Casper's Broken Down old Grumpy Assed Build

Yeah those are good nights

 

my computer skills at work. thought i was on 50+ good morning Chris

 

I finally got around to welding on my frame reinforcement plates for whete the bumper mounts in front. Not an original idea I had seen these marketed on vendor’s sites but din’t like that they only beefed up exactly where the bumper mounted.
I removed the bumper and made a cardboard template of the area I wanted to cover, transfered to 3/16 steel, and cut them out with a plasma cutter.
The only kinda pain in the ass was removing the factory studs after that it was pretty strait forward. They’re welded solid all around and the bumper will now ne remounted with grade 8, 1/2” hardware.

 

Looks good, Chris. Are you planning on welding the bolts in place?

I have the SOS plates on my truck. Their instructions have you put in the bolts from behind, like in your first picture, and then weld the bolts in place because you can't get to wrench in there to hold them while tightening with the bumper mounted.

 

Does it push the bumper away from the truck the thickness of the plate? Always made me wonder.

 

Yes.

 

I thought about welding them on and I may have to but I’m going to try without that first some are hard to get into with the gun

 

I don’t reslly see how it couldn’t to be honest. I don’t know if you’ll even notice 3/16 of an inch though. The idea of makeing this area stronger with the intentions of a winch someday outweighed my concerns over a minor difference in appearance. You know I’ve always been anal about looks, apparently not with myself, but what do you always say? Function over form

 

I got the front end back together. I wasn't entirely happy so I took it back apart and tweaked a few little things. I did finally get the frame tie in braces/ brackets installed. They started as just the flat brackets until @TacoFMS explained how they can be actually pulled strait so i gussetted the top and bottom and added 2 vertical gussetts hopefully these hold. Now I need a winch and I may add a cross brace from frame to frame to tie into the winch cradle

 

Between the plates and larger bolts and now these tie braces that bumper isn't going anywhere

 

You know I wouldn't think so. It's aluminum though I got it when I had the 4 cylinder Tacoma. I've been devising a cross brace for the frame. It is a 1" square tube maybe 1 1/2" I can't remember what I bought it was a whie ago. I want to weld it in behind the vertical section of the winch cradle and then run 3/8 bolts through it and attach it to the winch cradle. My thinking is between the braceing at the mounting points and thecross brace it will make the pull more "off the frame" than stressing the bumper. The one trip I had with the camper , so far, we had to use @Wild Crow winch to remove a tree and I found even more of a use for the winch. I still haven't figured out which one I want yet. The guy I ride to work with gave me a Ramsey 12000 lb winch but it needs a little work and I'm not sure if it even works

 

I believe I did mention that most of my winch use is pulling trees off the road.

Those brackets are awesome, you'll be able to pull ALL the trees out of your way.

Hook that Ramsey up to a battery and try it out. It may surprise you

 

I have thought of that. It has no control cable, the clutch selector handle is broken off, it needs new power and ground cablesand converted to synthetic line and a haws fairlead. By the time I get all that it robably wouldn't be much more for a new one. The main concern would be being able to get the clutch selector or whatever it's called

 

To answer this now that the bumper is back on. Yes, it did but its so small you can't really tell. 3/16 plate isn't very thick.

 

I still love the white wheel on your truck Chris.

 

Wassup Louis

 

Trying to catch up on threads i've been putting on side. Busy summer af! How was your? Saw a few picture of the truck with trailer, you had good time? Hope you'll enjoy a few camping trips this fall with all the beautiful colors! Or maybe a hunting trip? You good to shoot with the bow with the shoulder?

 

I can shoot some but not good enough to hunt yet hopefully next year. This year has been busy as hell working on the camper doind a bunch of mods. Been camping a few times and always had fun we hve a couple more trips planned one of which is to aoaa so we can do some light wheeling and have fun. I hope your summer has gone well. Like you I'm behind on a bunch of threads

 

That sounds good! I am glad you can enjoy the camper that much!

My summer been really fun, but extremely hot lol can't wait for fall colder temp!