Steel vs. Aluminum! Front bumper

That looks amazing man, I really want a Pelfreybilt. Nice grab

 

Yeah I hate what became of the company due to the owner but my Pelfreybilt aluminum is one of my favorite mods. BAMF has done amazing things to clean that mess up and even improved the designs.

 

Purchased a warn VR8 around Christmas time on sale and I’m going with a C4 “hybrid” steel bumper. What do I need to do with my suspension for it to handle the added weight? Not wanting to lift my truck much, maybe an inch all around. I’m wanting to keep the stock stance. The truck is currently on 265/70/17’s. I’ll also be adding sliders which will probably happen first with the lead time that C4 currently has.

 

If you plan to add additional armor, I’d go aluminum. All of that weight adds up and you’ll be stressing the whole drive train with the added weight in addition to performance, handling and fuel economy.

 

Good idea with the gasket. What measures did you use short of siliconing around joints to keep road salt from creeping in and sit between the rubber and frame?

 

I used a tube of gasket maker and just squuezed a bunch on the face where it connects and the bolts. It smashed out and created a nice seal all around. It stayed wet for a couple hours and once I tightened it up I just used a paper towel and wiped off the excess. Easy way to apply and keep crap out of the joints while maintaining a separation so no galvanic corrosion occurs. Hope that helps.

 

I did all aluminum (bumper, 3 piece skids) They've taken a pounding. Not the first sign of damage, other than a few scratches in the powder coating on the bumper. This includes hitting a Honda Accord in the driver's door when it pulled in front of me last spring. I shoved it sideways about 5 feet. The Pelfreybilt aluminum bumper came away completely unscathed.
Old racers trick....every pound you eliminate equals gained horsepower and performance
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Applies to off road vehicles just the same

 

Well here I was all excited to stamp out some of my own custom gaskets, blissfully unaware of the miracle of liquid gasket. Death to galvanic corrosion!

Thank you for the tip! I may just end up doing both

 

I happen to work in the topic, so I ended up getting some samples from AvDec and used them in other areas, which is a gasket with a steel mesh inside to separate and still conduct electricity. We found that just using these gaskets saved us literally 100's of millions in material and labor. All of our helos and comms get this treatment now. You would think the auto industry would jump on that too....

 

Steel for me, and tube bumpers instead of plate.
Had plates front and rear, and both weren't really up to par for what I do. Plate bumpers are heavy, and dont have much structure behind them unless you add even more weight to them.
Old plate I totally mangled:


And my current setup: