Metal Thickness=bumper

[stockk5]

Well i have designed my own front bumper, since i dont have a tube bender i am going to make one of the boxy style ones, no square tubing for it. i was going to use flat pieces and weld them all together. So what thickness would be a good thickness for a bumper? 3/16th?? Mine is going to be this style:

 

[big83chevy4x4]

i think 3/16" is enough for that, 1/4" would be too much.

 

[az-k5]

3/16 in the high stress heavy impact zones, and 1/8 on the low stress low impact areas. This will keep the weight down (kinda, those style get real heavy)

 

[tRustyK5]

If there is a winch mount I'd use 1/4" for that part, and probably 1/8" for the rest. That style gets its strength more from all the angles than from material thickness. Don't forget it's all getting bolted to a frame only marginally thicker than 1/8".

Steel weighs 40 lbs for every square foot 1" thick. 1/8" would be 5 lbs for every square foot, so you can figure the final weight pretty easily. You can also buy the steel in common guage thickness's. 11 guage is very close to 1/8", 10 guage is approx .135" (I don't have the guage guide in front of me, so don't quote that) The point is you can split the difference between 1/8" and 3/16" if you want to. This might drive the cost up if you find an uncommon size though.

10 and 11 are both common guage sizes though.

Rene

 

[southernspeed]

Don't walk out in front of me! I used channal which was 3/8 on the top and bottom faces and 1/4 on the front face....and they are 'nuke' proof!

(oh...and heavy!)

 

[BIG*RED]

hmm...earlier today when an idiot ricer pulled out in front of me, i wished my bumper was at least a inch thick, with metal spikes like a foot long sticking out of the front of it...ah yes mad max style.....lol...or maybe a bumper with a couple sping loaded 40lb sledge hammers on it, to "wake up" the idiots staring at the green light....but anyways, let us know how your bumper comes along...take pics...i'm kinda curious, been thinking of doing my own also

 

[dontoe]

Don't walk out in front of me!

That ain't blood on the fender behind the bumper is it? Well if it's French blood, that's O.K. then.

 

[southernspeed]

That ain't blood on the fender behind the bumper is it? Well if it's French blood, that's O.K. then.

LOL! I could make a nasty joke about 'ram raiding' a mosque....but we're not allowed to joke about things like that over here!

 

[southernspeed]

Uh Oh...that almost looks like a thread hijack...sorry!

 

[ntsqd]

I built a bumper like that for Patch (yota p'up). Unfort I don't have a pic of it. I used 10 gauge for the 'skin' and 1/4" for the winch mounting plate and all of the inner structure.

I took a head-on hit in the DS 'wing' of the bumper from a wannaB class 5 Baja (tube chassis) driven by an idiot and it hurt the bumper. The one thing I didn't do, that I contemplated doing when I built it, was to box in the back side of the bumper. Had I done that I'd have put the hurt on the Baja rather than the other way around.

 

[mikayak390]

I just got inspired sunday to build a new rear bumper for my suburban. I used all 5/16 x4 inch plate. The front is 8inches wide 4 across the top and welded around to form a box. Behind the front faces I welded verticle and 1 horizontal strips of 1.5x 1/8 inch angle iron every 10 inches or so to keep it from bending. I am about 3/4 done and its hard to lift. I get the impression I may have gone a little overboard?



I actually thought it might be underbuilt compaired to what I see on some pictures.

 

[jekbrown]

good point on the thickness of the frame its being attached to. This weakness could be overcomed to some degree by having the bumper attach to the frame with a) lots of bolts and b) in more locations than just the very ends of the frame. The stock K5 bumper has little brackets that angle in from the ends of the bumper to a point further back on the frame. This could help a lot. Most hardcore offroad rigs dont like using that kinda setup cause under max flex a tire might catch said bracket... but on any other kinda rig it could be worked around and would add a great deal of strength, especially for impacts that occurr off-center towards the ends of the bumper..

j