Smittybilt Mod Bumper for E350?

[warmblood58]

lately, I have noticed the attractive pricing on Smittybilt bumper but it appears that they do not build for Ford vans or other . . . . Why not just buy the appropriate length winch bumper and have a qualified weld shop reset the mounting brackets . . . . easy enough? Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[bknudtsen]

Sounds like a good idea. Just for info, stubby bumpers made for JK's are about 3" too short in overall width (45") to cover the bumper mounting brackets on the Ford (48").

 

[warmblood58]

Good information, thank you! Just not into paying crazy money for bumpers that can go for close to 2,000.00 vs, a modified 400.00 unit plus some welding -100-200 -

 

[bknudtsen]

My thoughts exactly.

 

[tommonta]

Mine too, although I started with a piece of aluminum channel: CAD Model

Mainly it was justification to buy a spoolgun to be able to weld aluminum. Material cost so far is ~$400. This is the bumper I was planning to buy initially. If I wasn't having so much fun doing it myself, $1399 it is not that expensive considering all of the design and fab hours.

 

[Abitibi]

Here's another option that was brought up on the forum. These guys make a winch cradle for the E Serie for $420 or so. Seems like it'd be easy enough to modify, that's what I had in mind when it first read the post...

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/91786-Hidden-Winch-Mount-Econoline-and-E-350

Cheers
Mr. D


Sent from my iPorn using TapaChat

 

[DjDrewDigital]

I took a Rugged Ridge bumper for a Jeep Jk and widened it. The Rugged Ridge bumpers are great because they are modular so you can pick the ends.

First my dad made an adapter to narrow the frame rail mounts. Then made adapters to widen the pods on the end and angle them back so the bumper wraps around the front of the van.

The bumper came out to about a third the cost of an Aluminess bumper.

http://www.ruggedridge.com/jeep-bumpers.html

 

[bknudtsen]

Nice Drew! Do you have any pics of the mounts?

 

[DjDrewDigital]

I took pictures of the fabrication but my phone was stolen before I got a chance to post them. I'll try and get dime pictures tomorrow.

 

[warmblood58]

Perfect, this will work, thank you!

I took a Rugged Ridge bumper for a Jeep Jk and widened it. The Rugged Ridge bumpers are great because they are modular so you can pick the ends.

First my dad made an adapter to narrow the frame rail mounts. Then made adapters to widen the pods on the end and angle them back so the bumper wraps around the front of the van.

The bumper came out to about a third the cost of an Aluminess bumper.

http://www.ruggedridge.com/jeep-bumpers.html

 

[Stitebunny]

I really like that!
Nice job!

There are so many companies doing bumpers and accessories for jeeps. I wish they would expand into the van market!
That modular idea is a great way to do it too!

 

[dcguillory]

Wow! I like that better than the Aluminess bumper

 

[Abitibi]

I was just going over this thread again and noticed a glitch where I posted the link for the hidden hitch. Weird how it's now directing me to a USB post instead???

Anyway, this is what I was talking about...


http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91786

Cheers,
Mr. D

 

[DjDrewDigital]

Wow! I like that better than the Aluminess bumper

Yeah I thought the Aluminess was overkill. The Jeep bumper is compact and elegant.

 

[spearwarrior]

Any chance of getting pics of the mounts?