Deer/Elk "proof" bumper
 

So after hitting a few deers last winter decided to build a replacement:

Before:

Attachment 50340

Frame supporting:
Attachment 50341
Attachment 50342
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...8292009057.jpg
Attachment 50343

Mounts:
Attachment 50344
Attachment 50345

Bumper:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...9062009079.jpg
Attachment 50346

Finished:
Attachment 50347
Attachment 50348
Attachment 50349

The tube is 4.5 round with 1/4 wall. brackets are 1/2in plate. Frame supports were 3x3 square tube with 1/4 wall, ans 2x6 square 1/4 wall. Was suprised at how little metal there was on the factory mounting bracket on the frame. My bumper wont bend now (just the frame back of the bumper).
It has been deer tested already and it passed with flying colors... and blood.... and fur

I still have to weld on a hitch reciever for a winch and some custom tow hooks i'm machining.

weld you some thread spears on it so you can take them home with you when you hit them. :jump:

very cool and nice looking would like to build one someday for my first gen:choochoo::rocking:

man i never hit a elk, i bet that would make a thud.

Is is bad when you have the confidence to hit a deer, you now root for the deer to run in front of you:humm:

my brother in law never cracks the throttle in a big rig.

someone say spears?

Those look so evil.... I know I would run into them by accident

I see a lawsuit when some idiot runs into them:humm:

nice. you should make some kind of black diamond plate to fill in between the bars as a splash guard .

I will probably make a small guard for the oil cooler and intercooler, but the rest i'm gonna keep open. Like that style

I like how you boxed the frame in there. I need to do that.

Nice Work!!
 

That's sweet! You do nice work! Only thing I can recommend is to add something to protect the grill / headlights. I put a pic of mine below to give you ideas (First is a 'before' and next is one 'installed'). While I took the 'easy' way out, it has positively gotten the most response of any mod I have ever done. I even have people commenting on it up in the woods. . . . Ranger: "Are you the people with the truck that has that massive bumper in front?" . . . . . . :choochoo:

bumper looks like it will take a beaten with ease. i bet it will look awesome with some tow hooks on it. nice work:tu:

Looks good!

The lights have some aluminum covers on it to keep them from cracking during normal driving. I take them off when I hit the trails at night.

Im getting one for my psd that looks kindof like that cause it matches my rear bumper

looks fun to hit something with it!

yea it is, I guess the looks of the bumper scare the deer away now. Every time I see one on the side of the road, I root for it to jump infont of me.

i think it would look better if the top and bottom tubes tied together at the ends IMO..but still looks badass!

should be all set for the random elephant that gets in your way aswell.. very nice:rocking:

Sweet! Beefing it up is good but for that one and ESPECIALLY the spiked one... I totally see lawsuit. If you hit someones car and totally annihalate their car and kill them they (or family) could come after you for making your truck a tank and not give any in accident. Our trucks are already more expensive to insure because of the damage they can do.

I like mine from ranchhand 4" bar plus other bars :c: Attachment 48893

not to shabby. i really like the one with the spikes on it

Mine - many thanks to Whit for fixin it -

Attachment 48874

all the bumpers look waesome on this thread. not sure about the one with the spike though, that looks like a expensive lawsuit:scare2: with no chance of winning. i hope in a couple weeks i will have some pics to add of the bumper i'm building for mine. i should be getting the pieces that are getting cut and bent soon so i can weld it up. what would you guys recomend for a coating? paint, powdercoat, linex, rhino liner, i'm learning towards a silver color.:humm:

Ive been trying to figure that one out myself. Mine is starting to show a bit of surface rust in spots. Spray bombed it - thats not a very good cure at all.

Most of the options here arent cheap. Im leaning to powdercoating or trying some better paint.



Does anyone have good paint suggestions?

looks awesome man!:rocking:

i like the powder coat, but i'm scared. i built a headache rack for my buddy the same as mine, he he got it powder coated. it's out of the line of fire from road debris (salt,stones, etc) and after about 3 months it started to rust on him:argh:. it cost him like $120 from a professional powder coat place:scare2:. i dont want spend a ton of money on it and have it rust in a few months.

Yeah, and the bumper will cost a lot more than that. I was looking at close to $300...

Im wondering if you could use a cold galvanizing spray and then have it painted with some kind of industrial enamel or plastic paint. I like the bedliner option but it doesnt work too well with the expanded mesh.

i think your right with the expanded metal. i think it would make more of a mess, and turn out not good in the end. my bumper is going to have a perforated piece of steel ( i believe its called. has a pattern of .5" dia holes punched in it) protecting the lower end of the radiator and tranny cooler. there is a metal plating company near me, but i think they went under and i'm not sure how big they could handle. this coating is a major concern to me cause i want to do it once the right way and be done with it. rhino lining is roughly $400-$500 for a bumper. and linex runs right close to it. haven't checked powder coat yet, but i know for fact that they charge an additionally %50 for anything other than black. auctally if my pockets were deep enough i'd of went SS, but that was twice the cost:scare2:

wow i think your gonna be good when u hit a deer with that thing.... we gotta worry about hittin cows down here. ever seen what a full grown brahma bull (2000+lbs) will do to a truck?? a guy i know hit one with a full ranch hand raplacement and still totaled his f250, it was not pretty by any means but then again elk get pretty big

I need to build one of these for mine.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/8782df74.jpg

Here's the one I built my senior year of high school in Ag Fab class. Its not quite finished, ran out time before I could finish. Unfortunately it only fits 92-96 Fords and I killed that truck and sold it, so now it just sitting getting rusty :dang:

let me know if you want to know how I built it

Summit racing sells a linex like kit for (if memory serves me) about $100. need your own Air compressor but i think the gun is included. we use it in the bed of our john Deere gators and it does chip when they repeatedly hammer on it with trash pumps and the like, but it should be plenty fine for a bumper unless you repeatedly hit stuff. :argh: so might wanna avoid that.

My recommendation is to use POR 15 paint on the bare metal and then cover it with some do it yourself bed liner like I did on the tongue of my trailer. The POR 15 is tough and the bedliner protects it from the sun.

i need to get it fitted up to the truck for the frame mounts and then make brackets for the lights and its ready to coat. powder coat is out of the question. i built a head ache rack for a buddy and the company around here that does it didn't do a very good job. 3 months after it was on the truck it was bubbling and rusting. he wasn't impressed and niether was I, so thats out. I'm gonna research the do it yourself kits and the POR 15. where can i find this POR 15

POR 15 can be purchased trough NAPA or online from the POR 15 website. There is a generic type that I get from CarQuest from here. If you get a Quart you will have more then enough to do the front bumper back bumper and most the frame by just brushing it on.

I don't like POR-15!!! It didn't hold up well at all! There is a paint that exceeds a 2400 hour salt spray test! I will have to find the link for you. I thought it was no rust; but that isn't it. Not only is it a lot better than POR but cheaper and a lot less toxic to humans also!!

Do you get the powdercoat on without sandblasting it?

I got several items powdercoated and they do not rust at all: steel rims, diff covers, tank skidplates.
No chipping, no rust, but all of them are sandblasted first, heat zinc treated and then powdercoated.
the company told me in advance to zinc coat them to avoid rust if the surface gets damaged sometimes. I trusted them in that advice and it still looks great.