Dirtbound Rear Bumper and Tire Carrier
A project that's been three years in the making has finally come to completion. I bought an assembled rear bumper from Dirtbound Offroad and the do-it-yourself swing arm tire carrier in 2017 that needed to be welded together. After a couple of months, the bumper and box of tire carrier metal arrived and I performed an inventory. A few phone calls and emails to the company to ensure I received everything required and the work began.
The bumper was already built so the tire carrier had to be welded together.
I'm quite glad I got the DIY tire carrier because not only did I learn a lot about welding and fabrication, it also gave me opportunities to improve on the design.
One example is there were no provisions made in the original design to keep the swing arm open. So, I made one by adding a T-handle and a bracket to accept the pin.
Another is I was able to make provisions to support the JCR RotopaX mount.
I had to add some angle iron to the JCR bracket to keep it from wobbling though (not pictured). An added bonus is the RotopaX handle is a convenient place to open/close the swing arm from! While this was a good idea on paper, in practice, I've found the arm wobbles too much when driving on roads and trails.
After the parts got powder coated, a wire harness for the extra lights and trailer harness had to be built.
In the event the bumper ever has to come off, only one plug needs to be disconnected and the trailer harness, bumper lights, and license plate lights can all remain attached.
Other changes I made include filling in the Dirtbound text in the gusset. I did that mostly because I saw the cutout letters being a great place for dirt and water to collect and potentially getting between the metals pieces and begin corroding.
I also did not care for the bear claw latching mechanism in the original design as the release was under the bumper and seemed quite sensitive to open. It was also in the way of the trailer safety chain rings. Every time I looked at that design, I kept thinking that the swing arm would open while driving. So, I went with one of these latches.
I also saw the only thing bearing the swing arm weight was the pivot pin. So, I added a windshield bump stop from a JK to support the weight when closed.
I also added more support brackets the mount for the swing arm as there wasn't much there to keep the arm from sagging over time. I've read and heard from others with this same bumper talk about it sagging over time.
The other thing missing from the original design that I wanted was a place to mount a trailer harness. So, I added a flush six pin.
I looked at several options for mounting the license plate and finally decided the best/cleanest place seemed to be on the spare tire. I just didn't like the idea of having to remove the license plate every time I rotate my tires. I succumbed and got the Smittybilt bracket that allows the plate to quickly disconnect to get to the tire. I also got the Rugged Ridge LED bolt lights to illuminate the plate at night. Because of the lighting, I had to make a connector so the lights can be disconnected with the plate.
That about does it for the rear bumper build and modifications. While it was a rough start with poor support and several things to modify, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I'm sure my fuel economy just went down with that extra weight though. I know my rear suspension lowered by 1/8 inch...