TJ Rear Bumper

#1
Well now that my rear bumper has been sold, I need to build a new one. I'm considering building a swing out, swing down rear bumper. I'm also gonna change some other things along the way. This one may take some heavy drinking to figure out a game plan!
 
#2
I have considered that a few times, I have also seen a few that instead of swinging out they just rotate to the side by swinging up.

The hardest part about doing swing out and swing down is how to secure the swing down function without making the swing out function a bear to open...
 
#3
I just ordered a swing down due to the weight of a 40 and also that would be a bear to get onto a swing to the side and would probably end up being about the size of the back end of the jeep.

I've fabbed a few rear swing away rear bumper and found that the best latching mechanism is actually using a piece of square tube that fits the ID of the bottom tube on the swing and cutting a 45 degree angle on the smaller tube and then using a like piece of the swing tube as the catch on the bumper. I've seen some guys goes to the extent of spring loading a piece of solid stock square tube so all you have to do is push down and latch the swing. The first few swing aways I built for sn XJ utilized the rockstomper pivot and the heavy duty harbor freight latches. Needless to say I had to retool the catches a few times because the latching force would sometimes bend the tabs on the bumper while also making it a pain to open and close. I think alot of the pain to close the latch is dependant on how much preload you but on the pivot end of the swing when you weld it on.
 
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