you don't want a tubing bender, you want a mandrel tubing bender. There are only a few in the entire USA that do 3", and finding someone that will stop production on their 4X4 truck bumpers to do some for you on the side will require a lot of luck. With a Harbor Freight bender, you MAY end up with the correct angle, but it will have those nice "wrinkles" in them, which you may feel is stylish, but likely you'll think they are ghetto. That's fine for OEM exhaust tubing, but not for a tube bumper (my opinion). Similar tube bumpers were developed in the USA by us (Aircooled.Net), I had no idea that any were available at the time. I found out after we did ours http://www.aircooled.net/new-bin/viewproductdetail.php?keyword2=exg0005 http://www.aircooled.net/new-bin/viewproductdetail.php?keyword2=exg0006 that Projectwo and Volks Cafe had some. I'm biased, but feel ours are the nicest, LOL. Jim, .090" thick 3" tubing is very VERY strong, and they are not light. I also feel that if you try to bend .090" 3" tubing with a harbor freight bender, you'll also end up with the nice wrinkles in the bender (besides the tubing)! We determined the 3"/.090" to be the optimium size after a lot of homework and figuring. We have had customers with our bumpers hit stuff (or stuff hit them) and barely scratched the powdercoat; way WAY stronger then anything resembling stock bumpers. I would not go bigger or thicker on the tubing if you are going to make them yourself, but again this is my opinion. John Aircooled.Net Inc. |
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