Tubing Question

[89pathfinder]

Alright well ive decided to build a front and rear bumper, and also a safari rack. Ive got to do a Senior project for school so i figured this would be a good oportunity to get some cool lookin bumpers. So my question goes out to those who have made custom bumpers. Im wondering what would be a good thickness of steel tubing to use on the bumpers.

[89pathfinder]

Alright well ive decided to build a front and rear bumper, and also a safari rack. Ive got to do a Senior project for school so i figured this would be a good oportunity to get some cool lookin bumpers. So my question goes out to those who have made custom bumpers. Im wondering what would be a good thickness of steel tubing to use on the bumpers.

 

Anybody?

[TrailChaser]

The thickness isn't really important. As long as you're not planning on using exhaust pipe for it. Sch40 would be fine, anything thicker would be adding unnecessary weight unless you plan to really abuse the bumper.

 

If you're talking about making one out of "square" tubing like I did for my pathy then you'll be looking for some 3"x6" tubing or whatever size you prefer with about 3/16" sidewalls. Just remember that from the roll below the rear hatch to the bottom of the body on the corners is about 6.5" that you'll need to cover, but with 6" tubing you can split the difference and it turns out nice. I can get you some measurements if you're not sure about some part.

[unccpathfinder]

I dont have my book with me but if you google around you can get an idea for OD/ID and thickness and also get a good idea of lb/ft and that is where I would look I would say probably something that has 1/8" wall thickness will be pretty more than sufficient maybe thinner for the bumpers and you have to decide if you want to go with a 1 tube design or 2, 3 or 4 round tubes of if you want to go with square tubing...

 

I made a rear bumper out of a WD21 frame which I chunked b/c it was so freakin heavy and I moved across the country but it was good welding practice I liked the frame rail idea and if I could have lightened it up I would have probably used it but I needed a plasma cutter to do that effectively

 

 

 

you also want to make sure that your welder can handle the thickness that you are going to be welding...I have done mostly 110 welding and the joints seem to be strong for something like a bumper or roofrack but I would't use it to build structural/suspension members...I tested it and tried to break them (jumped up and down on them and beat the hell out of them with a hammer) and didn't get any cracking...

 

Know its not exactly what your looking for but maybe give you some idea's and with the frame if you go squared you can measure the frame height to get an Idea of how tall it is...