Custom Rear Bumper Build

[DjDrewDigital]

We're working on a rear bumper for my van with dual swingaways. It's going to carry a spare tire and kitchen box. Currently the spare tire is mounted on the door but it's bending and cracking under the strain. We already made the kitchen box and just need a better way to mount it.

I ordered 2 spindles and 2 latches from Competition 4x4. Then we found some 6"x2" channel.
Here's the design and rendering that I came up with. I wanted to keep the design simple so it'd be easy to fabricate.

 

[MECA58]

DJ,

I really like your design, I'm looking at doing a similar bumper, but, Comp4x4 recommends a 2 1/8" OD steel sleeve welded into the bumper tube with the spindle tacked to the bottom, which obviously won't fit into a TS2x6x3/16", even without the sleeve the HD spindle will require almost the entire ID of the TS bumper. I think I'm going to go with a TS3x6x3/16" which will leave me 1/4" clearance on each of the narrow sides to weld the sleeve to.

 

[Butch1979]

This is going to be cool! Look forward to the end result.

 

[summerprophet]

We're working on a rear bumper for my van with dual swingaways. It's going to carry a spare tire and kitchen box. Currently the spare tire is mounted on the door but it's bending and cracking under the strain. We already made the kitchen box and just need a better way to mount it.

My only suggestions:
1. make sure you have clearance for the primary door to open without opening both swingaways. That would make things far more convenient, when you just wanted to quickly grab something.
2. don't forget to run the electrical for the license plate light.
3. I would try and snug that spare tire as close to the bumper as possible. The farther out you mount the weight, the greater effect it has upon your suspension.
4. And if it was me (and of course it is not), I would mount a small receiver under your kitchen box. It gives you the option to throw an additional cargo rack for fuel/chainsaw or other smelly stuff you wouldn't want in the cab. It would be inconvenient to have on full time, but nice for those times you wanted it.

Nice design.

 

[wig]

Very nice. I'm gonna build something too . I was thinking about a 2x6 tube. I like like the wraparound you did. I'll be waiting for the final pics.

 

[brettf]

Can't wait to see the end-result, Drew!

 

[DjDrewDigital]

Thanks for looking at my design!

DJ,

I really like your design, I'm looking at doing a similar bumper, but, Comp4x4 recommends a 2 1/8" OD steel sleeve welded into the bumper tube with the spindle tacked to the bottom, which obviously won't fit into a TS2x6x3/16", even without the sleeve the HD spindle will require almost the entire ID of the TS bumper. I think I'm going to go with a TS3x6x3/16" which will leave me 1/4" clearance on each of the narrow sides to weld the sleeve to.

I'm going with the standard duty spindles. They use a 1 5/8" sleeve so it'll just barely fit in 2" channel or tubing. I went with the smaller 2" channel width because I wanted to keep the weight down. 3" would be better but it'll add 10 pounds or so.

My only suggestions:
1. make sure you have clearance for the primary door to open without opening both swingaways. That would make things far more convenient, when you just wanted to quickly grab something.
2. don't forget to run the electrical for the license plate light.
3. I would try and snug that spare tire as close to the bumper as possible. The farther out you mount the weight, the greater effect it has upon your suspension.
4. And if it was me (and of course it is not), I would mount a small receiver under your kitchen box. It gives you the option to throw an additional cargo rack for fuel/chainsaw or other smelly stuff you wouldn't want in the cab. It would be inconvenient to have on full time, but nice for those times you wanted it.
Nice design.

I set the spare tire back because I wanted it to have room for a jerry can or trash bag between the tire and body. I also wanted to have it line up with the back of the kitchen box. I probably won't set it so far back.
I was going to put a hitch receiver on the bumper. It would give me a much better departure angle because the current hitch hangs so low. But my van has a fuel tank back there that would be exposed without the tow bar. If a low car rear ended me they could puncture the tank.

 

[summerprophet]

Hitch receiver on the Bumper would be for towing. Small receiver on the swing arm would be for additional cargo rack/ custom bike rack/ or custom snowboard rack.
If you use you bumper receiver for these accessories, you need to remove everything before you can open your swing arms. But if you mount it to the swing arm, all this stuff swing aside with the swing arm.

 

[Colby Jack]

Loving the creativity in your design. Help me understand something- is there a reason you couldn't extend your corner protection to the back of your wheel well? Similar to what many Toyota bumpers are doing these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DjDrewDigital]

Here's another concept rendering I did. I have this program called Right Hemisphere Deep Exploration that I use at work and it's awesome for rendering photorealistic images and creating animations. I just drag the Solidworks model into it and apply materials. The van and camp stove I got from the 3D Sketchup Warehouse.

 

[DjDrewDigital]

Loving the creativity in your design. Help me understand something- is there a reason you couldn't extend your corner protection to the back of your wheel well? Similar to what many Toyota bumpers are doing these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I just focused on filling in the indentation in the bottom corner of the body. If I had gone with just a straight bumper that didn't wrap forward at all it'd look funny.

I think the stick Toyota number wraps all the way around to the wheel well so custom bumpers do the same.

 

[DjDrewDigital]

We've been making progress in the bumper:

 

[DjDrewDigital]

We're going to have to trim the shear bracket or space the bumper back. You can see the cracks in the door from the spare you're rack in this pic:

 

[nickburt]

Like the idea of the kitchen on a swing away. Might change mine and do away with the jerry can holder for the same idea.

Also, watch how you fit the release handles for the swing aways, on mine (it's an African Outback bumper), they don't open far enough when the hitch reciever is fitted, so would be impossible to open with a trailer hitched up. I'll get a better picture of the problem today.
Thinking of reversing the handles so they operate the opposite way (i.e. away from the hitch).

 

[86scotty]

Nice work so far!