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Attached is an image of my homebrew single tube bumper I made for my GX 335. I got to thinking about the vulnerability of the nose on the tractor, sticking way out there and being the first to strike anything, as accidents do happen, so after pricing and seeing a factory made two tube I decided to make my own.
The main support brackets are cut from 3/16" plate, and are welded to the tube. In the upper image you can see a small angle bracket attached to these main brackets inside and covered up by the usual ccover assembly for the front. This is to provide an additional mounting point and give lateral support to the bumper assembly. All brackets utilize original all ready drilled holes in the tractor and no new holes were drilled. The bumper itself is a nice heavy duty piece of steel tube that used to be a support for a piece of exercise equipment I scrounged. It is approximately 11 gauge in thickness, pretty darn nice and heavy tube. I had considered making it a two tube design like JD, but this one haevier diam and wall thickness tube (as compared to OEM JD bumper) is as strong or stronger and two tubes woud have been more work for no real gain. Just running aorund the field etc has shown the bottom of the bumper to take a lot of scratches etc and keep the brambles etc away from the paainted plastic pieces just fine., otherwise these scratches would have wound up on that front plastic cover. and grill. I had opted to weld the ends of the tube with a cap but turned some brass castings I made that are just pressed into the bumpers tube ends. I am thinking of adding a plate to the tube to allow utilizing it for a hitch for a trailer ball or pin so I can easily manuver some of my trailers and other equipment around easier than hooking them on the back. Another project another day.
The main support brackets are cut from 3/16" plate, and are welded to the tube. In the upper image you can see a small angle bracket attached to these main brackets inside and covered up by the usual ccover assembly for the front. This is to provide an additional mounting point and give lateral support to the bumper assembly. All brackets utilize original all ready drilled holes in the tractor and no new holes were drilled. The bumper itself is a nice heavy duty piece of steel tube that used to be a support for a piece of exercise equipment I scrounged. It is approximately 11 gauge in thickness, pretty darn nice and heavy tube. I had considered making it a two tube design like JD, but this one haevier diam and wall thickness tube (as compared to OEM JD bumper) is as strong or stronger and two tubes woud have been more work for no real gain. Just running aorund the field etc has shown the bottom of the bumper to take a lot of scratches etc and keep the brambles etc away from the paainted plastic pieces just fine., otherwise these scratches would have wound up on that front plastic cover. and grill. I had opted to weld the ends of the tube with a cap but turned some brass castings I made that are just pressed into the bumpers tube ends. I am thinking of adding a plate to the tube to allow utilizing it for a hitch for a trailer ball or pin so I can easily manuver some of my trailers and other equipment around easier than hooking them on the back. Another project another day.
