building your own front bumper brush guard?

[haydukelives]

I have been interested in 2002-2005 Sprinter vans.
Although brush guards are available for 2007and up, they do not fit the earlier body.
Even Sportsmobile doesnt have em for those years,and if they did it would be $2000 ++.

Has anyone created a DIY brush guard? It seems like putting together some aluminum tube and bolting it to the frame would not be that difficult. Has anyone done it?

[EEC]

Why are you using aluminum? I'd think steel would be cheaper, stronger and easier to weld.
I've made bumpers for jeeps before and that's really easy. You can probably bolt the brush guard to the existing bumper mounts, or directly to the frame. If you go to the frame, just make sure the brush guard/brush guard mounts will bend before the frame does.
That being said, the bumpers I made were more or less a chunk of steel. Since you're making a brush guard you'll need to be doing a lot more tube bending and welding, I'm assuming you already realize this and have the tools/skills necessary.

[Kya]

I built a rear bumper with a swing tire gate, and it was way harder then I thought. Not impossible. If its your first time metal fabricating then expect your bumper to be ugly. Mine is!

I would suggest finding something already made that is close to your specs, then modify to fit your rig. PM Pow4brains, he's the metal man!

[DoWork]

Has anyone done it?

You could say that

What do you want to know???

And no, it's not an afternoon project either.

[pfluffenmeister]

... expect your bumper to be ugly. Mine is!

well, someone has to bump uglies!

[skiing-in-jackson]

Welding is a skill that separates the men from the boys.

A friend is a maintenance guy for a set up in Moose and he is willing to teach me to weld. I am been wanting to design my own bumpers. Fairly easy on a VW Vanagon as the bumper brackets are straight forward and options are endless.

On my #1 spot for the DIY Vanagon list!

[Skipig25]

made a pretty good one out of 3" steel pipe, and didn't turn out ugly, but we had access to a large radius tube bender, and significant welding experience. and black paint. lots of black paint.

[Jethro]

Are you looking for some weak-ass "brush" guard or something which will keep your radiator, hood and lights intact if you hit a deer? Something stout will take some designing and skills to make. You can probably easily retrofit the newer guards to the older vehicle with minor fitting, but if it is not beefy it will not do much. Personally I never really understood brush guards, which are bumpers for your bumpers.

[DoWork]

Are you looking for some weak-ass "brush" guard or something which will keep your radiator, hood and lights intact if you hit a deer? Something stout will take some designing and skills to make. You can probably easily retrofit the newer guards to the older vehicle with minor fitting, but if it is not beefy it will not do much. Personally I never really understood brush guards, which are bumpers for your bumpers.

Well to be honest, the beefier it gets the easier it is to make for the most part, unless you want the cut and welded sections that make a nice contoured bumper as there are fewer parts to make when you go with bigger shit. I built one for my old '97 TJ out of 8" carbon steel C-channel, cut and bent to wrap around the front corners, then built the center supports for the brush guard portion from there. The hardest part was making bracket arms to bolt to the frame, but I think the whole thing was made from about 9 pieces. I built it in an afternoon and spent the next couple years OWNING plastic shopping carts in the winter and daring people to pull out in front of me. A friend backed into it and ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED the ass end of his car- which is why I carried a can of satin black spray paint in the jeep- if it got scuffed plowing through say a planet or a bank vault, I'd just whip it out give 'er a little spruce up spray. So yeah, I say go heavy and go simple unless you are willing to plunk down DOUGH.

The only downside is that your airbag will probably never go off.

[skiing-in-jackson]

Slightly OT, how well would a wood bumper work? A friend has a rail road tie on the back of his 4Runner. Maybe not something that big, but I have access to a couple of nice 4" x 6" fir beams.

One could bolt all sorts of stuff to a big wood post used as a bumper? Thoughts?

[Kim Jong-un]

The only downside is that your airbag will probably never go off.

Good point, and if you make it too beefy, you may also need new springs to maintain the ride height. Just be aware anything you do like this will affect the crash rating of the vehicle. All that stuff is designed to absorb impacts a certain way.

Then there's this,

http://www.800toolbox.com/grill_guard/grill_guard

[DoWork]

Good point, and if you make it too beefy, you may also need new springs to maintain the ride height. Just be aware anything you do like this will affect the crash rating of the vehicle. All that stuff is designed to absorb impacts a certain way.

Then there's this,

http://www.800toolbox.com/grill_guard/grill_guard

I definitely noticed the extra weight on the Wrangler, but I actually liked it with a little more weight and it didn't really effect the ride height. Felt more planted up front.

As far as absorbtion goes, yeah there really is none with a big stiff bumper. Count on the other vehicle/mailbox/pedestrian/shoping cart taking the full brunt of the impact. I'm of the thought process that says "fuck it" as far as major crash safety goes in respect to heavy bumpers. I made one for a kid once that ended up T-boning a parked car fucking around in a lot, literally punched a cookie-cutter hole right through the door- that's why I cut and bent the outside edges on mine to wrap around to meet the fenders, I don't need a can opener on the front of my jeep.

[Jethro]

The only downside is that your airbag will probably never go off.

Actually, it is the opposite. Super beefy bumpers welded or bolted directly to the frame of your vehicle do not have any engineered crumple zones in them. If you hit something, the sensors that control the air bag will feel the jolt more and are more likely to fire it. This can happen four wheeling at pretty slow speeds, like coming down a steep incline and hitting your bumper. ARB and TJM are the only two makers of bumpers with integrated brush guards which fit my 4runner AND are air bag certified. Custom bumpers are not recommended for airbag equipped vehicles

Dowork, I know a guy with a similar bumper to your's, and he demolished a car which pulled out in front of him. When the cop asked him what he estimated the damage was to his bumper, he said 350, as in $3.50 for a can of paint.

[DoWork]

Actually, it is the opposite. Super beefy bumpers welded or bolted directly to the frame of your vehicle do not have any engineered crumple zones in them. If you hit something, the sensors that control the air bag will feel the jolt more and are more likely to fire it. This can happen four wheeling at pretty slow speeds, like coming down a steep incline and hitting your bumper. ARB and TJM are the only two makers of bumpers with integrated brush guards which fit my 4runner AND are air bag certified. Custom bumpers are not recommended for airbag equipped vehicles

Dowork, I know a guy with a similar bumper to your's, and he demolished a car which pulled out in front of him. When the cop asked him what he estimated the damage was to his bumper, he said 350, as in $3.50 for a can of paint.

Hmm... Thanks for the info, I didn't know that.

I lol'd at the second part though, so true. It's all or absolutely nothing with bumpers like that. I need to make another one for my new truck now that I think of it... I mean what if the zombies come?

[altis]

I know such things are fairly rare in the States but, what happens when a pedestrian or a cyclist meets such a brush guard?

Over here in Europe where, admitedly, things are far more congested, Bull Bars (as we call them) have been banned since 2002. The only exception is if they are type approved by the original manufacturer so that they satisfy various crash tests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1676832.stm

[DoWork]

I know such things are fairly rare in the States but, what happens when a pedestrian or a cyclist meets such a brush guard?

They die. Look both ways before crossing!

[Kim Jong-un]

They die. Look both ways before crossing!

The Brits are just kinder and gentler.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39320295...hood-ornament/

I have to imagine that for the average person, the odds of being lucky enough to be hit by a Bentley are nearly as remote as being hit by DoWork himself.

[Yukonrider]

I have an ARB on the front of my 4runner, it is super beefy, and hitting trees with it is no big deal.
I do worry about people running into it though, I was in a parking lot, and a guy pulled up too close to me, and hit the hood of his car on the lowest part of my bumper. I could only imagine what would happen to the other guy if I got into a wreck with it.



As far as pedestrians go, the ARB is a true bull bar, and is designed to throw animal carcasses down, under the car instead of up into the windshield/driver.... I hope people look both ways.

[Yukonrider]

And when custom making a bumper, you have to remember in the event of a small crash, the energy has to go somewhere. If you have solid mounts from your bumper to your frame, usually the frame of your vehicle is the weak point of the mount, and will bend from even small impacts.


Flex in bumpers is good, my ARB will flex if you pull on it, and you can see it moving around a good bit on bumpy roads. If it was totally solid, and I hit a tree or something with it, ALL of the energy from the collision would go straight into the frame, instead of into flexing the bumper mounts (flexing not bending/breaking). And even if the mounts bent, I guarantee bumper mounts are cheaper than a new frame for your vehicle

Another thing about "brush guards"

In the off-road community, people call them "damage multipliers" because when you get into a crash (low speed) usually you will tweak your bumper, but if you have a brush guard, usually it will bend back, into your hood, and crumple that, and your bumper. They do more harm than good



Chances are if this guy didn't have a brush guard, he would have barely damaged his bumper.

[haydukelives]

Lots of good information here.

How about something like the cops have in the center with a lateral extension bar extending to the headlights?