Project: 'Trail Rated' Bumper

[tweenerlj]

Inspired by a thread on 355nation, I am in the process of modifying a 2007 Jeep JK Wrangler bumper to fit my 2010 Colorado. Given the "Trail Rated" placards that Jeeps sport, I am calling this project the 'Trail Rated' Bumper. In all reality, it should increase my approach angle, so there is a bit to that name, but not much.

I did a quick Photoshop of the bumper on my Colorado:

My father happened to have a pristine Jeep bumper sitting in his garage, so that is how I sourced the donor bumper. The main motivation for this project is to add a baseplate for a towbar that matches my 2004 Jeep Wrangler LJ. The towbar that I use on it mounts to the shackle tabs on an aftermarket bumper. So, Over the weekend, I received a pair of these in the mail:

I got started on this over the weekend and plan to work more between Christmas and New Years Weekend.

 

[tweenerlj]

The Jeep frame is about .8" wider than the Colorado's frame. Here is a picture of the Jeep bumper with integrated shackle mounts:

To match the spacing of the shackle mounts on the Jeep, I milled the tabs that I bought down to a nice fit:

 

[chilliwak]

Nice looking fabrication. I look forward to seeing what you do adapting that bumper....:Wow1:

 

[tweenerlj]

I made a bit more progress, but the weather is hindering any big progress. I got the bumper plastic trimmed and some tabs attached to catch the top stock bumper mounting locations





At this point, it actually attaches to the truck.

 

[tweenerlj]

I made the brackets to utilize the stock lower bumper bolts that reside inside the frame. Then I proceeded to take measures to fold the sides of the bumper to follow the contour of the front end of the truck. As you can see in the last photo in the previous post, the Jeep bumper is much more straight than the front of the truck.


I spent the best part of a day trying to get the molded plastic bumper to fold without signs of bulging. I eventually decided just to retain my stock bumper and modify it for the shackle tabs / towbar mounts.

 

[tweenerlj]

Switching gears to the shackle tabs / towbar mounts:

The shackle tabs that I purchased were only 2" tall and narrower than what is needed to span the spacing for the factory tow hook bolts, so some added material was needed. I headed down to a local metal yard and found a scrap piece of 3/8" x 3" strap that could be trimmed into what was needed. I chamfered both the shackle bracket and the extension tabs to form a valley for the weld bead. Once welded, I ground the weld smooth. Next, I clamped the shackle brackets to the outside of the frame and used a transfer punch to mark the bolt hole locations.

In order to use these as a towbar mount, I also needed to have tabs for hooking the safety cables. I utilized 1/4" by 3" strap which will mount to the inside of the truck frame. To tie the shackle tab and the safety cable tab together, I used a 2" section of 1" x 2" rectangular tubing.

Here is a picture of the completed bracket:

 

[tweenerlj]

With these all fabricated and bolted up to the truck, the next thing to address is relieving the bumper for them to protrude through. With the bumper mounted in place and the factory tow hooks removed, I used a rectangular soap-stone to mark the sides of the frame on the inside of the plastic portion of the bumper. Then, that mark was offset by the thickness of the tabs. Next, I trimmed the bumper. This took a couple iterations, trimming just a bit more between trial fitments. I am very pleased with the results:

Finally, a couple shots with the towbar mounted in place:

 

[kojackJKU]

OK, that's officially awesome. Now, tuck a winch in behind it and your golden. It looks REALLY good!

 

[tweenerlj]

OK, that's officially awesome. Now, tuck a winch in behind it and your golden. It looks REALLY good!

Thanks! I have a buddy who ditched all the plastic on his Canyon bumper and added a winch:

For now, I plan to keep things looking pretty stock. Maybe in the future I will trim the plastic a bit more, who knows. I also need to wait until things warm up around here to throw some paint on the new hardware. If I get a wild hair, I might add a front receiver then, before it gets paint. Then I could do a multi-mount winch plate and only install it when being used. So many ways to go.

 

[kojackJKU]

I was going back and forth with new bumpers on my JK, but I kept them, installed some vdp high clearance corners, and doing the behind the bumper winch install. I need to fab up the plate between the frame rails, and then add the mounts for my light bar. THe only part of the winch that's visible is the fairlead. IM not sure where the bumper falls in relation to your frame rails. Do a search on winch with stock JK bumper to see what I am talking about. Looks and works great.