I am going to build a front bumper / cow-catcher for my 74 F-250, and was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers. I was thinking about building it so that I could put in a winch someday down the road. I was thinking about something like the Warn HD bumper, I would just buy one but I would like to say I built my own. I am a fairly good welder, so I am not worried about the building part, just designing the thing. I planned on 12" channel for the main bumper then 1 1/2 tubing for the rest. If I built it to mount just like the factory one, would it be stout enough or would I have to mount it better. This is something I have been kicking around for a while, and thought I might as well get started on it. Thanks for any help, Jake.

 

That sounds plenty strong enough. When I built my bumpers, I built in a "receiver". Then I mounted my winch on a plate, welded to a piece that went into the receiver. That way, I could put my winch at either end of the truck, or leave it in the garage the majority of the time and it stayed out of the weather. Just pull the two pins and pull it out of the receiver. When I first did it, I wondered if the pins would be strong enough, since all of the load was transfered by them. I have been good and stuck, but never had the pins even bend. The winch is 15 years old and still looks new.

 

i dont have any pictures of the one on my 83 F-250 to show you, but i went to my local scrap yard and picked up a nice section of 8''x3'' rectangular tubing, 1/4'' thick, and cut and heated and bent about a foot on each end to match the front of the truck. i was going to go with some regular old C channel like towtrucks use, but the rectangular pipe can be made into an air tank(mines sealed on the ends) not to mention since its double sided its stronger. with the channel or rectangular pipe you can cut a hole in the middle if you want later and bolt a winch in it. on top of my bumper i put thin plate for appearance and used round pipe to form a grille guard that matches the trucks grille.

all in all i spent about 30 bucks on material and maybe 5 on welding rods? could be wrong but it beats buying something already built and it will be original.

one big pointer.... DO NOT use metal for this bumper that is thicker than your frame. your bumper is only as strong as the frame on your truck, and youre going to want it to bend first in a wreck and have it save the frame. on a 3/4 and 1 ton chassis its usually 1/4 inch thick. thats plenty strong anyways for what you will need. to attach the bumper to your frame use some good strong bolts that wont shear easily, at least grade five, and use either angle iron or flat plate cut and placed the width of your chassis so it can bolt on the outside of the framerails. i placed my bumper about a foot in front of my truck so i have room to place chains and stuff and so i can see it well in front of my truck.

my bumper today has saved my truck from 4 deer, has many roadsigns to its name from my juvenile days, and also one wooden piano..... dont ask.

but good luck building it, keep me posted with results im curious to see what you do and just ask if you have any other questions.

 

Well, for mine, I started by mounting a piece of angle to the ends of the frame (8" x 4" x 4' long). I squared this up by spacing the bottom out and bolted it to the factory holes. From there I welded 2 pcs of 6x6 1/4" wall box, aobut 6" long. Then I welded 6x6 box to that and beveled the ends. This makes it about a foot in front of the truck. I welded an old push bar on top of that. I plan on changeing that soon, but for now it works.

I have hit a telephone at about 25mph and did more damage inside than outside (300 lb guy braceing himself on passenger side of dash, dash 0, Doug 1). Bumper survived fine. I have moved more stuff with this bumper than I care to share (and statue of limitations haven't passed ). I have pulled plenty of people and trees out of the way. Very stout but very heavy. No frame problems.

Steve S.
To many to list

 

thats good to hear. telephone poles are pretty stout too, sounds like you built a winner. later on mine im gonna weld some horseshoes on the ends and then im going to get artsy and put a plate in the middle cut with a plasma cutter that says DODGE THIS!

 

You guys are giving me some good ideas here. I recently bent the right end of the bumper on my '77 F250, and wrinkled the fender just a bit (had to adjust the headlight upward a bit to correct the aim). I was out in the woods, and found a small stump. I'm still used to my old '66 International with extended bumper and front end guard and a 10,000 lb. PTO winch up front. I was surprised my bumper bent. I feel bad, even though this is my "$500 work truck." What a way to learn there are no braces outboard of the frame ends.

I had been thinking of making an angle brace to fit the undamaged left side, then making in identical brace for the right side, and just winching the bent bumper forward until the brace fit. I really think bumpers should be on the frame rails, but have braces to make the outboard sections into sturdy triangles.

Listening to you guys here, I'm thinking maybe I should take time to improve things a bit as I fix it. I already have my Ramsey REP8000 set up on a plate that mounts to a receiver hitch (spends nearly all its time on my car transport trailer). I'll give some thought to making a sturdy bumper with a "spot hitch" receiver up front. It may not be as pretty as the chromed original, but when you build 'em you have options -- like the receiver, a step to access the engine, good places to mount auxiliary lights, tow hooks, etc.

I'll stay tuned.

 

my father had a friend with a really nice car hauler trailer and he had his winch like you on a receiver, and it could go on his trailer, or on the front and back of his truck, but best, he could lock it in his toolbox to prevent it from getting stolen which is quite common. my brother had a teacher who found this out the hard way... but he found his winch again so he used the remote and ended up winching the crooks truck vertical underneath a steel support on an overhang. never did get the winch back.... he felt that was funny enough.

as for the truck, i feel your pain, my brother was driving my 76 that i got for under 500 bucks and ran into someone and bent the bumper and grille and fender... but i still feel bad because rusty or not the body on the truck was straight before that... if i could do it again i would mount some steel reinforcement plate behind it and beef it up and have it look good and stock at the same time.

 

i took some 8 inch drill stem, welded plates to the end, ( i inset one end & put a cover plate over it to protect my fittings & gauge) & put a reciever hitch through it. so i have a stout bumper/air tank that has come in mighty handy on my 4-wheel excursions.

 

I know how you feel, Gunsmoke460. There is an attraction to keeping the nice stock appearance, but giving it the strength a bumper really should have.

I can identify with what razell did, too. Both the air tank and the receiver can be handy. I've heard some people warn against air tank bumpers, saying you're carrying around a bomb if it gets hit and ruptures. But I think with the modest pressures we carry for tires and tools, and the heavy material used to build the tank bumper, an impact sufficient to cause a leak would not result in an explosion, just a brief leak.

I guess my choice will depend on how much time I can find to work on my bumper.

 

yeah i agree i dont think that thing is going to blow up with even 300 psi in it, your fitting will probably blow out if it gets smashed due to increased pressure. and, it aint like you dont have a dash, firewall, engine, and some more body metal in between you and the air tank. id be worried if someone had a high pressure tank with nitrogen or co2, say at about 2000 psi, but who does that.

 

How much does that thing way? I have a piece of drill stem about 30 ft long and its heavy. Ive been thinking of using it for a bumper, but i thinl it would be too heavy.

 

depends on how thick, but if you dont weld anything on top of it i think any old half ton could handle it without much trouble.... it only needs to be 6 feet wide.

 

You can probably get a good estimate with a little measuring.

Measure inside diameter and outside diameter in inches.

Us the Pi x Radius squared formula for area of a circle. I usually use 3.1416 for Pi. Close enough for government work.

Do both circles.

Subtract the area of the inside diameter circle from the area of the outside diameter circle. That gives you an area figure, looking at the end of the pipe/drill stem/cylindrical material of choice.

Now multiply that area by the number of inches of pipe you plan to use. Now you have a figure in cubic inches.

Multiply your cubic inch total by 0.283 lbs. Every alloy is different, but I heard years ago that .283 lbs. per cubic inch is a good approximation for mild steel and common alloys.

I am not familiar with the drill stem you mention. I assume you are talking about something quite heavy. Just for fun, I ran the above calculation, assuming a cylinder 8 inches ID, with half inch wall thickness for a 9 inch OD. I made it 78 inches long, like the front bumper of my F250, and I came up with nearly 295 lbs. I sure hope the stuff you're talking about isn't that thick!

 

you'd be surprised.i never weighed it, but i did hold it in place & bolt it by myself. i'm a "stick boy" so it could'nt have been too heavy. if i had to guess i would say maybe 100 or 125lbs.

 

the stuff i used was 1/4 in. so using your figures mine would be about 140 to 145lbs.