Cleaning up the rear and dropping some weight

NskLJ

NskLJ

TJ Addict
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2021
Messages
2,043
Location
Long Beach
I have owned my first Jeep (06 LJ) for about 4 years and it’s time to put it on a diet. Through the course of adding upgrades and such it has gotten heavy. When I bought it it had a smittybuilt tube bumper and swing out tire carrier. I hated bottoming out on it constantly but it didn’t rattle (amazing) I finally upgraded it. I wanted a full width bumper with hitch and shackle hooks. I finally settled on the JCR kit. I had to weld it together and make a few mods (box in the ends & tie in the hooks to the mounts) but I am happy with my decision . While I was at it I installed the mor tailgate reinforcement and modified the tire carrier to pull the tire right up against the gate. I raised a stock 3rd brake light and modified it with 2 led strips. I also fabricated a stay to hold the gate open when on unlevel ground. Losing the weight and moving everything in has made a huge difference in the way the Jeep drives. I would not believe it but now I am lookin to cut weight where I can. I removed the front bumper I built and modified it (adding 3 lbs) to mount the winch to. And I will loose the 22lbs winch plate up front. Thank you everyone on this forum!
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Nice work. Does that JCR bumper just come in flat pieces or is the main body at least folded into shape?
 
It’s a flat piece laser cut with small 1” uncut holding it together. Since I don’t have a big welding table I took a cut off wheel and cut about 1/2 way through the uncut parts it pretty much came apart when I bent it. I used welding magnets to hold it for tacking then final welding in sections to keep warping to a minimum. One thing is the mount holes were not spaced right for my 06. I was able to enlarge the slots to fit. Not too big of a deal but wierd they did not check it. I am happy for $200 and some work. The bumper came out at 42 lbs. my solid shackle holder which I may not carry is 7 lbs
 
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NskLJ said:
It’s a flat piece laser cut with small 1” uncut holding it together. Since I don’t have a big welding table I took a cut off wheel and cut about 1/2 way through the uncut parts it pretty much came apart when I bent it. I used welding magnets to hold it for tacking then final welding in sections to keep warping to a minimum. One thing is the mount holes were not spaced right for my 06. I was able to enlarge the slots to fit. Not too big of a deal but wierd they did not check it. I am happy for $200 and some work. The bumper came out at 42 lbs. my solid shackle holder which I may not carry is 7 lbs
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Gotcha. Probably more welding than I want to tackle. If the long edges were solid and already folded and all I had to do was a few short beads to finish it up, I'd be all over it. But until I get into my house and out of this rental I don't have the facilities to do a bigger project. It's still a cool idea though so I may just live with the factory bumper for another 7 months.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
Gotcha. Probably more welding than I want to tackle. If the long edges were solid and already folded and all I had to do was a few short beads to finish it up, I'd be all over it. But until I get into my house and out of this rental I don't have the facilities to do a bigger project. It's still a cool idea though so I may just live with the factory bumper for another 7 months.
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If you are interested in the JCR rear DIY bumper you can have mine. They sent it to me by mistake when I ordered the front one. I don’t have a use for it.
 
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imahnu17 said:
If you are interested in the JCR rear DIY bumper you can have mine. They sent it to me by mistake when I ordered the front one. I don’t have a use for it.
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Thanks, I appreciate the offer. Right now I don't even have a table to bend it on and a lot of my tools are in storage, not to mention I just started learning to weld and feel like this project deserves more than the $90 HF FCAW welder I'm using until I get into the new house with 220V in the garage.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
Thanks, I appreciate the offer. Right now I don't even have a table to bend it on and a lot of my tools are in storage, not to mention I just started learning to weld and feel like this project deserves more than the $90 HF FCAW welder I'm using until I get into the new house with 220V in the garage.
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No worries and no rush. Once you get all setup message me and if I still have it, it's yours.

I'm gonna be welding mine with a Hobart Handler 140 MIG. I think for bending it in place ill just use a torch to heat up the tabs. It seems your welder would be enough for the 3/16th steel on the bumper, but I understand your position on getting everything setup first for sure.
 
imahnu17 said:
No worries and no rush. Once you get all setup message me and if I still have it, it's yours.

I'm gonna be welding mine with a Hobart Handler 140 MIG. I think for bending it in place ill just use a torch to heat up the tabs. It seems your welder would be enough for the 3/16th steel on the bumper, but I understand your position on getting everything setup first for sure.
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thanks again. I'm less worried about the bumper itself and more about getting enough heat into those D-ring tabs. That's not a chunk of metal I want popping loose on the end of a rope.

I hate renting. It feels like my entire life is on hold. Can't do anything to the house. Can't do anything past bolt-ons to the Jeep. Can't touch the money in the savings account.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
thanks again. I'm less worried about the bumper itself and more about getting enough heat into those D-ring tabs. That's not a chunk of metal I want popping loose on the end of a rope.

I hate renting. It feels like my entire life is on hold. Can't do anything to the house. Can't do anything past bolt-ons to the Jeep. Can't touch the money in the savings account.
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I told you to hunt down the JK gear and gadgets people so you could become their jeep buddies and use their stuff. Renting does suck, I agree. Owning and not being able to build what you want isn't much better though either.
 
freedom_in_4low said:
thanks again. I'm less worried about the bumper itself and more about getting enough heat into those D-ring tabs. That's not a chunk of metal I want popping loose on the end of a rope.
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Definitely a good concern to have. That's the part I'm most concerned about in mine. Figured, based on my past welds, that a good pass on the front and back side would be good enough. If I need to make a 2nd pass on either side there shouldn't be any harm in that.
 
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imahnu17 said:
No worries and no rush. Once you get all setup message me and if I still have it, it's yours.

I'm gonna be welding mine with a Hobart Handler 140 MIG. I think for bending it in place ill just use a torch to heat up the tabs. It seems your welder would be enough for the 3/16th steel on the bumper, but I understand your position on getting everything setup first for sure.
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The torch is a good option I ended up scoring the tabs with a cut off wheel , when I bent it the pieces separated. I just used 90 degree welding magnets to get it lined up and tacked. I also sprayed it with anti splatter spray to help with clean up. The nice thing is it’s outside corner welds so penetration is no problem
 
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The tabs that bend seem smaller than the pictures, but maybe not. Seems like they'd bend pretty easy. I'm really excited to get mine and get to working on it. Jeep projects are my favorite hobby.
 
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imahnu17 said:
The tabs that bend seem smaller than the pictures, but maybe not. Seems like they'd bend pretty easy. I'm really excited to get mine and get to working on it. Jeep projects are my favorite hobby.
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I don’t weld on my work bench I just use a aluminum plate on 2 sawhorses. So I could not use enough force to bend it. It is a fun project and I’m happy with the way it turned out.
 
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NskLJ said:
I don’t weld on my work bench I just use a aluminum plate on 2 sawhorses. So I could not use enough force to bend it. It is a fun project and I’m happy with the way it turned out.
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ahhhh someday ill have a workbench lol. As of now I do basically the same thing with saw horses a a piece of steel on top. However recently I've been doing my last few projects on my trucks tailgate. Gotta make do with what i got for now.

I'm hoping after heating up the tabs to long adjustable wrenches will give me enough leverage to bend them into place but we will see.
 
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imahnu17 said:
If you are interested in the JCR rear DIY bumper you can have mine. They sent it to me by mistake when I ordered the front one. I don’t have a use for it.
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Wow thats cool. Totally had me looking at them, just wish that the rear was tow rated… guess they cant really do that with a DIY weld kit though
 
DWR said:
Wow thats cool. Totally had me looking at them, just wish that the rear was tow rated… guess they cant really do that with a DIY weld kit though
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I wanted a simple full width bumper with shackle tabs and a hitch. This was about the only one I could find. With the couple mods I did I am happy with it and it was $200. I think you could easily make it more than strong enough to tow with. I was thinking I could of put a little bit longer reciever in it and plate the back and bolt to the factory crossmember or run a couple gussets from the mounts to the reciever. It does have a plate that encircles the reciever in the back that gets welded in at an angle. I think it would be fine to tow a small trailer.
 
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I agree with @NskLJ. You could definitely make it strong enough to tow with especially for a TJ but it of course wouldn’t be rated. The welds and mounting system on my smittybilt bumper aren’t anything special and it’s rated at 500 tongue and 5000 trailer weight
 
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