Bit of an update for others currently making rear bumpers: ;-)
So whereas most swing outs have the shaft held in place just at the bottom with nice big nut to tighten the hool lot down, because of the way I cut my bumper into the rear of the truck, I felt I needed my pivot point directly on the bumper meaning it would be lower & more inboard, therefore, my design had to be more of a 'cassette' arrangement... With hindsight, I could have designed this with the spindle in a more 'traditional' position but I'd got this so fixed in my head... No way back ;-) Doing it the traditional way would have moved the arm out of the way more for letting the tailgate drop down - I have been very restricted in how I could design the arm...
The housing is built from 6mm steel profiles; I had bearing collars machined top & bottom (in hindsight, this would be one machined part...) & Col welded in a bit of tube for me. The housing was then built around the bearing hub & a 20mm dia pin drops through the lot. The bearings are simple ball bearings in races...
It needs painting...
I have had problems with holding the arm in place but I think I am close to sorting it now. This is how I mounted the toggle clamp to start off with:
Clamp on bumper; clip on arm; no positive location despite fitting all manner of packers between clamp, clip, arm, testicles, anything that moved!!! Load o' old rubbish - lots of blue rope...
MkII
Clamp on arm, clip on bumper, new RSA cleat added to bumper c/w some sort of plastic as a wear strip; bracket on arm that held the clip now superfluous & soon to be removed. Once the clip is in place, I hope that the friction force exerted by the clamp on the arm onto the cleat on the bumper will hold the arm in place. However, as a backup, I have bought one of these sprung loaded shoot bolts
that I'm sure will lock that arm in place once fitted. Configuration usure at the moment but it'll lock bumper to arm positively...
This kind of thing (or sommat like) that is used to hold drop down sides on flatbed trucks in place might proove a suitable alternative too:
In the meantime, blue rope!!!
Hoping this assists in some manner
![Cool :cool: :cool:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)