Tread plate bumper
 

Has anyone here made front and or rear bumpers out of tread plate? If so i want to see pics. If not, why not? pros/cons if any. I was walking through the yard where i work and i can get a ton of tread plate for free!!! I just havent seen any bumpers out of it.

I have ranchhand replacement bumpers on the front and back of my 03 dodge diesel that use the tread plating. Very strong and looks great.

As far as on a jeep and a custom built I think the cost and the weight of tread plating is what probably deters many people from using it. Most steel shops sell the stuff in 4x8 or large sheets so you have alot of extra waste.

If you are able to get the materials for free than I say go for it. Done right is will be a very strong and very nice looking bumper.

???tread plat are you talkin about i have never hear of it not has someone of the people around me have not are you talking about diamond plate.

then i would say go for it next time my friend comes down and if i remember i well get pic of he fornt and rear bumpers. they look nice im planning on making a set for my jeep

The acutal name is tread plate. If you have some thats 1/8 inch, that would be perfect. The welding shop I worked at, all the rear bumpers on the welding trucks were replaced with tread plate bumpers. 1/8 inch plate with the right stiffeners and good welds would be strong and fairly lights weight.

I found some in our yard ranging from 1/8" to 1/4". Would the plate make it a PITA to mount a winch to it. What do you recommend for the gussets? can i just use spare pieces of the tread plate?

bump

as far as the winch mount i would flip the plate over to the flat side and use that side for the winch mount, as far as gussets it all depends on the shape of your bumper but triangles is what you wanna keep in mind as im sure you kno, as far as thickness i would go with 3/16 at a minimum and for the frame tie ins make sure you make sure they reach as far back of the "frame" as possible and use 1/4 for that

Thanks claygrassman. I am thinking of using the 1/4" treadplate that i have for everything. Bumpers, gussets, "frame" mounts and everything. I was kinda thinkin about flipping the plate over for the winch mount so it would be flat. I still would like to see some pics of this type of bumper on an xj. I have seen some on some of the trucks around where i live but its not the same.