Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Steel Beam Bumper is less Redneck than 2x4 Wood Bumper

Plans?  Who needs 'em!  Well it turns out I do.  The beams went together into a fine 9 foot x 9 foot L-shaped structure, but they were too long to attach properly to the top of the rack.   So I had to do some additional measurements and it's back to the drawing board, literally.  Apparently simulating a 9x 9 "L" shape out of 8'x8' wood that was lying around was not an accurate mockup.

On the bright side, the end caps welded nicely to the new bumper. I welded the crap out of them so they're not going anywhere.  On the not so bright side, I realized during welding that they're stainless steel.  And stainless steel not only sucks to weld, but it really sucks to drill.  I about wrecked all my large drill bits to get two 9/16" holes cut.  Anyway, at least the welding went well!  That beam is probably stronger than the bolts used to hold the bumper on.  I used the same weldnut threads as normally holds on the plastic bumper.  I may put another couple of bolts in there since I think the loads will be pretty high (at least 4-500 pounds or more, depending on if people decide to climb over the cab).
And last but not least, the 12" subwoofers I ordered last month have arrived.  I am temporarily trying them out in my car.  They work pretty well with the amp I have and seem to handle the amp just fine.  They're rated for the full output of the amp, which is 600W RMS at 2 Ohms.  It makes my headlights dim... hopefully the diesel truck with two very large 12V batteries in parallel won't be as affected.  These both will be moved to the truck at some point.

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