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This was one of the hardest projects that I have done to date. John Goodyear of GCLC approached me to see if I wanted to build him a rear bumper for his 80. Since I was planning on doing this for my 80 anyway, I accepted. The design criteria for John was simple. Gimme a BEEFY rear bumper for my Landcruiser. We taked via email bouncing ideas off of each other for about 2 weeks before I started in on the fabrication. Our quick sketches on the computer to go by. Initial fitment of the rear bumper clearance with the body Going to have to trim the triangle off of the rear trim piece. Initial fitment of the bumper with wings. The wings are level with the ground and thus didnt follow the body line. We changed that. Rear view with receiver cut out and lower skirts not installed yet. Wing support to the frame Wings tack welded on. Clearance for the hitch pin in between the stock crossmember and the
bumper.
Cutting corners for better departure angle.
Installation of the lower skirts First test fit of the bumper top and wing trim pieces. Here you can see the revised wing location matches the body lines perfectly.
Cant wait to get that spare tire out from under there.
2" reciever installed with pin.
Bumper is done!! Well, mostly. Now time for the tire and jerry can carriers. Nice tight curves to the body.
Here you can see the plate that bolts to the stock holes in the crossmember. Also, you can see the backs of the shacle mounts that go all the way through the bumper. Some quick work with the tubing bender and some welding, and voila, a tire carrier!! Notice the use of the end of a mini truck rear axle for the mount. One of John's ideas was to use a piece of receiver tube for the tire mount so that it can be adjusted. Very slick I think. That's a 35"x12.5" BFG up there. It is designed to fit a 37" tire. One of John's other requirements was to be able to carry 3 jerry cans.
This is the original latch setup I made. I wasn't very confident in them, so as you'll see, I changed them. Here is the new revised latching setup. It works much better. and the spring loaded pins. Rattling is kept to a minimum by using rubber grommets behind the bars. Here are the hold open pins to keep each swing out carrier open during use. We also decided to add a little extra rocker protection above the wings. I think these turned out really nice and will compliment an ARB front bumper. Antenna mount on top of the jerry carrier. Shacle mounts that go through the bumper courtesy of Cory Ashe at:
A piece of reciever tube was added to the face of the tire carrier mount so that 2 tires could actually be mounted up with an additional plate. Hi lift mounted up behind the tire carrier. Finished project complete with safety chain around carriers. The bumper was coated with PPG DP-90 epoxy primer for a rust free finish. FINISHED PRODUCT
Last updated: 04/28/02
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