New Bumpers and a Trip to AK

[JCrockett]

Well me and a buddy (another TDR member) Drove up from MT. I had the Cummins shipped to Seattle via Truck. We flew down and drove it over to Montana. Picked up what we needed and headed North. My buddy drove a 78 Ford 250 and halued a Chevy pickup for another friend, and I hauled a 78 Ford 150 for my buddy. The Cummins only had 2200 miles on it when I shipped it down, now it has 6000, so I think a 3000 mile tow broke it in. Very pleased with the performance lots of power and 13-14 MPG pulling.



I also stopped off at a welding shop on Libby, MT (Twinkle Welding) and had them build a couple Custom Bumpers.

Let me know what you all think.

I'll throw in a photo of the trip to AK as well, last day was 1100 miles in 23 hours, long day!



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[patcarman]

how much did the bumpers run you, and how long did it take?

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Bumpers look good! Same questions as patcarman.

 

[JCrockett]

The front bumper was $1600 installed and painted and included, tow hooks, winch style reciever, fog light cutouts, Rubber over the push bars, and they installed the driving lights that I already had.



The rear was $480 installed and painted and included the backup light cutouts and tow hooks as well. I already had the backup lights so they installed them as well.

Both bumpers took two days to build and paint, they custom build each bumper to fit the truck, as each truck is a little different.



We left Friday morning about noon from Eureka, MT and arrived in Wasilla, AK Monday morning about 3 am. Had a little down time with the Ford and it was slower up the passes and such, but not a bad trip. Did not sleep a whole lot though, about 10 hours over the three days.



If I can reccomend anything it would be to take your time on that drive, there is alot of neat things to see and places to stay at. I was in a hurry to get back to work..... don't know why so that is why we hauled *****.

Saw a bunch of wildlife, Black Bears, Wolf, Caribu, Moose, Deer, Wild Buffalo, and some type of Marmat thing that ran in front of me one night, tried to hit it but is was too fast :-laf

 

[Tim]

Did you get some lube with them?

 

[ECappleman]

Maybe I am just missing something.

Why the drive and why the rush?

 

[JCrockett]

Did you get some lube with them?

What do you mean, you can't touch a Renuel or any other manufactured bumper for under $2000, just for the front! I thought it was a great deal, plus they are welded solid on all the seams, not just spot welded like the others.



The drive was to pick up a bunch of personal stuff that was left back home, since we are selling the old house, and the rush, I only had a certain amount of time off of work. Make sense now!

 

[yycguy]

What do you mean, you can't touch a Renuel or any other manufactured bumper for under $2000, just for the front! I thought it was a great deal, plus they are welded solid on all the seams, not just spot welded like the others.



JCrockett, thanks for sharing the pictures with us, looks like you had a good time, as for Tim ? that's just Tim!

 

[Tim]

What do you mean, you can't touch a Renuel or any other manufactured bumper for under $2000, just for the front! I thought it was a great deal, plus they are welded solid on all the seams, not just spot welded like the others.

I had bumpers front and rear fabricated for another rig... and it was about $800 total, front and rear. Front has turn signals and light cutouts, rear has lights for backing up. Regardless to what Road Armor and Renuel thing bumpers should cost, I don't think that's an acceptable price to what amounts to about $50 worth of steel.

 

[JCrockett]

I had bumpers front and rear fabricated for another rig... and it was about $800 total, front and rear. Front has turn signals and light cutouts, rear has lights for backing up. Regardless to what Road Armor and Renuel thing bumpers should cost, I don't think that's an acceptable price to what amounts to about $50 worth of steel.

You must not follow the prices of steel to much. It has went through the roof! I bought 3 5' pieces of square tubing to build my light bar, that was $50. The steel in these bumpers is probably around $500 and about 30 manhours to build them! It costs a company around $30-$50 an hour for labor (including work comp, and other insurance). So agian I think this was a great deal. Besides your $800 bumpers probably didn't look this good :-laf