Well I got out and mounted up the new rear bumper today. Not really that difficult a job. I will get some pic's up tomorrow. The bumper is nicely made, heavy gusseting/bracing, and a nice slightly "crinkle" powdercoat finish. Complete with all hardware to mount it up.
I ended up using a hole saw to be able to get to the upper bumper mounting bolts. One lower bolt's "clip nut" broke, and just spun around with the bolt so I used the hole saw to cut the bumper loose from that bolt. Then the bumper came right off. I used an impact and the bumper brackets came off easy enough. I was told the nuts were NOT welded on, suprise they are so I had to reuse the stock bolts. I had intended on using 7/16" grade 8 bolts instead.
The nut strips were another thing, a REAL pain the arse! I soaked them with Blaster didn't do much. I found that the hitch bolts were put on with Locktite after I got one out. Things got easier when I used a propane torch to heat the bolts. They came out fairly easy after that. You reuse the right side nut strip as it has 2 nuts that the exhaust hanger mounts to. I had to cut off the part of the strip that extends outside the frame since the Tomken bumper bolts up flush with the rear panel under the hatch.
Tomken didn't mention about the filler strip between the bumper and the body, but I decided to remount it to fill in the gap left. Figured that it keeps mud, and especially salt from building up on the lower part of the hatch.
The bumper also has 2 steel plates that are tapped for 1/2" bolts that fit inside the frame. There are 2 braces that bolt up there, and extend out to and bolt up to the bottom of the bumper. So all in all there are 10 bolts holding the bumper on. As far as the receiver on the bumper, it is braced pretty well, and I called Tomken and asked about the rating, and he said somewhere between a class 2 and class 3. So pretty close to the rating on a factory hitch.
I decided to go ahead and get the steel endcaps since they were on sale. I don't have them yet, should be here Monday. There are small "filler" brackets that come with the bumper if you wanted to use the stock plastic endcaps. They would stick out farther than the steel one's so the filler would fill that gap. They require drilling 4 small holes in the bumper, and I didn't want to do that since the steel ones are coming. BTW, the steel caps would cover those 4 holes if you went with them at a later date.
Now, my plan is to save up and get the tire carrier later this winter.
The bumper itself is 2X6 rectangular steel, 3/16" thick I think. The mounts are square steel tubing coming off the bumper, and 1/4" thick plate to the frame with the 4 bolts that held the stock bumper on. Plus the 2 braces that bolt thru the frame to the 1/4" thick, probably 2X2" "nut plates" where the nut strips used to be, and the braces are bolted to the bottom of the bumper. I don't think it's going anywhere.
I was going to take pic's while I was doing it, but found my camera batteries were dead. I wsn't going to stop working on it just to go buy new batteries. I'll post up some pic's tomorrow.
Well the endcaps arrived today, 12/18. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow morning?
Just like the bumper, very stout, nicely made. To mount I need to drill 2 holes in the bumper per side, and then 2 holes per side in the lower lip of the quarter panels. I remounted the filler strip, but see I will have to trim it back from the bumper ends since the endcaps fit VERY tight on the bumper. Since 2 of the holes in the strip I used were near the ends, I'm going to have to remove the bumper, trim the filler strip, and reattach the ends. My bad, not Tomken's.
I'll get some pic's up asap.
Now if the money would fall from the sky for the tire carrier....
Inside view of the endcap shows how it slips on the end of the bumper.
Here is the location of the mounting holes on the bumper ends.
Here is where it bolts up to the quarter panel. There are holes for 2 per side, but only one lined up with the lower lip.
Everything bolted up.
Everything from Tomken was top notch, all holes lined up. Any drilling that needed to be done came with complete, and ACCURATE instructions for locating the holes.