I got this bumper off my dad's 78 chevy parts truck. It seems like its made of pretty thick tube. It looks like it would be able to take a pretty good hit and I reinforced it by welding a piece of angle iron from the sides to the frame of the truck. Does anyone have a bumper like this and know how strong it is? Can it take a hit? Could I put a tow rope around it and pull something of get pulled out? It is bolted and welded

 

It looks pretty strong and can probably take a decent hit. Keep in mind though that the stiffer everythimg is the more the shock loads can be if you hit something. If nothing deflects somethings gonna give somehow.

Can you tow off it? Definitely not at any sanctioned event. I don't know how much that's CYA or how much it's really a good practice, but no off-road club or organization will allow you to use any bumper as a tow point.

 

I will be making a front tow hitch so I wont pull anything with it but I just didn't know would that like rip off my bumper? How big would you say a decent hit is?

 

Will the front hitch mount to the bumper or the frame? If it's mounted to the bumper a club will still say you are towing off the bumper and won't allow it. I don't know why a bunch of metal welded together and bolted to the frame is OK to tow off of if it looks like a receiver hitch, but it's not OK if it looks like a bumper, but that does tend to be true. And I'm telling you what I've heard from clubs (or read on club web sites). I'm not saying that it's actually safe or not safe to tow off a bumper.

How big a hit? I can't say. It's probably similar to a stock bumper if the hit is near a bumper mount, but it'd probably hold up quite a bit better if you hit right in the center, or out on an end, farther awa y from a mount.

 

The hitch will be welded or bolted to the frame.. and I had to make mounts for the bumper to fit on my truck so I took angle iron and welded it flat to the bumper then it's onto the frame so I would think that these are stronger than stock

 

Being welded and bolted to the frame it will probably crack the frame any bigger hit then what the stock could because of it being so rigid.




Like Bob said I would never pull with a bumper done it before with heavy duty bumpers and everything and it never turns out good.
Trav

 

Does welding it on make it any stronger?

 

Yes and no. The PO of my truck welded the bumper to the frame (rear) and it didn't really help anything because once it is in an impact the that extra strength will break the frame. It is almost better to have it just bolted then you have less of a chance of it breaking the frame because the bolts will break first (depending on the strength of the bolts).
Trav

 

That's true... I'm not expecting to take on a 50 mph head on hit and the bumper be mint but if I hit a deer do you think it would hold up since the bumper is fairly thick tubing and I reinforced the sides?

 

Bumper maybe but the rest of the truck probably will be toast (from frame damage) so I am not sure what good the bumper will be. LOL
Trav

 

Any way I could reinforce the frame to make it stronger?

 

I wouldn't be able to tell you how to do that I don't have knowledge in the frame never had to deal with fixing a frame on a wrecked truck.
Trav

 

I want to reinforce it so I don't have to deal with it if I wreck my truck lol

 

I know but I buy wrecked trucks and personally have never had to deal with fixing frames. I would see if anybody else chips in. Also you could talk to a place that does frame repair and builds off road vehicles.
Trav

 

Ok thanks though