failsafefabrication
New member
So after many, many months of research and design I decided to jump into the complicated world of a swing out and drop down tire carrier for my F 250. I wanted a rear bumper that was better than stock with some recovery points on it, but more importantly I wanted the space occupied by the spare tire for a fuel cell. Day 1 began with the removal of the factory bumper and installation of two 12" 1/4" wall 2" x 2" stub shafts onto the frame rails. These would provide initial location and alignment of the bumper onto the frame as well as two very solid mounting points. In addition to these points there are two additional gusseted and cross braced 2" x 2" x 1/4" wall pieces that stub out of the bumper and extend back along the outside of the frame rails and are cross bolted there as well. Day 2 Began with attaching the swing out Spindle to the bumper and welding a 1/4" x 3" x 72" piece of steel to the top edge of the bumper to fill out the dimension of the initial 1/4"x 3" x 6" x 72" piece of stock utilized for the bumper itself. Once the Spindle was tacked, squared and finish welded in place, the rear sockets for the attachment stubs were welded in place along with 3/8"x 3" gussets in two planes to provide additional structure.
Day 3 Began with the fabrication of the J arm for the swing out and drop down mechanism; definitely the most complicated and frustrating part of the build. The pictures don't do it much justice as this thing is Heavy!. the initial stock is 2" x 3" x 1/4" wall tube with fish plates at all of the joints and pivot bearing surfaces. The pivots are ground smooth and greased where they meet, with cross bolts and reinforcing plates to increase the cross sectional bearing surface of each hinge point. The folding ratcheting load binder uses high carbon steel axle material to create an even bearing surface for the pivot bolts and prevent deformation of each hinge area.
Day 4 I am already tired of this build! Once the spindle (comp 4 x 4 extreme duty with dual shear plate) was well greased and inserted into the J arm, the double shear plate could be welded to the bumper structure and the end caps of the main bumper could be fabricated. A final check of the 5/8" grade 8 Nyloc's holding the swivel D rings in place was conducted, the ends of the tube were closed off with a 1/4" channel at the bottom left for drainage. Also of note, there are two trailer hitch assemblies welded into the face of the bumper, one at center and one at the far driver's side. These accept 5/8" farm implement pins to accommodate a bike rack that utilizes a second Comp 4 x 4 Double shear hinge assembly and allows for full swing out access of both the tire carrier and two bikes loaded on the rack.
Day 5 Began and ended with Paint and more paint work.
Many Days later of work and I was able to construct the bike rack; which consists of a Jib arm that extends the pivot of the rack past the tire, and a center attachment point, which also acts as a secondary point of support to stabilize the rack.
There are many more pictures in my album on the subject...
