Show me your homemade bumper swing outs!

Luckychase5

Adventurer
Show me your homemade bumper swing outs! Manly the hinge apparatus you used. I am in the middle of making mine and would live done hinge design help. My local metal shop has great beefy weld on hinges rated to 400 lbs with a Greece gun fitting for only $8. I have bought two of those and will post a pic later, but anyone else have other ideas? I would love the hinge to allow at least 100-180 degrees of movement. Thanks for any and all help!
 

Luckychase5

Adventurer
A little more info, my swing out will carry two Jerry cans. So quite a bit of weight. Would also love to see how people latch their swing outs. Thanks!
 

01tundra

Explorer
You may want to encourage "Box Rocket" to chime in here, he seems to have a really good design and has spent a lot of time on this issue.
 

kf4zht

Member
I will have to dig for pictures since I don't own either vehicle anymore. I built both of the last ones with trailer spindles for the pivot. On the second I added a plate and spring loaded ball bearing that acted as a hold open detent at 90* and 180*

For latches I did one screw down latch, mega beefy and never rattled but a pain to open. The other was a gate pin assembly, easy and could lock it open or closed but it rattled some. I cut down the rattle by welding a washer with a rubber grommet over the latch hole. I think the toggle clamp at an angle is the best for convenience and non-rattle
 

BrianTN

Adventurer
I will have to dig for pictures since I don't own either vehicle anymore. I built both of the last ones with trailer spindles for the pivot. On the second I added a plate and spring loaded ball bearing that acted as a hold open detent at 90* and 180*

For latches I did one screw down latch, mega beefy and never rattled but a pain to open. The other was a gate pin assembly, easy and could lock it open or closed but it rattled some. I cut down the rattle by welding a washer with a rubber grommet over the latch hole. I think the toggle clamp at an angle is the best for convenience and non-rattle
Sounds neat, definitely interested in seeing the pictures if you can find them.
 

AFBronco235

Crew Chief
I'm also interested in this. Mostly in finding out what works and what doesn't. I'm shopping around for a place to custom build mine, since I don't have a welder. So far, I'm letting them make some choices with latching and pivots and such, but I'd like to hear some more ideas and options from experienced campers and off roaders.
 

Luckychase5

Adventurer
When buying a latch I'm looking at McMaster, any ideas in weight capacity? Just looking to mount dual jerry cans and maybe a hi lift,about 150 lbs max. And did you guys buy a stainless latch? Or is the other model fine? Thanks!
 

kf4zht

Member
For weight capacity the latch doesn't really hold that much. In several designs I have seen it pull the gate downward, so you aren't even fighting gravity. I would say anything over 100lbs should be fine but it depends on the configuration.

If you can get stainless for a decent price I would. I used zinc plated hardware on a number of bumper builds and always had rust issues. Don't recommend stainless for the mounting bolts though since the tensile strength is usually lower than grade 8. For those I would install and then hit with a shot of paint
 

98OzarksRunner

Adventurer
How is it holding up? Any thoughts on the design?

Mine is working great. I built my arm a little light - I used 2X2" 1/8" tubing so it flexes a bit. I put a piece of angle on the latch side for support and it's doing fine. It's been on there for over 2 years.

DSC_6918.jpg


DSC_7054.jpg


Here it is before powder-coating, to show some details.

DSC_6781.jpg
 

Box Rocket

Well-known member
Here's my two cents on this since there was some light "encouragement". I strongly suggest using components that are designed for at least double the weight you think will be there. I'm talking specifically about whatever you use for a hinge as well as a latch. By the time you get a spare tire and jerry cans on your swing out there is a LOT of weight back there and it's all on a big lever and will put MUCH more force on your hinge and latch than you think.
.
There are lots of quality hinge kits out there. Get one. It will be worth it and if it works with your design get one that is dual shear if at all possible. I have a single shear spindle type hinge on my Land Cruiser swing out and it's worked just fine but I've been surprised by the amount of wear the bearings still get. I've also see several spindle type hinges break off at bad times on the trail. A dual shear hinge will make that very unlikely unless there are bad welds holding it on.
.
Personally I recommend Comp4x4 hinges. They have lots of different designs that should satisfy just about any bumper design. Check them out here: http://www.comp4x4.com/Tire-Carrier-Hinges/
.
I am using two of their dual shear face mount hinges on my personal bumper on my Tacoma and have built another bumper for a guy in Virginia using the same one. It is a stupid simple design with upper and lower plates, and huge 1" bolt for the hinge and oil impregnated brass bushings. They are strong and very worry free with no need to worry about bearings etc.
http://www.comp4x4.com/Tire-Carrier-Hinge-Kit-Dual-Shear-Face-Mount.html
.
On the topic of Latches. This is a weak point of quite a few bumpers I've seen out there. The u-bolt that is used on a lot of the latches people use will fatigue over time and smaller hinges (even though they seem like they are strong enough on paper) this ubolt will bend and break. So don't buy into the idea that the latch really doesn't have to hold that much. In reality it doesn't have to hold that much weight, but the forces it will see bouncing down rough roads and high speed will cause major grief. I have been using (and I recommend) the 2000lb capacity latches from either McMaster Carr, Carr-Lane, or Destaco.
.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you will very likely add more stuff to your swing out over time, whether its a hilift, a cooler rack, a stove shelf.....yada yada. It's just another reason to use heavy duty components and choose the materials wisely as well. Tire carriers span a pretty large gap across the back of a truck and they will flex a lot if the material is too light. I think 1/8" wall is the lightest material that should be used. Another way to keep the flexing down is to do a shorter swing out that only goes half way across the back of the truck, or to do dual swing outs. Single full width swingouts will flex more unless heavier material is used.
.
Here are some photos of the dual swing out on my Tacoma. It carries my spare, a hilift, and has been used for Gerry cans, but I have since removed the Gerry can basket and it has been replaced by a smaller ammo box that carries recovery gear.

.
Here's a decent photo that shows the hinge I'm using.

.

.

.
When I first built the bumper I only had a single swing out for the tire that latched in the center of the bumper.

When I added the second swing out, I didn't want to change the way the first swing out latched, and wanted to avoid needing two latches. I used a plate on the end of the second swingout that closes first and sits behind the arm of the tire swingout. That way when it is latched it clamps the second swingout closed too.

.

.

.
I didn't like the dynamics of the truck with the weight of the Gerry cans on the back so I cut that off. The first change was to use it as a spot for my CO2 tank.

.

.
I felt like the tank was not protected enough if that location so it got moved to the bed of the truck and that's when I went with the ammo can for recovery gear. This has been the setup that I've settled on.
 

Box Rocket

Well-known member
Here are some photos of the bumper I built for a guy in Virginia. It is essentially a straight copy of my own bumper but the customer wanted a single full width swing out instead of a dual swingout like I have. I used the same components however.

.
Here's the hinge plates. These are 1/4" plate and I added more 1/4" plate to the outside to "tie" the plates together more. It's not going anywhere.

.

.

.
2000lb Destaco Latch

.
Rubber bumper to keep it snug at rattle free against the bumper

.
I suggest gusseting the arm/hinge connection.

.
The customer wanted a dual Gerry can basket so a 3/16" wall tubing was used for the swing arm to handle the weight.

.

.
More gussets at flex points.

.

.
 

kf4zht

Member
Found a few pics of one of mine. This one used the screw in latch. (I know the pics aren't great, but they were taken in 2004)
xj1.jpg

xj2.jpg

xj3.jpg

xj4.jpg
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
Here is what I came up with for my obs F250. I looked long and hard for an example but was not thrilled with what I was finding. I used the HD hinge kit and recovery points from A to Z fabrication and a pull pin from McMaster Carr, the rest I made myself.











 

Forum statistics

Threads
188,349
Messages
2,905,972
Members
229,958
Latest member
bdpkauai
Top