Dissent offroad modular front bumper (14 Viewers)
- Thread starter benc
- Start date
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What is the weight of your front steel bumper? thanks...
patiently waiting for cost! I'll start pinching my pennies!
Will it look the same as the steel bumpers?
Oh man... a couple months too soon. Any deals on a wing kit?
benc
Supporting Vendor
- Thread starter
- #1,729
That being said it is not going to take a beating like a steel bumper but I think it will be a great option for 90% of the 100 owners.
I still need to come up with a winch reinforcement plate but did do some winch testing today to see how much reinforcement is needed. I was actually pleasantly suprised, I was able to bend the winch plate about an 1/8" with all 4 tires blocked, engine rpm around 2000 and maxing out my warn vr12 several times so a reinforcement plate is needed as expected.
That is beautiful! You're welds look good too!
Is the joints still steel? If it is are you powdercoating to eliminate any electolytic corrosion between the steel and Al?
I wonder how this would look in a black anodized finish!
Is the joints still steel? If it is are you powdercoating to eliminate any electolytic corrosion between the steel and Al?
I wonder how this would look in a black anodized finish!
Does the skill progression go: Welder - Fabricator - Sculptor?
benc
Supporting Vendor
- Thread starter
- #1,734
Thanks!
It's all welded with a pulsed mig with the exception of the caps,
Those will likley need to be tig welded.
On this prototype the brackets and caps are steel, I'm planing on the entire bumper to be a mixture of 5052 on the bent parts and 6061 on the flat parts. I also plan on the winch reinforcement plate being made from aluminum as well, to me it seams a bit counter productive to save all this weight and then have to add a big heavy steel winch plate!
I'm sure most will coat it, anodized may look cool but likley pricey.
I still have some design and testing to do in order to make sure it's up to the task of a winch bumper but should be available soon.
I'm sure you know but if it comes down to available space for integration, the steel will be 1/3-1/2 as thick as the same strength aluminum plate for the same weight. Depends on the allow of aluminum used for the plate and how concerned you are about keeping the raw material costs down (i know we'd all love to see them as low as possible!)
Saving my spare change, may sell a kidney!
benc
Supporting Vendor
- Thread starter
- #1,737
Yes, this is by no means going to be as strong as the steel version!
That being said the steel version was the first modular bumper that I'm aware of for the 100 series and I put a ton of thought and testing into how it all connects together at the recovery points and ties back directly to the frame.
This same design is going to transfer over to aluminum quite well and give the ability to replace each individual piece rather than the entire bumper if damage occurs. It also allows previous customers to upgrade to aluminum wings if desired. The modular and recovery points were strategically designed to be not only the strongest part of the bumper but to also potrude out just enough to be the main point of contact offroad, these parts are easily replaceable if damage occurs but also strong enough to take a pretty good beating offroad.
Still need to nail down final pricing but the price will only reflect my cost difference for aluminum, the biggest cost difference is not the aluminum but actually the laser time, takes about twice as long to cut as the steel. We are likley looking at a $300 price increase from the steel version.
Have you looked at waterjet vs laser to have the aluminum cut? I know we rip through 1/2" aluminum in our shop pretty fast withour OMAX jet. I don't have any experience with laser vs. aluminum to compare cut times.
