1st Gen Tacoma BUDGET DIY High-clearance Rear Bumper

Want a simple, high-clearance, low-profile rear bumper that looks great and doesn't cost an arm and a leg? You're in the right place.


Hey all! My first thread on TW. Here's to hopefully many more.

To begin I'll introduce myself and a little bit about the purpose of my build;

My truck is a 1996 Xtracab 4x4 that I bought at the very beginning of the pandemic. Got a screaming deal on it from my old boss. $5,500 with 140k, no rust, clean title, AC, cruise control, 3.4l and most importantly with a 5mt! Since taking ownership I've done mostly maintenance and a few easy mods (lights, 4runner seat swap, 3rd-gen wheels/tires, etc.). My truck is used for towing, camping, and some light wheeling (not gonna be a rock bouncer). It also has to be a good daily and a great winter rig. As winter nears and the ache to get outdoors grows stronger, I feel it is finally time to begin building my Tacoma for how I plan to use it.







To kick things off, I am replacing the decrepit rear bumper and hitch receiver. My bumper is dented and twisted and crusty. It's begging to be replaced. After spending hours searching images of folks' rear bumpers and taking inspiration from here and there, I have finally landed on a design that I like. Here are the criteria my bumper has to fit;

-Affordable and able to be built in my shop

-Has to be able to tow 5,000lbs

-Has to be high clearance and low profile

-Has to have strong recovery points

-Has to have back-up/getoffmyass lighting



If this sounds like a bumper you'd like to have on your truck, then follow along!

First, I'll list the tools and materials that I used to build my bumper. If you don't have some of these tools, don't worry because not all of these tools are necessary to achieve the same results.




Obligatory sketch


TOOLS:

• Grinder (more than one if you have them, it's nice not switching discs all the time)
  
  
• Cutoff discs
  
  
• Grinder discs
  
  
• Flap discs
  
  
• Chop Saw (not necessary)
  
  
• Welder
  
  
• Plasma Cutter (not necessary)
  
  
• Air compressor (not necessary)
  
  
• Sawzall
  
  
• Press-brake (not necessary)
  
  
• Hammer
  
  
• Speed square and tape measure
  
  
• Sharpie
  
  
• Drill and drill bits, hole saw
  
  
• Tube bender

MATERIALS: And what I paid

• 3"x4" Square tube steel (.250 wall, 6ft section) $50
  
  
• 1.5" Round tube steel (.125 wall is sufficient, 8ft section) $3
  
  
• Assorted sizes of 1/8" and 1/4" flat stock steel Free
  
  
• Custom bumper brackets (from overlandunderbudget.com, more on this later) $180
  
  
• Hitch receiver (I cut mine from my old tow-bar and reused it) Free
  
  
• Flush mount LED lights $20
  
  
• Wiring supplies (I won't be going into wiring on this thread) Variable
  
  
• D-rings Free

I spent about $250 to build this bumper!



THE PLAN:

1.Remove OEM rear bumper, tow-bar if you have one, taillights, spare wheel, and mud flaps. Break out the grinder and the sawzall because we’re about to get cutting.


2. Next, I measured and marked 2-1/8” below the taillight. I used masking tape and a level to make a straight line all the way from the tailgate to the wheel well. Plug in that grinder and go crazy! Be wary of the wiring harness, it wouldn’t be fun to cut through it. There is some extra sheet metal in the corner underneath the taillight. Cut through it and we’ll cap it off in a later step.






This is what you should be left with now that you’re done cutting!



3. Next up, I measured the width of the tailgate which was about 54”. I cut my piece of square steel to length. Find the center of your length of square tube and mark it. Then, measure the distance between your frame rails. Measure outside to outside on the frame rails. I came up with a number like 41-1/2”. Subtract this number from 54. 54-41.5=12.5.

4. Now that we know how much of the bumper falls outside the frame rail, we can cut our angled reliefs on each side. Each relief will be 6-1/4” long and 1-1/2” tall, since I’m using 1.5” round tube. I used the plasma cutter to do the majority of the cutting, but finished off with the grinder and a cut-off disc. Once removed, use your cut-off disc and make an 1/8” deep score along your 6-1/4” line.



5. Nice! Now we have the basic shape of our bumper coming together, let’s add some dimension to it to give it a little more character. Again, since I’m using 1.5” round tube, I measured 1-1/2” wide and marked 6-1/4” long along the top surface of the square tube. Be sure to subtract the wall thickness (.250”) of your steel otherwise your bend will not look right. Cut out the pie-shaped piece and you’ll be left with this:




6. Grab your hammer and start smackin’. After I bent these edges down, I took a couple of C-clamps to squeeze the steel together while I welded it up.



*Note that the face that you bent down will be about an eighth of an inch inboard now. I just ground it flush!



7. Looking good! Let’s tackle the trailer hitch, next. Trailer hitch receivers are usually 2.5”. I marked a line 2-1/2” up from the bottom of our bumper roughly around the middle. Then, using our center mark from step 3, measure 1-1/4” on either side of center (this will give us 2.5”). Then using your speed square, simply draw a line at 45 degrees that passes through our two intersections. This is where our hitch will go, and this design keeps the receiver nice and tucked away where it is not likely to bottom-out. Whip out the grinder and start cutting along your lines. You should be left with something like this:



8. Put the receiver in its slot, get it centered up and tack it in place. I used 1/8” plate to box it in on the 45 degree angles. This is purely for aesthetic purposes and to prevent water intrusion. Next we will be adding a lower strap and gussets for strength.



To be continued...

 

Nice, stoked to see the finished piece.

 

I'm looking for this exactly! Hope all is well and you were able to finish. Looking forward to an update with the finished bumper (and weight). Looks great so far!

 

Man this started out so strong

 

Wheres my happy ending?

Started as such a solid tutorial

 

Sorry guys.... Was active duty for a while. Will try to finish up this tutorial asap!

 

Yay!

and welcome home/back, presumably

 

Love the write up. How did it turn out

 

Alright guys, after a long hiatus, I'm back! Disclaimer; Evidently I got real bad about taking photos of my progress after the last update. Sowwy. The bumper has been finished for a while, so I'll do my best to retrace my steps although I no longer have exact measurements. That said, the rest of the steps are fairly easy to replicate if you made it this far!

P.s. Please note I am a novice welder. I can stick shit together with my harbor freight welder but don't expect anything pretty lol.

We left off building a reinforcing strap and a place to hook our trailer safety chains. This is how I did it, but I honestly recommend doing it a different way for reasons I will explain later. Let's start with the safety strap.
I dug through my scrap pile and found a piece of suitable flat stock, cut it to a rough dimension, marked the width of the hitch receiver (to find center), bent it and then trimmed it to fit.

From here, we can begin work on the lower strap which gives our safety chains something to hook onto. Again, if I were to recreate this bumper I would also do this part differently. I haven't towed anything yet so it hasn't been a huge priority, but I don't trust this piece to keep my trailer attached if it were to become unhitched. But for the sake of this build thread, this is how I did it.

I found another piece of scrap steel and once again measured the width of the hitch receiver (in order to find the center). I drilled a hole in the very middle so I could plug-weld the strap for extra strength. I thought for a little while about how I wanted this to look, and landed on a method I would need our milling machine for. Completely unnecessary in hindsight, total waste of time lol.


As you can see, the steel perimeter around the slots are quite thin, which is why I would not recommend doing it this way. But I digress, we will push on!

Next up we need to weld these two straps into place.


Now if you remember just a little bit ago, I said the back strap should be done differently. And honestly, I'm not sure how I didn't think of this at the time, but how was I going to put a hitch pin in? Facepalm.
Oh well, that would be a problem for future me.

We need to get this thing attached to the truck! But how are we gonna do that?
Well in my case, I purchased the build plans for OverlandUnderBudget's V2 bumper brackets ($30) and sent them off to SendCutSend (I believe this was about $175 at the time). This was where the majority of the cost of this whole bumper came from. Once I received the parts, it was just puzzling them together and welding.

Link to bumper bracket plans



Now that we have these, we need to slot the bumper in order to interface the brackets with the bumper itself.
Everything marked in red is inside the bumper, and the clevice mounts protrude through the other side. We'll get to the green markings in a minute.

Hopefully now it's starting to make sense why we must slot both sides of the bumper.

To make the slots, I began with a cutoff disc on my grinder and finished with the milling machine again. This could be done much easier by drilling two holes and using a cutoff wheel to make the slot between the two holes.



This is about the time my photography took a back seat, so please bear with me.
I decided to cut the holes for the reverse lights before welding the brackets on, because once the brackets are installed, it can no longer be laid flat on the ground.


In this photo, you can see the slot for the mounting bracket in the upper left corner.

Depending on the style of reverse light you choose, your install method will vary. I used flush mount LED lights from Amazon.

Next, you will need to mount the bumper brackets to your truck. Remember, we haven't attached the bumper to the brackets yet. We need to mount the brackets first and then attach the bumper to the brackets to give everything the best possible chance of being aligned. Once everything is lined up and flush, weld it all together. The clevices are three pieces and must be welded on after the brackets are slotted through. I stole the next pic from OverlandUnderBudget's website so you can see how it supposed to look.


Now lets talk about those green arrows from the picture a little bit ago. I used 3x4" steel for my bumper, while OverlandUnderBudget used 3x5" steel for his, so his brackets are designed using the latter. To fix this, I simply bent the tab up and welded it the the bottom of the 3x4" steel of the bumper.

At this point, you basically have a functional bumper!

As you can see, I added some d-rings and installed my lights. What's harder to see is the steel sheet metal that is welded in to cover the massive gaping holes on the bottom side of the bumper. I wish I had some photos of this process, but this is the best I have. I've marked them up so you can get a better idea of what needs to be covered with the sheet metal.


Even though you're definitely protected from getting rear-ended now, we still need to do something about those vulnerable bedsides that we cut wayyyy back at the beginning of this whole build.
To solve this issue I found some 1.75" 1/8" wall DOM, bent up a couple 90's and welded them onto the outer end of the rear section of the bumper (which are conveniently 1.75" squares, I wonder how that happened).



It's easy to reinforce these sections as you can weld a support to the bumper mounting bracket. You can see the support towards the inner forward section of the bedside protection bar.

After this, coat it with some bed-liner or the paint of your choice, crack a beer and admire your work! You're done!

I am sincerely sorry that it took such a long time to finish this build thread. I really hope you found this helpful and inspirational!

 

Last picture is what happens when you don't adequately prevent water from getting inside your bumper

 

Also just realized if I had waited about 2 more hours to post this update, it would have been exactly 2 years since the first post. So once again, sorry it took so long!

 

Looks good thank you for showing us your work.

 

Looks real good.

How do you get your hitch pin in and out?

 

I ended up cutting the large strap off of the back. I need to gusset the hitch receiver again but I haven't towed anything since building the bumper so it hasn't been super important. I mostly just carry my bike rack around

 

For what it's worth, I towed a trailer with the bumper for the first time last week. The trailer and load was probably only about 1,200lbs but it did great other than my drop-hitch not being low enough. I have had my bike rack in the receiver for a total of about 3,000 miles though, washboard gravel roads and light off-roading included. The bumper has held up fantastic with no signs of stress, cracks or fractures!

 

In the last pic of the finished bumper post, did the side tube snap off?

 

Yeah, I pulled a beached Acura MDX out of the sand at the beach. I pulled hard enough that the bumper slid on the slotted mounting holes. It tweaked the bumper sideways and busted the weld at the joint under the tail light. It was rusty underneath so there must have been some water intrusion. I bent up new tubes, reinforced everything and welded it back up so it shouldn't ever happen again.

 

Nice bumper!

I have the same brackets designed by overland under budget and cut locally.

I’ve had the cut files for 2.5 years and finally got the pieces cut about a year ago.

I think it’s time to actually build the bumper.

 

So clean! Nicely done!

 

How big of a lift is on this?