gunna make a new front bumper soon. I have always felt that the bumper on the 80 series looked kinda disconected from the the rest of truck-it just doesn't seam to flow. i think part of this is caused by that facia piece that fits between the lights/grill and the bumper. (the piece with the turn marker lights). so why not just eliminate this piece and pull the bumper all the way up to the lights. By lifting the bumper, approach angles laterally could be better optimized. (cant go higher than the frame in the middle).
of course a bumper like this causes problems. first off the turn markers are eliminated. I plan on using a combination brake/tail bulb in place of the current marker bulb in the front corners so that those corner bulbs can serve as turn blinkers instead of just a marker light. all that needs be done is to buy a generic tail light bulb assembly that will fit into the current marker holes. i will need to do some simple wireing to make this work. I got the idea for the blinker after seeing something similar on the tech section of sleeoffroad.com.
another problem i ran into when mocking up this bumper has to do with the dryer assembly-of course it sits too low. after reading similar on this forum i loosened the clamp screw that holds the dryer in place and was able to push the dryer up a full 1.5 inches before retightening the screw. if you plan on doing this mod be prepared to do a little simple trimming to non-critical plastic on the back of the blinker light- very easy. also be prepared to do a little trimming to that piece of metal facia that houses the light-or you can leave the facia alone but it will be distorted a bit by the dryer that is pushing on it-no big deal. as i wont be needing the facia anymore this is mute for me.
I dont want to haul a heavy winch around as i have in the past so was considering a front reciever so the winch could be removed easily if needed. i wonder if a single reciever will sufice for how heavy my rig is getting with all the steel I have been adding lately-so I am considering placing 2 recievers in front-about a foot apart-side by side-so the winch could be mounted to the front by a pair of recievers.
of course a bumper like this causes problems. first off the turn markers are eliminated. I plan on using a combination brake/tail bulb in place of the current marker bulb in the front corners so that those corner bulbs can serve as turn blinkers instead of just a marker light. all that needs be done is to buy a generic tail light bulb assembly that will fit into the current marker holes. i will need to do some simple wireing to make this work. I got the idea for the blinker after seeing something similar on the tech section of sleeoffroad.com.
another problem i ran into when mocking up this bumper has to do with the dryer assembly-of course it sits too low. after reading similar on this forum i loosened the clamp screw that holds the dryer in place and was able to push the dryer up a full 1.5 inches before retightening the screw. if you plan on doing this mod be prepared to do a little simple trimming to non-critical plastic on the back of the blinker light- very easy. also be prepared to do a little trimming to that piece of metal facia that houses the light-or you can leave the facia alone but it will be distorted a bit by the dryer that is pushing on it-no big deal. as i wont be needing the facia anymore this is mute for me.
I dont want to haul a heavy winch around as i have in the past so was considering a front reciever so the winch could be removed easily if needed. i wonder if a single reciever will sufice for how heavy my rig is getting with all the steel I have been adding lately-so I am considering placing 2 recievers in front-about a foot apart-side by side-so the winch could be mounted to the front by a pair of recievers.
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Looks good!
