Anyone seen a front mount on these before? Brain storming if I should go rear mount, up top , or in front. Leaning toward added protection for kiddos sitting in rear with a rear mounted rack. hmmm
Anyone seen a front mount on these before? Brain storming if I should go rear mount, up top , or in front. Leaning toward added protection for kiddos sitting in rear with a rear mounted rack. hmmm
Some old man hit my back bumper so I've been thinking about replacing mine with a custom one. I like the swing arm idea.
My friend had a custom bumper and skid plate made for his 4runner that looks amazing. He gave me the number for his guy that runs a fab shop down in gardena. Its a Japanese father and son operation and i think they like to see the old stuff come through. I have no idea the cost but the work quality looked excellent. I'm gonna need the double swing arm though. One to strap each of my kids to!
I plan on getting a quote so I'll post back once i do.
$500 seems pretty good for what you got though. Post some detail pictures of the bumper if you can.
I thought I recognized @go_somewhere_new. I have found several tire gates at the salvage yard for small SUV. They are about $20 so I wonder if a fab mount would be worth trying. kia sport, isuzu rodeo mostly.
Ian, I've been following you guys on Instagram myself, and even showed my friends the pic of you and your wife in front of the van as my ideal wedding photo!
Great to see you on the forum!
@rogerthevan
Hey All! It has been a while since I have bee on the site. The last month and a half have been a whirlwind. We really have not had a set path to follow, which has made it difficult to plan van meet-ups. Also, we are spending a lot of time in the wilderness and with out internet access.
We are currently in Seward Alaska. Pretty cool place. The van has been preforming well, getting 23 mpg even with it loaded down. I may need to change the rear shocks and springs,however, she is really starting to sag. Next will be tires. I am thinking small A/T, either Generals or BFG's. That should boost the mpgs a little more and increase the power going up steeper grades.
We are 7000 miles into our trip and I am about to change the oil for the third time. A helpful tip for long trips is to buy a bunch of Toyota Oil filters before you leave on long trips and always carry your next batch of oil. I find myself changing the oil in rest stops frequently. Haha! Hell, I even rotated my tires in the parking lot of Denali National Park Mercantile with the help of a German man (who by the way had the most epic overlander rig, words can not discribe).
In a week we will be headed to Montana. I will prolly check back in then
-Ian
FYI, Ian, BFG's are NLA in the stock size for our vans
Does anything out there like this exist for the Van? I have a custom rear bumper the previous owner fabbed up with a receiver hitch but something like this would be ideal:
That particular fabricator is located in California, and freight shipping would probably be murderous to Utah, but I'm sure you could take pictures of what you wanted to any local respectable metal fabricator and they could weld up something similar and you can avoid freight shipping costs.
Last edited by llamavan; 10-29-2018 at 09:10 PM. Reason: merge rendered part of post irrelevant
Thanks for the tip! I currently have samurai wheels. Thinking of going with 205 75 15 grabbers. Maybe a tad bigger.
Nice set-up and it looks like a first rate job.
Not to be a wet blanket or ruin anyone's morning cornflakes, but I think I would rather have my spare up front... on the front bumper.
I don't recall ever having a blowout with any of my vans. I have seen them flat or down in the morning and had to change them... but I use my rear door too often to want to be dealing with a spare mounted there.
I have read about collisions with trees and poles in pick-ups that had the spare out front that ended up with the blowing out of the spare taking a lot of the force of impact. We don't even have radiator air flow to block if we mount a spare up front. Seems like win/win. There isn't much except headlights between your feet and the driver or deer that crosses into your lane.
Really a matter of taste though... just offering an alternative.
As of now all my spares mount comfortably underneath on stock or custom carriers, but if I go to larger tires I would put the extra effort into beefing up the front.
I think with some planning I could come up with a cow-catcher reinforced front bumper and spare rig that folded down and doubled as a tow bar, even.
-Jim
I've been hit from behind a few times, never hit anyone.
Ive seen a minor impact on a rear mount that caused more damage due to its presence.
My Hiace has a spot where a 1" receiver would mount hidden behind the F bumper.
Would use it for a bike rack or a winch or
I also want a ladder.
Good call, and I notice the non-stock wheels now on previous pics (looks good). I just recently switched to the grabbers and must say that so far i prefer them to the BFG TA's. To me they handle more smoothly on the road and seem to get better traction in the light off-roading I've done so far. I'll probably get a set fro my truck next time it gets new baloney skins
Ian, can you take a couple pictures of your bumper where it attaches/anchors to the body? I called the guy that fabricated your bumper to see if he could make another or give some specifics. (longer in Southern California, now in AZ) He said that he didn't save any notes, measurements, etc and would need to have my van during the build process.
thanks Joshua
1987 4wd 5spd Cargo van (uncut)-modding in 3,2,1
I'd appreciate this as well!!
Totally! My van is in the shop currently, so I will get some up once I get it back.
After having the bumper for sometime, and putting it to good use, there are some changes that I would make. For instance, the way it is mounted to the body. It is currently mounted into the stock bumper bolt holes. These do not have much structural integrity bc of the unibody design. What has happened over time is the weight that is mounted on the bumper multiplies the force on the mounts. This has caused the bumper to slop down. So an extra support will be needed on either side that attaches to the subframe if you want it to hold a lot of weight. I would also consider having two smaller gates that meet in the middle on the van, instead of one long one. This This would add more weight, but decease the amount of force applied to the bumper mounts.
Banned
Uh oh "in the shop"? Is that what the transfer case verbiage in the sig is about?
Regarding bumper, yeah I was a little concerned over all the weight hanging off one side.
Look forward to the pictures, have a small mig set up, but should work for tacking the structure together and then taking it to a friend that relies on his welding skills then some shade tree mech (me).
I need to check out your blog to see latest updates.
thanks
1987 4wd 5spd Cargo van (uncut)-modding in 3,2,1
Yeah, I made a real bone head move and am paying for it. Toasted my tcase towing the van. I made a lot of phone calls to wrecking yards. It has taken over a month to track a manual tcase down. There is one at a wrecking yard in Little Rock, Ca. But they are as about as shaddy of a company as it gets. Luckily I found another in Wyoming. Being shipped in as we speak.