Heavy Duty Bumpers for Expedition/Overland Use: Practical Necessity or Superfluous an

[craig333]

Yeah, in my Jeep I don't stand much chance in a high speed collision. Hopefully the truck does better.

 

[eggman918]

3 or 4 years I was on a forest service road in the sierras and was not paying attention let the truck get the bit in it's teeth and went off the side of the mountain!
400' later I came to a stop against another road thankfully I did not get sideways and was able to drive it home there was no damage to my truck
I knocked 6 or 8 small pine trees over on the trip down.I credit my "over kill" bumper with the positive outcome of that little "side trip".
In a collision I will put my faith in physics...mass X velocity squared the truck weighs 7500lbs so I should out weigh most of the vehicles I might bump in to.

 

[The Fleckster]

I thought you may like to see a few of the bumpers i have build over the years. They may not be all out Expedition bumpers, but i guess that depends on your definition. These happen to be on Scouts but seem to fit almost perfect on older Toyotas too.
I custom made these. One went to Alaska to the Town Sheriff. It was the one that encased the winch. He specked security, so i made it so you bolt the winch in, then bolt the bumper in and tack weld the nuts. Then you can not steal the winch without having to cut the bolts off and remove the bumper. :victory:

 

[The Fleckster]

Here is another cool one i did and incorporated the tow bar into the pull points. The clevis mounts go all the way through the bumper and are lined up with the frame rails for strength and so you do not deform the front face of the bumper in a hard pull or impact. # Winning

 

[The Fleckster]

Here is one i did on an expedition style scout. It has 60 Pin led turn signals, then the 100 Watt flood lights are angled out since it has H-4 Hella headlights. This gives a broad range of light up front. Then below it has Piaa driving fog light combo lights. The winch is inside centered for weight per the customer's request. It has pull points and headlight surround bars. Most of this bumper is 3/16" with angles for better approach angle.

The rear hold a swing out tire carrier, and holds two jerry cans, a Highlift, and has room to mount a shovel and ax behind the tire. Then i powder coated both bumpers.

 

[The Fleckster]

Here is a Jeep Cherokee i did for a expedition Jeep Cherokee. The guy was also a volunteer fire fighter. It had to have everything.

 

[Containerized]

Given that my girlfriend and I could have died last year with some SLIGHTLY different circumstances (Toyota Hiace against a medium-sized cow... impact was substantial, but we were fine...), I'm an even bigger believer now in steel bumpers.

 

[eurosonic]

Here is a truck that I bought for parts.

Might not be exactly overland-use related, but here is an example of ARB bumper under "heavy stress".

Although it does look nasty, but if it wasn't for the bumper, it could've been far worse.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

That thing just needs a good alignment and it could be back on the road!

 

[88Xj]

^^ Haha, makes me very happy I held out for my ARB..only complaints are that I'll need full length mounting brackets made up & beef up the recovery area. The small little 1/8" plate that holds the Drings will rip quite easily..gonna weld in a 1/2" think plate on either side or something to make it much strong for side - side pulls, as well as straight on pulls.

 

[The Fleckster]

wow, thats some accident. What did that "parts rig" cost you. Looks like the winch will be usable. I assume you needed some interior parts?

 

[eurosonic]

wow, thats some accident. What did that "parts rig" cost you. Looks like the winch will be usable. I assume you needed some interior parts?

Well, lets just say that I would've payed more for a winch and snorkel by themselves.

 

[Black Dog]

Well I'm a big bumper devotee now. Two nights ago I hit a really big buck in full rut at about 55mph. Without the bumper I would have had some serious damage, but with it it isn't so bad. It kind of looks like the bumper twisted and wrapped under a little bit upon impact which made the edge of the bumper come into contact with the front edge of the wheel well. So its a dent about 3-4 inches long after hitting a 200 pound deer instead of a costly fixit job.

 

[jronwood]

Here is a picture of the style of the two back bumpers I built, one for my F350 CC/CC, the other for my F550 log hauler. They act as steps to access the beds and have 8x8 box tubes not yet capped and "doored" for tire chain storage. I suppose while not "off road" they provide another set of ideas for functionality.....I have lots of Reese style recievers for mounting multiple level hitches AND for salt spreader (plow truck also) and potentially for a backhoe (truck has wet lines to the rear).

 

[Box Rocket]

Stonger aftermarket bumpers have always been worth it to me. A lot is based on how I typically use my vehicles which is some mild overland/camping with a mixture of moderate-difficult rockcrawling. If it was purely overland travel then my approach might be different but since i play in the rocks too it means it's worth it to have a little extra beef to keep things protected.

For me the necessary elements of good bumpers are:

1) Protection from rocks and other trail obstacles, but still maintain excellent approach and departure angles as much as possible.
2) some improved protection from animal strikes (but that's lower on list since most of the places I wheel rarely encounter animals)
3) winch mounting for the front bumper, as well as recovey points at the front and the rear.
4) location for things like spare tire, hilift, fuel. (I don't like any of those things taking up space inside the truck and rarely can a fit a big enough spare tire in a factory location)
5) Aesthetics. Maybe because I'm an artist for my day job I can't go purely for function when I consider bumpers or anything else on my trucks for that matter. It still needs to meet my functional requirements but I like it to look well designed. Sometimes that's a difficult balance and in the end function will always win out but as much as possible I try to make it look good too.

So from my experience that includes LOTS of rock bashing, a couple different deer that have moved on to a better place, and just the things you figure out over time that make life on trails more convenient I've settled with my current setup on my Tacoma (which happens to be a very similar setup to what I've had on my FJ40 and my FZJ80.

For the front I chose a TrailGear low profile bumper with light bar. This is the first tube style bumper Ive had. Aesthetically tube is not for everyone. But for me this bumper has been great and has met all my requirements. I particularly like the high clearance it offers and it has given excellent protection so far.

For the rear bumper there wasn't anything on the market that met all of what I wanted without a ridiculous pricetag. So I built my own. It happened in phases but I finally completed it over the weekend and gotta say I'm happy with the results.

Started out as a stronger than stock simple bumper that improved clearance, included a reciever hitch so I could tow my trailer and some lower bedside protection.

it still needed a tire carrier so I could carry a fullsize spare that didn't take up bed space. So I built that and added a place for my hilift jack.

Then I still needed a place for extra fuel/water, and some rear aux lighting. I finally finished that part of it this past weekend with a second swingout. It now has what I need.

Both of these bumpers have taken some solid abuse. Without question the factory bumpers would have been destroyed by now and I'm sure there would be other damage to the truck as a result. So from my perspective in answer to the original question of the thread, heavy duty bumpers are a practical necessity with nothing superfluous about it.