July 27, 200421 yr A lot of offroad parks around here have saftey checks now. Big deal is real tow hooks. They can not be welded on. They must be bolted on with at LEAST grade 5 bolts. I could weld on metal and a bracket but at the end of the day the tow hooks MUST be bolted on. Is it time for custom bumpers with tow hooks? What have you guys done for seriouse recovery points? Thx !_!
July 27, 200421 yr I'm going with custom bumpers. Front: Tow bar attach points 1 1/4" hitch reciever 2 bolt on tow hooks Rear: 1 1/4" hitch reciever 2 bolt on tow hooks I liked the looks of the custom bumper MudRat did recently. I have access to a tubing bender with 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" dies, and plan to fab it after elk season but before I upgrade the engine in the sand rail. I know this is a "mods planned" post, but I have enough custom fabrication under my belt to have at least a little credibility.
July 27, 200421 yr really? properly welded ones would hold up better than grade 5 bolted ones.... the stock subaru ones are not really very strong.... I guess I could consider my entire custom bumper one big bolt on I have 10,000 lb D-rings with the brackets welded onto my front bumpers, and in back I have a 2" reciever shackle... A lot of offroad parks around here have saftey checks now. Big deal is real tow hooks. They can not be welded on. They must be bolted on with at LEAST grade 5 bolts. I could weld on metal and a bracket but at the end of the day the tow hooks MUST be bolted on. Is it time for custom bumpers with tow hooks? What have you guys done for seriouse recovery points? Thx !_!
July 27, 200421 yr they cannot verify quality of weld in-situ, bolts can be readily identified.... screwy world (sorry about that) what offroad parks did you find around here?
July 27, 200421 yr http://usmb.net/gallery/album238/PDC_0081 http://usmb.net/gallery/album91/rs_PDC_0252
July 27, 200421 yr ya... i know this guy that made a custom bumper, welded it up, held as much air as one of those five gallon air containers. so you know the welds were good. he went on a jeep jamboree, and they made him drill holes through his masterpiece, to stick in wimpy little bolts. i dont get it. but i do i guess. i have seen some very ghetto welds, that peepl put way too much faith in. the front is a no brainer, but the rears... they all tear out.
July 27, 200421 yr ooh, air bumper, great idea! maybe if you put a backing plate inside the rear, and bolt the stock tie downs to that? what offroad parks did you find around here?
July 28, 200421 yr Sounds like custom bumper time. I have the standard tow hooks bolted to the front bumper. I also have a slide in receiver the has a turn buckle attached to it that fits front or rear.
July 28, 200421 yr Author Sounds like the consensus is custom bumpers. Thanks for the input guys. Ya really sucks that you cant weld up some really nice hooks but as Nutto noted. They cant certify all the welds but you can look at the head of a bolt and know right away what grade it is. Thank the lawyers on this one Nuto: The parks are Gilbert and Spider Lake. There is also Dresser and Trolhogin that are closer but I dunno if their tech inspections are quite as strict. Since the DNR runs Gilbert and Spider Lake you can bet they are way more strict. No welded hooks and ONLY spark arester mufflers to name a couple examples :-\
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