is out of line for me to weld up. I'd pay a couple bucks for a plan however and break out the sawzall and grinder.

 

I agree on all counts.

If one could design a bumper that uses common sized metal plate and only requires angles to be different on the cross cuts that would be very popular. I was toying with how i might do this. If i didn't want to mess with the water jet (not local to me). Hard to do without a few triangles.

$500 is WAY high.

 

It is really hard to tell from the image, but i think your bracing might be dropping really low. This compromises approach angle. and clearance. Hard to tell. Also hard to tell how far forward it extends.

Also, why are you not opting for a flat top? I think yours looks great if you are going for looks. Flat tops let you put more stuff on them.

 

Sorta kinda went in the same direction with mine, minus the angled bottom side. But as said above, the mounting is a bit low, mine is mounted similar to that and it really limits what you can do with it. Other than that though I like it a lot. And I agree with the guys above, selling the plans would be a great idea if you could make it with fairly simple materials. Lots of diy-ers on here would probably love that. But there's the double edged sword of possibly getting the plans leaked. Regardless, best of luck, and good looking bumper

 

Thanks for all the critiques everyone, I am certainly taking them into account. Secondly, I am sorry for this long posts, lots to respond to. I am doing some CAE (computer aided engineering) on the bumpers right now and seeing how strong they are and where particular regions of deformation occur. Also I'm thinking of opening the top up to allow for a wider variety of winches to be used (i.e. I don't want someone to buy and build it and then not be able to fit a winch in it).

Please keep the comments coming though! I should have a second iteration of the bumper up soon and would love to post it here for an informal design review from the true experts. Thanks again all.

 

All engineering aside I find it perplexing that people would be asking for your design plans.

I wonder if they're asking Coca Cola for their formula also.

 

This is the second iteration of the bumper. I am trying to make it more cost effective by allowing me to require a smaller sheet of steel to cut it out. I also have opened up the top to allow for more variation in winch size, added some 4" pockets for lights the fair lead on their is just to give an idea of what it will look like. I want to add some d-ring mounts yet. Next step is CAE, I'll need to see if there are any weak spots that will need reinforcing.

Let me know what you all think! Thanks!

 

Looks awesome! When are you building? Will you sel plans after

 

Looks kinda like the one on my 98

And I don't know if I would but that big of Tacoma lettering in there like that. Your taking out a bunch of steel, I feel like it would be pretty week. And since that probably the place that will get hit, maybe you should make it smaller.

We also made one for my 96. We bolted it where the tow hooks are.
Sorry I don't have better pics of it.

 

I hopefully will be building it within the next few weeks. Also that bumper looks awesome! Is your truck bedlined, I thought I saw some texture on it. But I am going to do some CAE on the bumper and see the deformation of the surfaces, so i'll take a look at the size of the Tacoma logo.

 

Thanks man! And yes my 98 is bedliner with monstaliner. How thick of steel are you planning on using?

 

Cutouts for turning signals?

 

I was planning on using 1/8.

I am thinking of re wiring the turn signals up by my lights if possible, can that be done? All else fails I'll add a whole to put some LEDs in it.

 

Yea we used an 1/8 on my 98. It's good enough with some bracing. And just put the turn signals up into the drl

 

Ok good call. Is that what you did to have turn signals still?