Im thinkin about making my own brush guard, has anyone ever made their own that can give me some advice anyhelp at all would be great.

 

First off, do you have a design in mind? I checked with people who had the same style of truck as mine which had bumpers to get an idea what looked and worked the best. Also you can go on website and find companies that build them and get ideas from them.

Second, you have to design the bumper and figure out what materials you want to use. I used mostly 1/4 plate and I believe 2 or 2 1/2 tube for the cross pieces. Then for the headlight protectors, I used 1 inch tube. Also have to figure out how your going to mount it.

Third, what type of tools do you have access too?

Its fairly easy to build them if you have the tools and supplies.

 

I have acess to all the usual metal tools like saws, welders, all that and I also have acess to a plasma cam, its like a cnc but with plasma.

 

Plasma cam, cool! I put together a fully automatic burning table with a hypertherm plasma and our computer. We cut up to 14 inch beams, 50 feet and up in length. Also a 10"x6" burning table. They do some pretty cool work.

Okay so do you have any ideas or pictures of what kind of design you want to build? Im a journeyman red seal fabricator and welder so I probably can help you through the process. I also have built a few bumpers/ bush bumpers so let me know what you have so far.

 

I think that I want just the 2 side bars and 2 tubes connecting them, something simple. On one of the center tubes I want to cut out DODGE and put lights in there. Its for looks but it will get some use so I want it to be reletively strong. What size metal should I use, im in high school and this is my metal working class project?

 

A similar bumper I built for my old ramcharger back in high school had 1/4" plates for the uprights and either 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" OD pipe for the cross pipes. The pipe wall thickness was 1/8 I believe. It was normal structural pipe.

 

Thanks for your help, it will be some time before its done since I can only work on it 40 minutes a day.

 

No problem. You will also have to figure out how to mount the bumper. I made a L bracket off the frame and bolted everything together. I used cardboard to make a template for the bracket and the 1/4 plate uprights. Cardboard can be your best friend for making templates! lol

 

here is what i built for the 75...

 

holy crap!!!! thats sweet, do you have a set of measurments or plans you could email me?