Evening all. I have a project in mind for my 1993 ford f-250 that i would like to ask y'all for thoughts on.

I am going to build my own bumpers + headache rack for my truck.

Now, the image below is similar to what I want to build, but I want to extend it to have room for a front license plate, a winch and a grill guard.

So, what I would like to know is from:
Those who have built their own: What would you have done different and what did you learn?
those who bought pre-fabbed: What would you change about it?

for the headache rack: same thing, any special notes?



Courtesy ChuckE2009

 

Awesome ! have been wanting a front winch bumper like that for my 96 F350.

 

Its not mine, it was a build by ChuckE2009. But its the closest style to what I want, it would have to be extended out for a winch and reinforced. But mine will be similar. I despise most pre fabbed bumpers + guards, they are flimsy by my standards. I want to build one that will be intact after my truck looks worse than after being put through the scrapper.

Once I chalk up some designs I will post them up here and on the welding web forums. The guys over there can help me with all the strucutral details. Y'all can help me with some design ideas and mounting stuff

 

Here is what I want to do in a very rough sketch:

It lacks a few details but I was short on time when I drew this. The actual bumper will have the upward cut in front of the tires as it shows on the one above.

I intend to use 2" tubing, perhaps 5/16" thick. 2 sections of 1/2" plate, and the bumper itself will be 3/8".

 

Looks good. I'll eventually do something similar, but I want a bull bar and want it deep enough (front to back) to stand on comfortable. And perhaps incorporate a recessed tray area on top to hold tools and stuff while working on the motor instead of setting them on top of the intake only to have them fall onto the frame next to the motor mount... no worries about a winch on top for me, my winch is already mounted between the frame rails so I just need a cutout in the front of it.

 

I should be able to stand on the bumper. I like the bull bar (if im not mistaken thats the same thing as a grill guard no?) idea. I think I will add in the tray and build one to hang off of the 2inch tubing. I the tubing will be an excellent seat position.

The winch I would prefer for my uses to be on top of the bumper. I also want to add in fog lights.

Once it is built, I will add in some personal touches such as my name torched into the material, expanded metal to cover over the grill and whatnot.

 

I purchased a Highway products headache rack on sale. I like the overall design of it, the top section, like where you would rest a ladder or other long item has a nice piece of aluminum riveted over it, so if it gets banged up you can easily replace it. The only thing I wish I had gotten is the optional tool tray. Your bumper looks good!



https://www.google.com/search?q=high...tm%3B400%3B267

 

I like the design of the headache rack, but since I have the capablity I like to build my own things, it allows me to preform repairs too. Its cheaper and I can build it stronger and with my personal touch.

The replaceable alum. on top is a nifty idea.

 

I recently built this bumper for a customer.




It was ordered from blue lake offroad, but in pieces, and the customer wanted a front tow hitch. The first thing I learned was don't order from blue lake. They sent the wrong parts (only the center section seemed correct. You can see the foglight holes and blinker holes in the bumper that were not ordered as the guy has no fogs and the blinker light isn't in the bumper), and offered no support, or interest in determining which parts were wrong and which belonged.

Any case, it had a few more details like dressing up around the grill corners, but I don't have pictures of the finished product.

I had some mounting complications on the truck side. I cannibalized brackets for the bumper side, but on the truck side, the guy had provided a class 3 receiver that was too short between the frame rails. Adding the supports (rectangle tubing w/1/4" walls caused bumper mounting issues. If I had all the time and money in the world, I probably would've redesigned the hitch supports to have a couple of tabs come off and create a few more mouniting points for the bumper. I ended up with two brackets on either side of the frame rail, sandwiching it and bolting te bumper through.

I also learned to pay attention to the mounting bolts and angles for the swept back parts of the bumper because during fabrication, I once had a bolt get stuck because I couldn't pull it out once the wing part was tacked on. Had to break the tack and flip the bolt around.

I would say the mounting design is the trickiest/most important part of the fabrication. Ditto the roll bar.

The bumper was 3/16" thick plate, with some half inch (useless) brackets. I think 3/8" plate for the bumper is way too thick. I cringe just thinking of all that weight. Also, I'm not really sure I understand the tubing part.

 

The 3/8" will probably be dropped to 1/4" or so, recommended by the peeps over at the weldingweb forum.

The tubing provides a couple of things for me:
1: grill guard
2: a place to sit while working on the engine plus hang a small tool box off of it.
3: added protection.

 

2" tubing will be a bit on the ridiculous side for your purpose.


Also, 1/4" for the entire thing is OK, I guess, but you can get by with 3/16 for the sides, leaving the center and mounting brackets 1/4, and still be fine unless you plan on ramming concrete buildings or something with it...

 

Ah, I get it now. Cool. On your drawing, you have the half inch posts holding the tubing coming up from the top of the bumper. I suggest running them at least part way down the face of the bumper (out of the way of the D-rings and winch) instead of just welding them on the top of the bumper to give them more strength. The tubing can also be thinner wall than 5/16".

The key to strength is how the bumper mounts to the truck. Most of the challenge - and fun - is figuring out how to resist the forces that will get applied to it. Well, that and the welding, welding's always fun.

Good luck.

 

I stumbled across your thread when looking for headache racks, and figured I would give you some thoughts from a pre-fab bumper that I had on my 2003 F-250. I bought an ARB deluxe Bull Bar with winch mounting and integrated grill guard. The grill guard tubing was probably 2" tube like you are talking about, and it tied in to the two uprights from the bumper as well as being welded back to the top of the bumper out on the corners for added strength. The bumper was very well built, with nice welds. If I remember correctly, the mounting brackets that bolted to the frame (you mount the brackets to the frame, then lift the bumper on to them and bolt the bumper to the brackets) and the center section of the bumper were 1/4" steel and it was rated to hold the 16,500 lb winch. The outer portions of the bumper were 3/16" steel. Here is a picture of my old truck with the bumper on.






I am looking into headache racks, but I am wanting something heavy duty that I can either specify a 2" receiver for the top of, or add one myself later. I use the receiver for a 3,000 lb winch for loading elk into the back of the truck. I haven't found anything pre-fabbed that meets those needs for me yet, so I may end up having something custom made.

 

I built this for my Peterbilt a few years ago...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s/100_0719.jpg

 

One other thing I forgot about is the hi-lift jack points that the ARB bumper has built in. You can see the square holes on each side, just under the ARB sticker and again near the winch hook. Those make it a much less harrowing experience to use the high lift jack on the bumper and I would highly recommend adding something similar to your design.