Making Brackets For Skiddy’s Rear Bumper Upgrade

Monday August 26, 2024 Guerneville CA.

Bracket work

I set the stuff out on my work table to get to work.

I needed to tack these parts together. I just wanted to tack them, instead of welding them until I was sure they would work.

I got two of those brackets tacked up and ready to test out.

This bracket should work to reenforce the bumper at the top. The white pipe will be replaced with a steel tube later.

There isn’t much room for the pipe to get by because of the engine cover and the boom that goes up and down.

This boom part goes up and down to move the bucket up and down, so things are tight.

This is what the support bracket will look like. I would of rather not had the bracket so high, but I needed to do it this way to clear the engine cover when it is open.

With the bracket high like this it puts a lot of stress on where the pipes join.

I would of liked to run the pipe like this to this pipe, but you can see the engine cover and boom arm are hitting the pipe, so no go this way.

See how tight the pipe is this way.

I decided not to weld those brackets on yet, better to study it for a bit.

More brackets

I needed to beef up the bumpers bottom mounts as they weren’t strong enough, so I made some more brackets to bolt and weld on the bumper for better support. I still need to drill them, but it was time to quit for the day and take it easy.

I’m hoping this new top brace with the added bottom beefed up might hold this bumper from bending when I back into a big tree.

Nice day.