I am trying to sort out what is the best design for the front and rear bumpers. I have seen a few (cargo crawler) that are quite burly. What I Am looking for are bumpers that are tougher but not too large. The rear bumper in particular seems also elusive. I have some ideas for a rear bumper..but am hoping some members have already taken that leap.
I prefer light and skimpy up front and wide coverage on the rear. Reason being is that I don't plan on rear ending anyone and I don't want the front sinking everytime I hit the brakes. So minimal but useful up front, I have a pushbar with a winch mounted. The rear is different. I have a rear subframe and chose the gnarliest bumper I could find for back there. I expect multiple idiots to rearend me in the future and I wanted something stout enough to mount a spare tire swing carrier to. My van may still crinkle in front of the wheel wells but at least the person who nailed my rearend will be decapitated and I won't have to do nothing but get out and spit on their corpse and offer a few words of farewell.
There are ZERO bolt on bumpers for Astrofaris. Cargo's rear is a heavily modified bumper made for something else. My front is a custom designed and built piece. Both of us hunted forever for anything that would fit our vans. No joy.
My approach - Collect hundreds of jpgs of bumpers from all kinds of rigs from baja bugs to fire trucks and every thing inbetween. Humor the jeep people by looking at some of theirs. They, of course, have dozens of bolt on everythings available.
Eventually you'll develop an idea about what you want, what will look good on your van etc. Then draw it up and find a welder. For me that "find a welder" part was the tough part. I had several guys say "Sure we can do that" then I never heard from them again. Finally found a kid with a CAD table that did it. That's what prompted me to learn to weld myself. My next bumper (rear) will come out of my garage. No need to hunt for someone else to do it.
The welder guys out there tend to like to do tubular stuff like sand buggies and what not. They shy away from flat metal work like Cargo's and mine.
Really old pic. I still see the stock tank!! wow
I think this rear bumper came from overland? Not much beef to it at all though. I do not tow with that hitch receiver, just an anchor spot.
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