My 95 has about 6" inches of lift in the front (4" springs, Sky reverse shackle) and I'm running a Smittybilt double tube front bumper. My issue with aftermarket front bumpers is that they look nice but leave all your steering gear and axle unprotected in a collision, especially on a lifted truck. The solution to this was to weld a push bar upside down with a little rake angle, kind of a pre-runner look but sturdy enough to catch errant cars or anything that got in the way. It came out great, and I will try to find a picture. The problem is living in the Northeast the Smittybilt has begun to rust out.

So- Can anyone recommend (with pics) a good custom aftermarket bumper with a nice drop in the front, or a fabricator willing to build such a beast? I'm not looking to spend 2,500 bucks on something fancy and aerodynamic. Just strong and functional.

Thanks

 

Just build a pipe bumper..I just built one for my truck and I'd hate to get in front of it. You'll probably need access to a roll cage pipe bender and a large assortment of pipe. And you can just incorporate a skid plate and get the bumper raked out so everything goes under the truck not toward the hood.

It has since been finished welded (at this point is was only tacked). I also painted it with fizz can bed liner and it turned out pretty wicked. The middle is actually a winch mount from a warn enforcer bumper, the "I like to get stuck" hooks I just had laying around. Otherwise I fabricated the rest of it. I built a skid plate for it (not pictured), but I didn't like how it turned out so I'm going to make another.

 

Nice work Davey. Unfortunately I don't have welding equipment or a bender (yet) so I'm hoping for a shop or supplier who can make one for me to just bolt on.

 

Thank you. I'm sure you could find somebody near you that would be willing to build you something if you gave him the dimensions of what you want and the materials. There's a lot of people out there looking for little side jobs like that.

 

 

See I don't like bumpers like that, and that could be because I live in Wisconsin. We have a real problem with whitetail deer, and that bumper doesn't offer any sort of grille protection if you were to hit one, granted you could build some uprights for it and make something, but as long as you're building, you might as well just build the whole thing.
A design like that wouldn't be bad to start with though.

 

Something like that Broncoair- with bull bars above and below, would be just the ticket!

 

Broncoair is a bit pricey though, especially when you start to add the options, plus I still have to weld a bar to the bottom because ironically in this world of lifted trucks NOBODY offers ANYTHING to protect the steering.

 

Chris-The deer doesn't have to be 5 feet tall, but when you hit it, it whips back into the truck and the antlers break whatever they hit at 65 miles per hour. And you may "offer" grille protection and what-not, but for that cost, get real dude. I could build 2 bumpers for the prices that you guys want.
Stainless-I know what you mean. And really it's hard to find a good bumper with everything that you want on it for a good price. I'm telling you, having someone build one for you is the way to go (If you cant build it yourself that is). Then you can incorporate a skid plate and whatever you want.
Look up east coast bullbars (ECB) once. They used to make bumpers for these trucks years ago, but apparently they quit making them. If you look at the one on the bottom of the page for the superduty trucks, using that as an influence, someone could build something like that very easily, that is if you couldn't get them to "reproduce" the old bumpers again. My uncle had one on a jacked up 95 F150 and you could take down pine trees 10 inches around and the bumper wouldn't do so much as flex.

 

I had a T3 winch bumper that ran my 900 installed that hung down pretty low and it built like a tank. Ill see if I can find a pic.

 

Has anyone tried the Apache from Tough Country? Looks like I'll still need to add a bar to the bottom but at least the price is reasonable. http://www.toughcountry.com/new/sear...pache_ford.php

 

Honestly, Broncoair's prices are on par with what I would charge to build one for a customer. I built mine years ago for far less, but that's only because I don't charge myself for my labor.

 

However, on the topic of deer, my truck has had the passenger side fender, headlight, corner light, and bezel all replaced due to hitting a whitetail with that bumper at 60+ MPH. A full width grill guard may have prevented that damage, but I'm not at all fond of the grill guard look, so I'll continue to do without.

Chris, the deer are pretty big over here.

 

the broncoair bumpers are awesome looking and there are alot of people that can build a bumper that good but your gonna pay for it. i have fabbed up alot up custom bumpers over the years for myself and friends but like white max said i dont figure in my labor. or the price would be up their with broncoair.

 

I would rather rake my man pieces over hot coals than have that rusty pipe bumper on any vehicle of mine. And for you to try and call out a legitimate bumper manufacturer just shows how ignorant you are.