New Trail-Gear 80 series tube bumpers...

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I might not have abused mine as hard as @jcardona1 but they have been used hard and have taken some big time hits on the 80. While they may not have originally been designed for the 80, they surely do the job. Gussets on the legs is the critical part to keep them from flexing into the rocker panels.
 
Box Rocket said:
Yeah there's a bit of work involved to make the TG sliders work on the 80s, mainly just the front legs on both sides. The legs that come with the sliders are not long enough for the front most leg so you'll need to have material to make a new front leg and get it to work around the cats. The 67" ones are the ones that work on the 80. I've had them on two separate 80s now and they have worked very well. Both sets have taken a beating and don't show it. Mine are welded to the frame. I sourced my own scab plates for the frame that I welded to the frame and then welded the sliders to the plates. I also added my own 3/8" thick gussets to the top of each leg at the frame attachment. 3/8" is overkill but it's what I had. Some 3/16" or 1/4" would also work, but gussets are a key to make them work well. Bang for the buck these are a great option if you have the ability to do a bit of minor fabrication, or have a friend that can help you.

For clarity, the sliders come fully welded, just without the legs attached so you do not have to deal with welding the main slider part together.





Here's what I did with my last 80 for dealing with the early style cats. The bottom plate could be thicker but I never had an issue with these flexing.










On my current 80


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Looks like the ones on the white truck were a little flatter of an angle, I like this as it will work better as a step. Thanks for the good pictures, I might pull the trigger on these after Christmas.
 
bmwjnky said:
Looks like the ones on the white truck were a little flatter of an angle, I like this as it will work better as a step. Thanks for the good pictures, I might pull the trigger on these after Christmas.
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Yeah maybe a bit flatter on the white one. That's one of the nice thing about these is that you can set the angle wherever you like it. On my white truck I had also had them tucked up quite tight to the body. It was never a problem but I gave myself a little more room on my grey truck and didn't mount them as close to the rocker panels.

I'll note that in my case the legs are almost flush with the bottom of the frame and angle downward to the main slider.
 
GW Nugget said:
For those that have the front bumper... I have 3 sets of holes on bottom & 2 on top of my frame rails. My question is if one trims the 1st hole back could you push in the bumper or will things hit like body mounts, air dryer, fender flares etc? From memory I believe the spread in between holes is 2.5"?
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^Good question, I'd like to know if this was an option too...if anyone that has one installed can see if it appears possible.
 
Mine only has 2 sets of holes top and bottom. Even if there was a 3rd set there is a bracket welded to the frame of my 80 preventing it from going back any further.
 
I have trail gear sliders too. Got them long time ago when I had to buy a 74" and cut it down to fit.

Made some huge gussets, and have little to no play. Here is a pic from last week when the rig was on both sliders, literally sliding on two rocks through the gap.
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I've been looking hard at this bumper for my 97 80 since I have an old Xd9000i Warn with the solenoids built into the tower above the spool and heard it won't work on the BIO bumper and think it's probably the case with a number of others as well (slee, MT).

This one looks to be the only one that mounts the winch plate on top of the frame rails instead of at the bottom and having the winch in between them. That is why I think it has to stick out further then the other options to clear the grill but IMO has the advantage of putting the winch up higher and out of harms way. Harm here in the Midwest being waist deep clay based mud traps. Seems you lose a little departure angle but I don't do much crawling that would get hung up anyway in our environment. Does this sound accurate from anyone who owns one of these?
 
I used the trail gear winch mount plate and built my own bumper on my last truck, this tube bumper is a good deal if you consider how much time it takes to get the tube, bend it, fit, weld, etc...I'll probably go this route with the 67" sliders as soon as I go up north or there is a sale...
 
Comes in bare metal only. Rattle canned it a close to stock bumper color. Ordered from Superior off road in Washington. They have link on their site as an authorized vendor. I ordered and used PayPal and it gave me free shipping, then I noticed in the description below that it was supposed to be 75 to ship. I called them the next morning to cancel if it was going to be another 75 since 4-wheel parts would then be cheaper and they said orders over $150(?) shipped free so it was actually only 399. Got it in just over a week in Cincinnati drop shipped from trail gear in CA. That's the only pic I've taken but will get more tomotrow when it's light out.
 
Haspin FJ said:
full

Decided to bite the bullet. Great fit and quality and for $399 shipped almost a no brainer. VERY stout. Fit's my old Warn XD9000I perfect.
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$399 is less than Trail Gears list price...
 
Ordered mine from Superior Off Road as well on Black Friday.
 
Maybe they realized the issue after my order and corrected it but honored the sale. Wouldn't be my typical luck but who knows.
 
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