Trailer Bumper becomes so much more

[Frank S]

The rear of low bed traveling axle trailers has long been a subject of safety concern for me and my Bud.
We own several semi trailers ranging from flat bed to a couple with axles that move forward to allow the bed of the trailer to be a low angle ramp
Recently the Landol 317 was involved in an accident where a woman drove into the rear corner of it and damaged the flimsy bumper light bar.
So I made a new one that is no longer "A" flimsy and "B" has so many lights that can do more than just be stop tail and turn. By activating a couple separate switches part of the lights become warning strobes for over dimensional loads
And "C" I think it looks soooo much better.
Off with the old

2 trailers side by side the one nearest is the one I am getting ready to rebuild what ever is needed

Checking for fit axles fully retracted

Ready to roll

Building the light-bar bumper out of a piece of 8" sq tubing

[Radioman]

How did you cut the holes? They look so perfect they must by CNC? If not you have a very steady hand with a torch.

[Frank S]

How did you cut the holes? They look so perfect they must by CNC? If not you have a very steady hand with a torch.

About half the time I do free hand holes of lights sometimes I center-punch the centers then use
this
http://www.homemadetools.net/homemad...g-attachment-3
Other times I use my plasma and a template
On this one the oblong the 4 1/2 and the 2 1/4" holes were done with a template and my plasma the 2 1/4" holes in the very ends were done free hand.
Then after the bumper was mounted we decided to add a 1 1/2" hole for a 7 way trailer connector socket and a 2 1/2" hole for the air suspension Gage these were done free hand as well. About 10 seconds with a cob stone on a rt angle grinder cleans away any slag left behind by the plasma or the torch.
Back in the days when I was running a yellow iron rebuild shop I used to regularly torch holes through 1/2" plate then thread them to 1/2 13 tpi I have cut holes nearly as clean and precise with a torch as can be done with a drill bit

[ranald]

That should light the way not to go for followers.

[Frank S]

That should light the way not to go for followers.

I t still won't keep the idiots off your donkey, but at least when something happens they can't argue that they didn't see the truck

[ranald]

I t still won't keep the idiots off your donkey, but at least when something happens they can't argue that they didn't see the truck

I had 5 rear enders in 10 years (3 were tailgaters & two were extremely over intoxicated). Hate tailgaters esp as I usually stick on or exceed limits by a bit. I guess my backside has a magnetic attraction to bum drivers. As soon as I have a tailgater I drop back from the vehicle in front to allow more room to save the following idiot. Some folk slow down so much that they cause inpatience in others following=recipe for road rage or disaster.

[Frank S]

Like my bud and I always say if you are so close that we cannot see you in the mirrors then you do not exist period. A driver in 40 ton rig could tap on his brakes to avoid something like a large animal crossing the road and never feel a tap in the rear of their rig but the car striking a slowing rig could be totaled .If it was to hit hard enough to break a plastic headlight this would mean the plastic grill and Styrofoam filled plastic bumper would have been crushed setting off numerous air bags ruining the guys day possibly killing his front seat passenger from the explosive airbag discharge, meanwhile unless the trucker happened to glance in his mirror he would have known nothing about what had happened all while being an unwitting star of the next deadly trucks movie.
I've even had a city police once hit the rear of my pickup mostly because he was not paying attention to my having to stop suddenly since a kids ball had rolled across in front of me and I saw a youngster who looked as though he was going to continue darting out after the ball from the front of a parked car. You're not going to damage the back of my vehicles with anything less than a bull dozer. That's just how I roll

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Trailer Bumper to our Heavy Equipment category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Trailer Bumper by Frank S

tags: trailer, light

[mbshop]

I learned looong ago to stay clear of trailers of any size. Saw a guy kill himself running into the back of a trailer at full speed.

[wizard69]

I had 5 rear enders in 10 years (3 were tailgaters & two were extremely over intoxicated). Hate tailgaters esp as I usually stick on or exceed limits by a bit. I guess my backside has a magnetic attraction to bum drivers. As soon as I have a tailgater I drop back from the vehicle in front to allow more room to save the following idiot. Some folk slow down so much that they cause inpatience in others following=recipe for road rage or disaster.

Tailgaters suck. Mind you this is just a pickup truck but I had one guy following me one night and It thought he turned off as his headlights where gone. Come to find out he was right on my bumper. Considering it was that time of the year when dear are running a rather stupid move on his part. I feel lucky that I've avoid a few close calls from stupid drivers (lately with cell phones stuck to their ears) over the years.