Bumper Guides and Limb Risers

[Mack4]

My truck has a contractor rack installed over the camper shell. While it works great for ladders, pneumatic masts and other loads that won't fit in my postage stamp sized bed, it does have one significant downfall; tight, brushy trails.

Easy to see here, the gap between the over-cab portion of the rack tends to funnel branches and the occasional downed limb or tree right against the first leg of the rack. We actually had a downed tree in Arkansas slip into that gap on my passenger side and ended up almost pulling the rack off of the bed.

The solution: Limb Risers! We tried tie down straps as a stop gap and they worked pretty well. Not 100% effective but really kept the larger stuff at bay.

Looking at kits online and reading about different mounting solutions/problems on here I decided to combine a concept I've seen on Big Rigs; Bumper Guides.

We used 4130 Steel 1" tubes to raise the cables up and out of the way of the hood and also allow me to spot the corners of my bumper from the cab.

The idea was to make the system fully removable, so I am not buzzing down the highway with limb risers every day.

The Bumper Guides slide into the 1.25" 4130 tube and are held in place by a 3/8" pin.

The end result. The weak link here is the turnbuckles. A by product of the install is it helps to stabilize the front part of the rack, which tends to jump around over rugged terrain.

Looking forward to trying it out!

-Mack

 

[Mark Harley]

Throw a couple of American flags on them when traveling.

Look like a motorcade.

 

[mowerman]

looks really good - i use limb risers (bush cables) and they work well, and protect my snorkel aswell



At this time they were attached to wing mounts:-



However this caused problems - firstly i couldn't open the bonnet with the risers fitted, and second I had to fit spreader plates under the brackets because they atarted to pull through the aluminium wing on my Disco.
When I fitted the bullbar i removed the wing mounts and fitted rings to the corners of the bullbar to fit the riser to.
this works much better and enables me to open the bonnet - always useful with a Land Rover!

 

[eurosonic]

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I like this solution

 

[Mack4]

When I fitted the bullbar i removed the wing mounts and fitted rings to the corners of the bullbar to fit the riser to.
this works much better and enables me to open the bonnet - always useful with a Land Rover!

I had the same problem with the straps we rigged up, and the Titan has such a funky hood, I had to wing out those bumper guides quite a bit to clear the hood. This particular truck has a over heating issue I was chasing last summer, and I am sure as it heats up here in the next couple of months I'll be popping the hood quite frequently!

-Mack