so...
first shakedown run at Coal Miner went ok. The truck did most everything i wanted it to do, but not slowly enough. Pretty sure i'm going to go w/ dual stock cases in the future...but that is sometime in the future.
Damage: One window broke and confirmed that both my bumper mounts suck!
Front Bumper solution: build new bottom mounting brackets for the front ARB bumper. The PO of this bumper had modified them to fit on a 1st gen minitruck and slightly weakened the design. The bumper now tends to rotate in towards the grill of the truck, which is no bueno. I need to create a stockish bracket that counters this rotation.
this is what the bracket is supposed to look like. The 1st gen 4runner does not use the side bracket marked w/ a red circle. That bracket is used on the 2nd gen 4runner.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota-truck-tech/511739-arb-bull-bar-installation-question.html
but this is what my brackets look like
looks like with the missing material the brackets on my bumper have a greater tendency to bend down and allow the bumper to rotate. I can see some cracks in the metal and where the PO had tried to weld over them.
the plan is to make a new stockish bracket, slightly beefier, that will add length to the mount utilizing another bolt, so three M12 bolts instead of two, per bracket. I have some 1/4" steel plate and 3/16" thick 2"x2" steel square tube to work with.
I want to use the tube to bolt into the three captive nuts in the bottom of the frame where the stock tow hooks were, then weld the 1/4" plate along the outside of the tube and bumper tow hook location, marked with a blue circle in the first picture, then weld both pieces to the bumper.
Cut out the red so the outside plate lays against the bumper hook mount. I will cut a notch in the tube so the plate slips into it. see later pix to see what i mean.
better pic of how the bracket will look, except the bumper hook mount will be on the inside of the front part of the bracket.
I'm thinking a gusset along the inside bottom part of the plate and tube is a good idea. Another gusset toward the front inside might not be a bad idea. I think welding some 1" tube along the bottom of the bracket will be a good idea as those mounts will prob find themselves rubbing against rocks, but i don't have any of that. That might come at a later date. I"m thinking that the rear gusset should not be perpendicular to the tube like it is in the picture b/c that piece would tend to hook into obstacles, so instead the outside plate should be angled back and the corner cut into an obtuse angle with a gusset running along that obtuse angle connecting the plate and tube together.
outside view of bracket. note that the flats are not flush in the Y-Plane. I have to do this to shift the tube over a little to the outside to allow room to bolt it onto the frame.
close up of bracket
idea for attaching side bracket to frame. Maybe run a piece of tube from that side mount circled in red to the bottom bracket. However, the strength of that is reliant upon the strength of the bottom mount. I'd like to have the side mount independent of the bottom mount, but i'm lacking room on the frame. The only thing i can think of is a piece of angle iron welded to a tube welded to a plate bolted to the side mount that is connected to the frame sandwiched between the frame and bottom bracket. Pardon the crappy mouse drawing.
Thoughts or suggestions?
What do you think Matt, too complicated to weld up? I can cut the tube so it extends all the way to the front of the bracket so it can sandwich the plate between the bumper tow hook holes and the outer side of the tube. this way a piece of the tube runs all the way forward and can be welded indirectly to the side of the bumper. This will be a pretty thick weld though, 1/4"+1/4"+ 3/16" or only weld the plate to the side of the bumper and then bolt the forward portion of the tube to the plate/bumper.
the ARB bumper also only uses two bolts in the X-Plane that bolt into the front cross member. I would like to somehow add two more, but dunno how and where to put them. I'll take the bumper off later today or tomorrow to see what i have to work with. I had to chop off two of the stock brackets/captive nuts in order to put the bumper on before.
