The
First phase of my rear bumper is now complete. I'm really pleased with the way
it turned out! It's taken a couple weeks, but it was well worth the effort. As
you can see we (98.9% of the work was done by Greg Hillier, My Father-in-Law and
fellow Trailblazer member) Made the main portion of the bumper out of 5x5 with
2x3 extending forward under the rear quarter panels.
Both Edges of the 5x5 were cut, to give it this Nice Angle!
The
Rear Quarter Panels were getting pretty beat up because of the overhang of the
Cherokee. We cut about 8" off of the rear quarter panels and extended the bumper
forward to protect this
area.
Now that there was less quarter panel, we had to cut the Bushwacker fender
flare, so they didn't hang down to far
To attach the bumper to the jeep, we used the stock mounting points as well as the points that the old "Hidden Hitch" was attached to. In all, there are 14 bolts holding the bumper on!
Now that the bumper is well attached, we added to D-rings, so I can Pull (or be pulled)!
In the Near future, we will add a swing away tire carrier to this bumper to get my spare off the Roof Rack. Also, I plan on Using the bumper as a Air tank. Any Questions on this bumper email me.
Well, phase II of my rear bumper
is now complete. It has really came along very nicely. As you can see it is a
swing
out tire carrier that has an adjustment so the tire can pivot up and down. The
swing out portion is attached via a axle spindle
available at www.rockstomper.com for
$45. It is a very nice spindle, and made the job a lot easier.
The
pivot arm is held in place by two bolts, one at the "Bottom" and one at the
"Top".
When you take out the top bolt, the arm is free to pivot up, allowing me to
put the bolt back in a higher hole, that moves the tire up and out of the way.
This is so I don't drag it on the rocks when I'm on the trails. I can keep the
tire in the "down" position when driving on the roads, and it is hardly
noticeable in the rear view mirror.
Check out the difference it makes in the "useable"
amount of mirror.
This
was a must for me as the Side mirrors on my Xj are very small, and I really rely
on the rearview mirror on the road.
Finally, I bought this cool little latch for $15
bucks... you know, the kind with the red handle and u-bolt. I thought it would
hold the tire-carrier, but it turned out it wouldn't. Greg brought out the
Plasma cutter and took it off, then came
up
with this great idea. There is a piece of angle iron on the inside that has a
nut welded to it. When the tire-carrier is closed, it sits in the angle iron and
a bolt holds it the securely. KISS... Keep It Simple Stupid. Words to live by.
So far this bumper has turned out way better than I ever imagined possible. It has been a lot of work (mostly for Greg 8>) but has been well worth it. Now we just need to plum it for air, and add a gas can mount. And I guess we can come up with a better way to hold the license plate on than with bailing wire!
