All,

 I wanted to show some pictures of my Buckett's rear bumper.  I will have a build thread over in the build section eventually but I need to compile all the photos (one set back I am dealing with in a build thread is i lost my cell phone with lots of initial pictures). I will try to get some better photos of all my welds and gusseted areas of the bumper for this thread if anyone wants to see them.  I apologize that most of the photos below will be just a general overview.   

The idea on this rear bumper was to come up with something cheap/simple that I could build with my little Lincoln Electric .035 Flux core 115V welder.  I will admit that i do have a method of cheating here as i own a Lincoln Electric PROCUT 25 Plasma cutter so that made making cuts easy.  The bumper is more function then form, so it's not sexy but will probably outlast the rest of the truck.

The Welder I have is rated for ¼’’  so that was my thickness limit and really 1/4 ‘’ on a vehicle that began life as a consumer grade piece of automotive hardware is overkill.  That fact not withstanding I happen to have a bunch of 1/4’’ material used in this bumper because it was cheap/free and what I had on hand.

The center tube is ¼’' wall tube that is about 3 & 3/4’’ in diameter, in its former life it was a log truck bed stake. It wasn’t completely round and was slightly bent so getting everything centered was kind of a pain in the butt. My brother was a big help in laying everything out.  Also the one of the tube was sleeved with a smaller 1/4 ‘’ diameter piece of tube which effectively made that side of the bumper ½’’ wall. This is ridiculous unless you find yourself running away from some 1980’s action movie bad guys with machine guns because the bumper will be literally bullet proof in that area, but not so fun to work with otherwise.  For me I have to give a lot of credit to my Plasma cutter in allowing me to cut through this crazy thick section of the bumper and get it down to a useable piece of steel.

The side tubes are 1/8'' wall box from some junk my brother had behind the garage. 

My Frame mounts are 1/4'' plate that was reinforced laterally by small bits of 3/16'' 90 degree angle iron.  The frame mounts go clear through the bumper and are welded on both sides for double sheer loading (ground down on the back side for a clean look) . The mounts attach to the frame with 1/2 bolts.  The rear of the frame where the bumper attaches was plated on the outside wall with 1/8'' plate.

The front legs of the bumper tie to the frame with 1/4'' right angle iron. The legs bolt to a part of the frame that was reinforced with 1/8'' plate on the outside wall. The mounts are through bolted into the frame with 1/2'' bolts. The bolts pass through tubes to act as a sleeve in the frame to keep the frame from crushing when tight.

The receiver tube runs through the bumper, is 2’’, and welded on both sides.

All the tubes are gusseted where they are joined together.   

I think that is pretty much the overview to the bumper if you have any questions please let me know.  I would be happy to give more details I’m just not sure what people want to know.