07 Silverado Lightweight Bumper/ skidplate & Rocksliders

bloodyWEST

Adventurer
looks great!

do you have any tips on how you made the uprights into "I-beams"?

did you weld-bend-weld-bend ect the flat stock? adding heat as you went?

very curious how you do it, and make the bends look so smooth.
 

rube bonet

Adventurer
looks great!

do you have any tips on how you made the uprights into "I-beams"?

did you weld-bend-weld-bend ect the flat stock? adding heat as you went?

very curious how you do it, and make the bends look so smooth.

Pretty much measure, tack, clamp, bang bang with the hammer...tack, clamp, bang, bang....repeat as necessary. :D Helps to hold your mouth just right when you're using the hammer, prevents marring the strap with hammer marks.
 

cowboy63645

Adventurer
Looks amazing! I would love a set of sliders and those would work for mine...which means you already have all the measurements!! Hmmmm, wonder how much the wife would yell lol
 

rube bonet

Adventurer
Thanks guys, the only parts I could readily reproduce without a vehicle present are the rockslider mounts (you supply your own sq tubing and fab skills) and the front skidplate. The bumpers (and obviously the custom work done to the frame) are all built to your needs and custom fitted to the individual vehicle.
 

y5e06

New member
These are totally awesome, were you able to weld all the way around including the top joint of both the frame mount and the rock slider mount ends? or just three of the four sides?

do you think 1/4" was over kill for both the tube and the side plates of the mounts?



Keeping with the "light as possible, strong as necessary" theme, frame mounts were constructed out of a combination of 1/4 and 1/8 plate steel.
 

rube bonet

Adventurer
These are totally awesome, were you able to weld all the way around including the top joint of both the frame mount and the rock slider mount ends? or just three of the four sides?

do you think 1/4" was over kill for both the tube and the side plates of the mounts?

Welding was done on 3 sides, it would take raising the cab quite a ways to finish the top side weld. You can also reach up on the inside and weld the top web in there, but relatively unnecessary the direction these are loaded. I would hesitate to go lighter than .25 plate on the sides because of the length of the lever and the reduced cross section. If I went lighter, I would want to increase the number of mounts...

As far as the tube, for the fully loaded weight of this vehicle, I wouldn't want to run lighter tube than .25 for 2x2 sq, especially considering the low nature of this truck. I personally have winched big pigs like these over large breakover rocks that hung all 4 tires in the air for a rather large portion of the operation, and seen them used for pivot turns on tight trails against trees and rocks. Typical use, no, but I tend to build to the worst case scenario rather than the best.
:D
 

Tiki

Observer
Front bumper is really great. Would love to have one of those on the front of my 04' K1500
 

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