Ol'blue's rearend modifications

[bullnose1985]

Rear end work on ol'Blue. More later.

Before


Mud and rust dam removed.


The "Bull Bar" is born.

[Gary Lewis]

Wow!  How much weight did that save?

[bullnose1985]

After the frame tied in BullBar I probably added about 40 lbs.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm surprised.  With the mesh replacing the tread plate, and the tread plate gone in the middle I expected it would still be lighter with the "bull bar" and tow points.

What the bull bar made out of

[bullnose1985]

Hi Gary,
Mostly half inch. The plates behind the loop mounts are half inch, the tube is 7/16, grade 8 hardware very heavy.

I use the bull bar for recovery tasks and arborists activities.

I don't have any pictures of the bull bar build on my phone. New phone. I have built four of them for people here in the area will zero failures. It was fun to build too.

[Gary Lewis]

Sounds like it is SOLID, which is the way I like to build things.  

So it bolts to the frame and the clevis mounts pretty directly there?

[bullnose1985]

Yes it ties into the frame channel at the top, bottom and sides about 18" into the frame channel with high sheer grade 8 bolts. If I figured correctly it would blow a u-joint or burn a clutch before it would move that mount.

I have made a few as I have spoke about before. One of them was to pull a 6x6 out of a creek bed. I was a little surprised but at the angle and elevation of the puller certainly worked it the pullers favor.

[Gary Lewis]

That does sound like it is solid.  Having designed a rear bumper/spare tire mount that ties into the frame in the same area, I'd say yours is even stronger than mine - and it is strong.