Working on a new rear bumper, want your guys opinions

@ForestRunnerFrank99

Keeping it stupid simple, nice.

I like protection just below the tail light area; last wheeling trip I had to back down a steep climb. At the bottom was a tall berm; my truck would slide a few inches each time I'd hit the brake and once I reached the bottom, my bumper went into the berm. Left damage free due to the wrap around nature of my bumper.

Just an idea if you're looking to make it functional. Of course, everyone uses their truck differently so you may not even need it.

 

What do you consider tail light protection?

 

Had some more time to work on the bumper tonight. I added side panel support beams, reworked the frame mounts to be 1/2" thick and contain recovery points, hid the trailer hitch in the bumper better, and started re designing the tire mount. Question, for those of you that already have a tire mount, how often do you swing the tire out 180+ degrees? My current design will limit the tire swing out to ~100 degrees because it will hit the mount. I have one more idea if this will be a problem, but it will require more welding.
Here are the pics!


Tomorrow I will finish up the tire mount, triangulate some places for rigidity (like near where the tire mount is), add bed protection hoops, and finish adding gussets! OH! And maybe add some holes for a license plate.

 

Below the tail light.

Can't wait to see the end result.

 

Seriously would like to buy the finished plans off of you to build one myself. This looks great!

 

Okay I finally had some free time to work on this bad boy. School + other projects got in my way. 1st the big bore kit for my DRZ showed up so I had to install it. 2nd my master or slave clutch cylinder went out this week and the same day those went out my cat took a dump too, so I spent the weekend working on those fun projects. Any way, here is the progress for tonight:

I started working on the bed rails. I would really like them to be at any other angle than 90 degrees but I am not a pro at solidworks, so they are 90 degrees for now.


I also got all the gussets where they need to go! Now it should be pretty solid.




Next I will refine the bed rails, finish the tire mount, and actually measure/adjust the frame mounts. After that I think it will be time for a cardboard prototype

Let me know what you guys think!

 

Is that bracket on the right side of the bumper for a swing out spare tire carrier? Or is it a flag mount? It looks way to light duty to actually hold a tire. Why would you want a swing out spare tire on a truck in the first place it would look really strange and out of place. Spare tire would loom much better mounted in the bed in a slanted spare tire mount.

 

This.

As for why have a bumper mounted spare tire, you should ask the elevendy billion people who run them. If you want to preserve space in your bed for gear, this is THE solution. The bed mount looks cool if you're going for the prerunner bro look, but you use up a good portion of the utility of the bed.

@ForestRunnerFrank99 that bracket doesn't look too beefy for a swing out. The rest looks bomb proof, but if you want the swingout, I'd beef that up a bit.

Check out what these guys have for some inspiration. There are plenty of swingouts that use a modified trailer axle bearing, but this double-sheer style is going to be way beefier. Even of you don't have a huge tire, more beef the better.

https://www.4xinnovations.com/Swing-Out-Tire-Carrier-Hinge-Assembly_p_109.html

 

Another thing that dont make sense to me is the braces that run from the bumper mounts to the wings that protect the rear quarter panels. I can see not wanting to dent sheet metal but those braces are going to hit sheet metal so you will have to notch the rear quarter panels to fit them anyways.

When i made a bumper for my Comanche the way i solved the problem was using a strip of 2" wide 1/4" plate and welding it on the bottom of the frame mount to turn it into a piece of angle. That way when i side loaded it it wouldent bend the bumper side to side.

 

True, that brace will likely require you to notch the body panel. But it is most certainly required if you're going to run a swingout.

I would say, instead of a notch, I'd cut the whole bottom off, so that you at least have a straight body panel line. You could keep the current design but cut the body below the top of the bumper. You'd never notice with the bumper in place, and if you ever took the bumper off for some reason, it wouldn't look weird.

That said, if you did that, you might as well trim the body panel enough that you could tuck the bumper in even tighter. So the bumper fits right below the body panel, rather than around it.

 

Fairly new to the toyota life i come from a jeep background. Seems like the point of the wings is to protect the rear quarter panels from tail damage. So if you have to notch them or cut them off it defeats the purpose of them in the first place. I i were to cut sheet metal i would just leave the wings off since they wont be protecting anything anyways and would give you less to get hung up on. And it would save you a lot of weight which helps on and offroad. When i build jeep bumpers i build the walls out of 3/16 and the mounts out of 1/4" and i have never had a problem. And all of by bumpers weigh less than 60 pounds but i dont run spare tire carriers because it just adds weight. I mount the tire in the back of the jeep since rear carriers add weight and block visibility. I personally cant stand rear tire carriers especially if the tire on it is over 35"... to each their own though.

 

Sure, if you have a beater truck, who cares if your body panels look like wrinkled tin foil? Let the rocks do all the "clearancing" you need. The only reason you "need" a front bumper is to mount your winch, and even then, just use a winch plate. Hell, rock buggies don't have bumpers at all, they're just extra weight and something to get hung up on.

But a lot of us drive these trucks to work (or at least to home depot, lol), too, so it's nice to let a big heavy steel bumper take the brunt of the impacts. It's nice to still be able to use my truck as a truck when I get back home.

Even if cutting off the lower part of a panel, which is purely cosmetic, the bumper will still protect the rest of the panels when, for example, you come down on a rock.

Look at what the 2nd/3rd gen and 5th gen 4Runner guys do. They cut off the plastic bumper and replace that portion of the body panels with the steel bumper. If you didn't want to cut the plastic "bumper" off, your bumper would need to be like 3" wider than it needs to be.

It's more popular on the generations that have plastic bumpers, but 1st gen guys do it, too.

It's up to the end user if they want a super low profile bumper, or if they are okay with the bumper sticking out a little bit, just depends on how you envision body damage occurring.

Same with rock sliders. Some people want them to stick out far enough to protect the entire body from rocks or trees, other people want them super low profile to keep the bottoms of the doors form getting bashed in. All you really "need" is to still be able to open your doors. Better yet, take them off, lol. But again, we drive these things to work and need functioning doors.

 

My mentality changed from driving a truck that had armor all around vs the 5 lug now that has none. I'm much more alert to everyone around me and don't take any chances. In my full armored truck I couldn't give a toss about dears jumping across the road or tailgaters or if someone cutt me off to merge. Chances were that I would walk away unscathed if anything happened.

 

It's a tire carrier but I totally get where you're coming from. I don't want to use any of my bed space for the tire and it is too big to go under the truck so swing out is my best option.

 

I have friends with huge bumpers and full body armor and it gets heavy and changes the whole feel of the jeep. It goes from feeling light weight and sporty to feeling like you filled the tub with concrete. I dont like it so i am careful about adding weight and only add it where it is needed to prevent turning it into an anchor.

 

Exactly why I am using a swing out. Okay I will take a better crack at the mount. Now that I look at it it does look really flimsy lol.

 

I said somewhere on here, this is a low profile bumper, so the entire lower part of the bed is going to be cut off. The braces won't be a problem because there wont be a bed there in the 1st place.

 

I get that, most jeep guys i know dont like running the spare on the rear floor of a jeep because it takes up the entire floor. I dont mind it though because it saves weight and keeps the center of gravity a tad lower and has great visibility out the back.

While googling for images of taco bumpers i came across this and i like it a lot. I think if i buy the taco I'm looking at and do some mods i will run a preruner setup like this it looks pretty light weight yet strong.

 

I missed that.

thanks!

 

This is exactly my mentality. I drive my truck daily and use it as a truck. I don't have the luxury of having a tire in the bed the entire time becasue I need that bed space. I also don't want to destroy every panel on my truck so larger/heavier bumpers are the next best option. I am not a fan of the wrap around bed bumpers becasue as you stated they are like 3" larger on both sides which IMO looks pretty wack and ruins the lines of the truck.