- Joined
- Jun 3, 2019
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- 18
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- 876
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- Location
- Plymouth Michigan
- Website
- www.brokeninnovation.com
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Bronco Badlands non-sas 4 door manual
- Your Bronco Model
- Badlands
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- #1
I've had the Bronco since fall of 2021, just over 2 years and have not yet made a comprehensive "build" thread.
The first year I kept it completely bone stock testing and pushing its capability limits and very much enjoying it as is. (See here)
Last fall I made a big change by upgrading to 37" mud tires and bead lock wheels, but otherwise kept it basically stock. (See that thread here). It's pretty well established that tires are the most impactful change you can make in terms of off-road capability. That certainly was my experience over the past year with several visits to off-road parks, a couple road trips and most recently an overlanding adventure to Colorado.
Aside from the wheels/tires, there were a handful of other modifications I made before our Colorado trip I just posted about last week (here).
Here I want to share all of the work I had done up until that trip. Itās a long read, but a lot of detail. Enjoy! (bumper/bike rack details at bottom of post: @jonesh242 @Bird Dog Off Road
Starting at the Front
Hidden Winch Skid:
I decided to go with Lobo Off roads hidden winch skidplate. I wanted a hidden winch primarily to not interfere with my front camera, but also because I just like the look. Since I was going to relocate the solenoid/controller to the engine bay anyway, I wasnāt too concerned about more frequent exposure to water down low. The skid looks great, I did have to reef on it a bit to get it installed, but overall it was pretty straight forward. Pro tip, you donāt have to remove the front bumper to install, just loosen it enough to tip out of the way. There are cheaper options, but I liked that this design was more robust (at least by appearance) and I have a bit more faith in Lobo's corrosion prevention than some other brands. I want to give the product a 5/5, but it is pricey and I have not yet had to perform a full-load recovery with the winch yet, so time will tell.
Winch:
I went with the Engo SR12S with remote. I was very close to pulling the trigger on the Badland 12k winch, its affordable and has a pretty solid reputation. I am not a winch snob, I think the importance of having the most reputable winch possible is a bit overstated. If you are one of the few that needs the best, or are a pro-race team, go for it. But I'm fine with spending $600 instead of $2500 if the worst case scenario is having to have someone else pull me out anyway. So why did I go with Engo? It actually came out under the price of the Badland (589.98 with wireless remote), and considering the internals are probably built in the same house in China I decided to go with the lowest bidder that still had the features I wanted (remote/synthetic/12k load/lifetime warranty on mechanicals). As I stated with the Lobo Skid, I have not performed a full load recovery, but I did do a neutral pull to wind up the spool properly, and have used it a couple times to pull some logs out of the tree-line on the farm (enough to drag the Bronco a little bit while parked in 4wd).
Despite having no issues using the winch itself, I would limit my initial rating to 4/5 (generous) since the solenoid mounting bracket was already cracked on arrival. Didnāt matter to me since I was relocating the solenoid, but thatās just not a good sign. Additionally the wireless remote only worked in one direction (wired remote works fine), I am still waiting on wireless remote replacement. Not a huge deal, but still annoying.
Under the hood I chose to mount the solenoid on top of the ECU thatās over by the wiper fill on the passenger side. It left plenty of room for the wiring and the solenoid itself. To do that I simply cut a 1/8" sheet of aluminum down to a rectangle suitable to mount the solenoid and wireless receiver too. The plate is thin enough that I can sandwich it between the ECU and the ECU bracket without issue. I would like to make a nice 3D printed cover for the terminals at some point, but haven't gotten to that yet.
For the wired remote I didnāt feel like needing to pop the hood in case the wireless remote quit, so I routed the plug over to the driver side and 3D printed a little low-profile mount to fasten it to the "accessory ready" hardware mounts by the mirror.
Rock Hard 4x4 Sport Deck.
I love this piece; it is an absolute essential if you are overlanding or camping semi-regularly. Sure, it does limit how you can pack gear in the back, but the ability to unpack only the lower half as needed is incredibly useful. As you can see in the picture, it sits about level to the soft top base so anything you could fit without opening the top, will fit under the shelf. Also, when sleeping in the Bronco, the shelf is a game changer, I donāt know how we stayed inside without it! That said, it's very pricey for what it is (399.95 for the Aluminum) but hard to fault it aside from the price. 5/5
Tire Carrier:
It's pretty common to upgrade the tire carrier when you go to larger tires. Unfortunately, almost all of the upgrades are either bumper mounted solutions, or additional structure bridging the tire carrier to the hinges directly. I was not interested in either of those, I already had plans for bumper mounted infrastructure, and I donāt think tire carrier to hinge structure is as critical as reducing the bending moment created by the tire. The only way to reduce the bending moment is to tuck the wheel and tire in as close to the tailgate as possible. (I have 3D printed bushing extenders to bridge the gap between the OE rubber bumper and the tire)
I went with the Havoc Off-road tire carrier because I was under the impression that the offset was shorter than the OEM. But once I got everything installed I realized the offset was actually worse! Rather than return it, I realized I could modify the 2 part design by ditching the adjustable mounting bracket, and mounting the tire directly to the base. This was really only practical for me because I have access to a Tormach 1100, and was able to cut the full pattern needed for all the mounting infrastructure into the base mount. Doing this saved me about 1.6" of offset, which pulled my wheels and tires into almost the OEM position despite having 0mm offset wheels. I want to give the Havoc Carrier a 2/5 because as received it is essentially a useless upgrade. If Havoc opted to include the mounting pattern both on the base mount and adjustable bracket, while maintaining OEM offset with the bracket, they would have a pretty sweet product.
Aside from reducing the offset for protection of the tailgate, I also wanted to minimize wasted space so I could pull my bikes in closer to the Bronco. More on that below.
Rear Bumper: (@srqfabrications )
This one started out of necessity. I crunched my rear bumper pretty good wheeling at Bundy Hill (one of my first outings with the 37's). I know that what I did would have put a nasty dent in almost all aftermarket bumpers, but I still am utterly unimpressed with how the stock bumper performed, and especially disappointed in the license plate mounting design (definitely designed by an inexperienced engineer), that interface failed back in 2021 on my first trip to Moab.
I went with SRQ fabrications (I think they are now True North Fabrications) modular rear bumper. First, I created a list of every bumper I could find, and started by eliminating any option over $1500. Well actually I started by eliminating every option near or over $1000, but there was basically Havoc, and no-one else. I was not overly enthusiastic about the Havoc so I painfully increased my budget. After that I eliminated any design that was wider than the Bronco Body, because if I am seriously wheeling, with the flares off, why on earth would I want to hook the corner of my bumper on something?
There are a few things I liked about True North/SRQ's rear bumper, it seemed competitively priced (given how expensive they all are), had a nice simple and sleek design. The only holes in the bumper are for the cool red tow hooks or optional lights. No unnecessary stealth vents/screens. I ordered the bumper with the holes/mounting interface for swing out accessories to be added at a later date. That helped keep the cost down, and I wasnāt yet sure if I would go with those bumper mount accessories, I just wanted the option available. This is my first count of great customer service from True North, no questions or complaints, they understood what I wanted and made it that way. 5/5
I should also note that I opted to buy the bumper unpainted, again to keep the cost down. I am a bit torn on this decision because I definitely saved money buying my own primer and paint, but it was also a lot of prep work and time to do a legitimately good job and even then, they probably would have done better. Regardless, I think I did pretty good! Big fan of the self-etching primer at Home Depot, I think that was the key.
Trailer Tow Harness Relocation:
I should have mentioned this as a slight complaint regarding the bumper. For some reason the True North bumper does not package around the OEM trailer plug. It's not the end of the world, and not that hard to relocate it just a tad lower. I had different ideas though, with no plans to run auxiliary lights in the bumper, I 3D printed a mounting bracket for the trailer plug to fit in. I did have to drill and file the light hole in the bumper to be slightly wider (see below) but this allowed me to fit the OEM trailer tow plug up and out of the way, and fill an otherwise unused hole. I covered the other hole with a 3D printed plate as well (you donāt even notice it). Hey True North, maybe you guys should offer this option! With the plug relocated, I just took a cut-off wheel and cut off everything on the OEM hitch outside of the chain connection to gain that little bit of clearance back.
Bike Rack:
So as I move on to the bike rack, I want to start again by talking about the bumper. Essential to the success of my custom bike rack, was the bumper mount infrastructure. I bought the bumper before I had this idea, but once I decided to make my bike rack a partial bumper mount I emailed True North. I asked if I could buy the spindle and bearing assembly that True North uses for their bumper accessories for my own project. I expected a no, because most companies want you to buy their final products. But no, Tyler from True North understood exactly what I was doing and threw together a custom invoice for all the parts needed to fab up my own bumper mount to bolt into theirs like an OE set up.
(part pictured after welding, square plates not included. Spindle and bearings not pictured)
To say this saved me a ton of work is an understatement. Not only did I get to avoid fabricating the most critical part of the project, I wound up with something undoubtedly better quality. Once I received the parts, I realized that the spindle I received was for the left side when I really needed it for the right (different, but symmetric bolt pattern). This was entirely my fault because I never specified that I needed the right side. I emailed Tyler again begging for another invoice so I could get this part in before my trip to Colorado, offering to pay extra to get it shipped over the weekend. Tyler not only got the spindle shipped to me on time, he gave me the part for free. Sure, maybe he felt like he too should have known to specify left side or right side on the initial order, but that was such an easy miss. Absolute top tier service! I'll say 6/5
The bike rack itself started life as a Rocky Mounts Backstage 2. I have an initial review of the rack here: (here).
The rack itself is perfectly fine. The main reason I went with this design is that it already had the swing out design integrated, so I didnāt have to buy a rack and swing out separately. Unfortunately, due to the spare tire, I still had to purchase a hitch extension. There was only one time I kept the rack on while off-roading and that was in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Along the rocky shore of Lake Superior it became clear that the departure angle with the rack installed was extremely limited. If I wanted to bring our bikes with us on our overlanding trip in Colorado, I needed a serious upgrade in clearance.
The modification of the rack itself can be separated into 2 parts.
Part one: Lift and tuck. Simple as that, there was already a little bit of clearance to lift the rack and pull it in closer to the vehicle. But going back to the tire carrier, since I cut the mounting interface directly onto the carrier (as high as I could place it), I gained a few more inches up and forward for the bike rack.
Step 1: I cut a new hole in the hitch extender. This alone gained about an inch forward, and improved departure both at the hitch extension, and the rack itself. Side benefit, you get more beef in the receiver for an overall tighter/stiffer fit.
Step 2: I mounted the bike rack on top of the hitch extension, using a 1" bar (hallowed out) to space the bike rack as high up as I could get away with. I slightly modified the rack itself by chamfering the front face and placing a beefy plate over it. I also chamfered the trailing edge to gain just a bit of departure where that structure wasnāt needed. Welded everything up and part one was done. At this point I had already gained all the ground clearance I was going to, but I didnāt like how the swing arm still stuck out to the side. Despite being much higher than before, it was still barely higher than the bumper and I could imagine catching it on a rock or log. It's one thing if I had to drag the hitch portion down a rock, no biggy, but that swing arm would be toast with all that leverage.
Part two: New swing arm:
I committed to part 2 by cutting the swing arm off of the base bike rack which had been welded to the hitch extension. I also unbolted the actual bike rack portion which swings out on the arm. I did not want to fabricate an arm from scratch, but neither segment of the original swing arm pair was long enough to reach the bumper. So first I had to combine them into one "mega arm". I kept the side that had the mounting interface for the bike rack and trimmed off part of the bracket which the outer arm used to pivot on the inner arm which left a handy sleeve to fit them together. Next I sanded off the paint where needed, and welded them together. I used the vice and long square tube to get it as straight as possible, and also added a plate of steel to close off the back where there would have been a big opening.
Side note, to get the arm to fit properly, it needs to be the correct length accounting for two identical bends. The bumper side bend must also clear the bumper. Luckily I was able to throw some 2D sketches and planes together in 3D CAD, using tape measure and my cave man eyes to get all the geometry measured. Without CAD, I would almost certainly have to do lots of trial and error in wood or plastic before getting the length and angles right. Interestingly the pivot location in X axis (lengthwise) is almost exactly the same as the OE hitch receiver face. As you can see, you can deconstruct from the top view (complete arm) the exact length of the straight arm as well as the angle and position of the cutouts.
I was able to get the arm cutouts, bolt holes, and length trim all complete in one (long) piece of G-code. As you can see, the cut outs are limited to just over the radius of the tool, but I was able to finish the cut with a thin cut-off wheel, to make the full pizza cut leaving only the outer surface to bend. Also, you will notice that the bolt holes are very large, thatās because I actually inserted thick steel plugs into each hole to give a beefy clamp surface to the bumper swing out bracket.
The bumper swing out bracket was fairly straightforward, made easy because Tyler from True North provided all the critical hardware, all I needed to do was weld it all up with a couple steel plates, and then cut the bolt holes. One important detail was the location of the locking pin (see the threaded cylinder piggy backing the large bearing can). I wanted this to lock in place with the bracket angled precisely where it would be with the rack fully assembled.
I gently bent the arm as intended and then assembled the bike rack fully. Spot welded the arm in place, then pulled it all apart to weld the arm up fully.
From here it was all prep and paint! For Colorado I just mounted it up with typical 3/8 bolts and nylock nuts, but I noticed several times after swinging the rack open that it had drooped at the bolt interface, making it very annoying to lift back onto the base. To remedy this (after the trip) I took a few beefy 3/8's jig nuts and welded them on, both to provide more thread surface for tighter clamp, as well as tighter control of position. So far so good, wish I had done that from the start.
Going forward, and with more kids on the way, it will be unlikely I will do a lot more mountain biking on our road-trips (at least for quite a while). So I intend to convert (in some convenient reversible way) the bike rack into a storage rack. That way I can relieve the back seat interior space and move it to the hitch and bumper, and I know this set up is very off-road capable, and much stiffer/stronger than hitch only option. When the rack is not in use, I simply unbolt it and leave the swing out bracket in the open position out of the way. (you can see the paint was touched up following our colorado trip)
Since getting back from Colorado (and because I broke one shock on that trip) I have added Icon 2.5 IFP shocks, there are countless threads on those, no need for install details. I think they are the best option available for wheelers for the sole reason that they significantly increase wheel travel and run the most aggressive jounce clearance I have seen (aside from stock). I have not pushed them hard so I can't offer a full review yet, but they beg to be driven fast, and the on-road ride quality is still great (I expected degradation there actually).
I have the icons set to the lowest setting of about 1.5-2" higher than stock, so keep that in mind as you review the numbers on my bike rack clearance. Actual use in Colorado was slightly lower clearance. That departure angle is pretty solid if I do say so myself! Will make a great storage rack eventually.
-Pretty solid departure angle!
- Measured from the OE receiver.
The first year I kept it completely bone stock testing and pushing its capability limits and very much enjoying it as is. (See here)
Last fall I made a big change by upgrading to 37" mud tires and bead lock wheels, but otherwise kept it basically stock. (See that thread here). It's pretty well established that tires are the most impactful change you can make in terms of off-road capability. That certainly was my experience over the past year with several visits to off-road parks, a couple road trips and most recently an overlanding adventure to Colorado.
Aside from the wheels/tires, there were a handful of other modifications I made before our Colorado trip I just posted about last week (here).
Here I want to share all of the work I had done up until that trip. Itās a long read, but a lot of detail. Enjoy! (bumper/bike rack details at bottom of post: @jonesh242 @Bird Dog Off Road
Starting at the Front
Hidden Winch Skid:
I decided to go with Lobo Off roads hidden winch skidplate. I wanted a hidden winch primarily to not interfere with my front camera, but also because I just like the look. Since I was going to relocate the solenoid/controller to the engine bay anyway, I wasnāt too concerned about more frequent exposure to water down low. The skid looks great, I did have to reef on it a bit to get it installed, but overall it was pretty straight forward. Pro tip, you donāt have to remove the front bumper to install, just loosen it enough to tip out of the way. There are cheaper options, but I liked that this design was more robust (at least by appearance) and I have a bit more faith in Lobo's corrosion prevention than some other brands. I want to give the product a 5/5, but it is pricey and I have not yet had to perform a full-load recovery with the winch yet, so time will tell.
Winch:
I went with the Engo SR12S with remote. I was very close to pulling the trigger on the Badland 12k winch, its affordable and has a pretty solid reputation. I am not a winch snob, I think the importance of having the most reputable winch possible is a bit overstated. If you are one of the few that needs the best, or are a pro-race team, go for it. But I'm fine with spending $600 instead of $2500 if the worst case scenario is having to have someone else pull me out anyway. So why did I go with Engo? It actually came out under the price of the Badland (589.98 with wireless remote), and considering the internals are probably built in the same house in China I decided to go with the lowest bidder that still had the features I wanted (remote/synthetic/12k load/lifetime warranty on mechanicals). As I stated with the Lobo Skid, I have not performed a full load recovery, but I did do a neutral pull to wind up the spool properly, and have used it a couple times to pull some logs out of the tree-line on the farm (enough to drag the Bronco a little bit while parked in 4wd).
Despite having no issues using the winch itself, I would limit my initial rating to 4/5 (generous) since the solenoid mounting bracket was already cracked on arrival. Didnāt matter to me since I was relocating the solenoid, but thatās just not a good sign. Additionally the wireless remote only worked in one direction (wired remote works fine), I am still waiting on wireless remote replacement. Not a huge deal, but still annoying.
Under the hood I chose to mount the solenoid on top of the ECU thatās over by the wiper fill on the passenger side. It left plenty of room for the wiring and the solenoid itself. To do that I simply cut a 1/8" sheet of aluminum down to a rectangle suitable to mount the solenoid and wireless receiver too. The plate is thin enough that I can sandwich it between the ECU and the ECU bracket without issue. I would like to make a nice 3D printed cover for the terminals at some point, but haven't gotten to that yet.
For the wired remote I didnāt feel like needing to pop the hood in case the wireless remote quit, so I routed the plug over to the driver side and 3D printed a little low-profile mount to fasten it to the "accessory ready" hardware mounts by the mirror.
Rock Hard 4x4 Sport Deck.
I love this piece; it is an absolute essential if you are overlanding or camping semi-regularly. Sure, it does limit how you can pack gear in the back, but the ability to unpack only the lower half as needed is incredibly useful. As you can see in the picture, it sits about level to the soft top base so anything you could fit without opening the top, will fit under the shelf. Also, when sleeping in the Bronco, the shelf is a game changer, I donāt know how we stayed inside without it! That said, it's very pricey for what it is (399.95 for the Aluminum) but hard to fault it aside from the price. 5/5
Tire Carrier:
It's pretty common to upgrade the tire carrier when you go to larger tires. Unfortunately, almost all of the upgrades are either bumper mounted solutions, or additional structure bridging the tire carrier to the hinges directly. I was not interested in either of those, I already had plans for bumper mounted infrastructure, and I donāt think tire carrier to hinge structure is as critical as reducing the bending moment created by the tire. The only way to reduce the bending moment is to tuck the wheel and tire in as close to the tailgate as possible. (I have 3D printed bushing extenders to bridge the gap between the OE rubber bumper and the tire)
I went with the Havoc Off-road tire carrier because I was under the impression that the offset was shorter than the OEM. But once I got everything installed I realized the offset was actually worse! Rather than return it, I realized I could modify the 2 part design by ditching the adjustable mounting bracket, and mounting the tire directly to the base. This was really only practical for me because I have access to a Tormach 1100, and was able to cut the full pattern needed for all the mounting infrastructure into the base mount. Doing this saved me about 1.6" of offset, which pulled my wheels and tires into almost the OEM position despite having 0mm offset wheels. I want to give the Havoc Carrier a 2/5 because as received it is essentially a useless upgrade. If Havoc opted to include the mounting pattern both on the base mount and adjustable bracket, while maintaining OEM offset with the bracket, they would have a pretty sweet product.
Aside from reducing the offset for protection of the tailgate, I also wanted to minimize wasted space so I could pull my bikes in closer to the Bronco. More on that below.
Rear Bumper: (@srqfabrications )
This one started out of necessity. I crunched my rear bumper pretty good wheeling at Bundy Hill (one of my first outings with the 37's). I know that what I did would have put a nasty dent in almost all aftermarket bumpers, but I still am utterly unimpressed with how the stock bumper performed, and especially disappointed in the license plate mounting design (definitely designed by an inexperienced engineer), that interface failed back in 2021 on my first trip to Moab.
I went with SRQ fabrications (I think they are now True North Fabrications) modular rear bumper. First, I created a list of every bumper I could find, and started by eliminating any option over $1500. Well actually I started by eliminating every option near or over $1000, but there was basically Havoc, and no-one else. I was not overly enthusiastic about the Havoc so I painfully increased my budget. After that I eliminated any design that was wider than the Bronco Body, because if I am seriously wheeling, with the flares off, why on earth would I want to hook the corner of my bumper on something?
There are a few things I liked about True North/SRQ's rear bumper, it seemed competitively priced (given how expensive they all are), had a nice simple and sleek design. The only holes in the bumper are for the cool red tow hooks or optional lights. No unnecessary stealth vents/screens. I ordered the bumper with the holes/mounting interface for swing out accessories to be added at a later date. That helped keep the cost down, and I wasnāt yet sure if I would go with those bumper mount accessories, I just wanted the option available. This is my first count of great customer service from True North, no questions or complaints, they understood what I wanted and made it that way. 5/5
I should also note that I opted to buy the bumper unpainted, again to keep the cost down. I am a bit torn on this decision because I definitely saved money buying my own primer and paint, but it was also a lot of prep work and time to do a legitimately good job and even then, they probably would have done better. Regardless, I think I did pretty good! Big fan of the self-etching primer at Home Depot, I think that was the key.
Trailer Tow Harness Relocation:
I should have mentioned this as a slight complaint regarding the bumper. For some reason the True North bumper does not package around the OEM trailer plug. It's not the end of the world, and not that hard to relocate it just a tad lower. I had different ideas though, with no plans to run auxiliary lights in the bumper, I 3D printed a mounting bracket for the trailer plug to fit in. I did have to drill and file the light hole in the bumper to be slightly wider (see below) but this allowed me to fit the OEM trailer tow plug up and out of the way, and fill an otherwise unused hole. I covered the other hole with a 3D printed plate as well (you donāt even notice it). Hey True North, maybe you guys should offer this option! With the plug relocated, I just took a cut-off wheel and cut off everything on the OEM hitch outside of the chain connection to gain that little bit of clearance back.
Bike Rack:
So as I move on to the bike rack, I want to start again by talking about the bumper. Essential to the success of my custom bike rack, was the bumper mount infrastructure. I bought the bumper before I had this idea, but once I decided to make my bike rack a partial bumper mount I emailed True North. I asked if I could buy the spindle and bearing assembly that True North uses for their bumper accessories for my own project. I expected a no, because most companies want you to buy their final products. But no, Tyler from True North understood exactly what I was doing and threw together a custom invoice for all the parts needed to fab up my own bumper mount to bolt into theirs like an OE set up.
To say this saved me a ton of work is an understatement. Not only did I get to avoid fabricating the most critical part of the project, I wound up with something undoubtedly better quality. Once I received the parts, I realized that the spindle I received was for the left side when I really needed it for the right (different, but symmetric bolt pattern). This was entirely my fault because I never specified that I needed the right side. I emailed Tyler again begging for another invoice so I could get this part in before my trip to Colorado, offering to pay extra to get it shipped over the weekend. Tyler not only got the spindle shipped to me on time, he gave me the part for free. Sure, maybe he felt like he too should have known to specify left side or right side on the initial order, but that was such an easy miss. Absolute top tier service! I'll say 6/5
The bike rack itself started life as a Rocky Mounts Backstage 2. I have an initial review of the rack here: (here).
The rack itself is perfectly fine. The main reason I went with this design is that it already had the swing out design integrated, so I didnāt have to buy a rack and swing out separately. Unfortunately, due to the spare tire, I still had to purchase a hitch extension. There was only one time I kept the rack on while off-roading and that was in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Along the rocky shore of Lake Superior it became clear that the departure angle with the rack installed was extremely limited. If I wanted to bring our bikes with us on our overlanding trip in Colorado, I needed a serious upgrade in clearance.
The modification of the rack itself can be separated into 2 parts.
Part one: Lift and tuck. Simple as that, there was already a little bit of clearance to lift the rack and pull it in closer to the vehicle. But going back to the tire carrier, since I cut the mounting interface directly onto the carrier (as high as I could place it), I gained a few more inches up and forward for the bike rack.
Step 1: I cut a new hole in the hitch extender. This alone gained about an inch forward, and improved departure both at the hitch extension, and the rack itself. Side benefit, you get more beef in the receiver for an overall tighter/stiffer fit.
Step 2: I mounted the bike rack on top of the hitch extension, using a 1" bar (hallowed out) to space the bike rack as high up as I could get away with. I slightly modified the rack itself by chamfering the front face and placing a beefy plate over it. I also chamfered the trailing edge to gain just a bit of departure where that structure wasnāt needed. Welded everything up and part one was done. At this point I had already gained all the ground clearance I was going to, but I didnāt like how the swing arm still stuck out to the side. Despite being much higher than before, it was still barely higher than the bumper and I could imagine catching it on a rock or log. It's one thing if I had to drag the hitch portion down a rock, no biggy, but that swing arm would be toast with all that leverage.
Part two: New swing arm:
I committed to part 2 by cutting the swing arm off of the base bike rack which had been welded to the hitch extension. I also unbolted the actual bike rack portion which swings out on the arm. I did not want to fabricate an arm from scratch, but neither segment of the original swing arm pair was long enough to reach the bumper. So first I had to combine them into one "mega arm". I kept the side that had the mounting interface for the bike rack and trimmed off part of the bracket which the outer arm used to pivot on the inner arm which left a handy sleeve to fit them together. Next I sanded off the paint where needed, and welded them together. I used the vice and long square tube to get it as straight as possible, and also added a plate of steel to close off the back where there would have been a big opening.
Side note, to get the arm to fit properly, it needs to be the correct length accounting for two identical bends. The bumper side bend must also clear the bumper. Luckily I was able to throw some 2D sketches and planes together in 3D CAD, using tape measure and my cave man eyes to get all the geometry measured. Without CAD, I would almost certainly have to do lots of trial and error in wood or plastic before getting the length and angles right. Interestingly the pivot location in X axis (lengthwise) is almost exactly the same as the OE hitch receiver face. As you can see, you can deconstruct from the top view (complete arm) the exact length of the straight arm as well as the angle and position of the cutouts.
I was able to get the arm cutouts, bolt holes, and length trim all complete in one (long) piece of G-code. As you can see, the cut outs are limited to just over the radius of the tool, but I was able to finish the cut with a thin cut-off wheel, to make the full pizza cut leaving only the outer surface to bend. Also, you will notice that the bolt holes are very large, thatās because I actually inserted thick steel plugs into each hole to give a beefy clamp surface to the bumper swing out bracket.
The bumper swing out bracket was fairly straightforward, made easy because Tyler from True North provided all the critical hardware, all I needed to do was weld it all up with a couple steel plates, and then cut the bolt holes. One important detail was the location of the locking pin (see the threaded cylinder piggy backing the large bearing can). I wanted this to lock in place with the bracket angled precisely where it would be with the rack fully assembled.
I gently bent the arm as intended and then assembled the bike rack fully. Spot welded the arm in place, then pulled it all apart to weld the arm up fully.
From here it was all prep and paint! For Colorado I just mounted it up with typical 3/8 bolts and nylock nuts, but I noticed several times after swinging the rack open that it had drooped at the bolt interface, making it very annoying to lift back onto the base. To remedy this (after the trip) I took a few beefy 3/8's jig nuts and welded them on, both to provide more thread surface for tighter clamp, as well as tighter control of position. So far so good, wish I had done that from the start.
Going forward, and with more kids on the way, it will be unlikely I will do a lot more mountain biking on our road-trips (at least for quite a while). So I intend to convert (in some convenient reversible way) the bike rack into a storage rack. That way I can relieve the back seat interior space and move it to the hitch and bumper, and I know this set up is very off-road capable, and much stiffer/stronger than hitch only option. When the rack is not in use, I simply unbolt it and leave the swing out bracket in the open position out of the way. (you can see the paint was touched up following our colorado trip)
Since getting back from Colorado (and because I broke one shock on that trip) I have added Icon 2.5 IFP shocks, there are countless threads on those, no need for install details. I think they are the best option available for wheelers for the sole reason that they significantly increase wheel travel and run the most aggressive jounce clearance I have seen (aside from stock). I have not pushed them hard so I can't offer a full review yet, but they beg to be driven fast, and the on-road ride quality is still great (I expected degradation there actually).
I have the icons set to the lowest setting of about 1.5-2" higher than stock, so keep that in mind as you review the numbers on my bike rack clearance. Actual use in Colorado was slightly lower clearance. That departure angle is pretty solid if I do say so myself! Will make a great storage rack eventually.
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