Good lord, how much do you weigh if you think 'you' can test the
strength of a bumper by jumping on it?

You 'are' talking towing something the legal limit for the vehicle, on
your website, 'not' a trailer and load under 1000 lb at all, but a 1000
lb boat 'plus' a trailer and most folks put gear in the boat.....

I got pulled over in Canada using a real DOT 'certified' trailer hitch
that wasn't rated heavy enough for the trailer I was pulling and I was
forced to drop the trailer on the road and wait for a tow truck at 3:00
AM. The cop luckily knew my passenger so didn't write me up the
$1000.00 in tickets he itemized for me....

You are talking about an unrated homemade hitch on a bumper that is not
tow rated at all. Phone your local DOT or highway patrol and ask about
that...

I don't really care, but a little shot of safety reality has to be
mentioned before too many people go out and copy your bad idea. This is
a world wide web after all.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Jan/06 http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2115147590
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

Richard J Kinch wrote:

Mike Romain writes:

If you get pulled over by the highway patrol, you will/should get
busted for something as dumb as that. Not meaning to be a jerk or
anything but Wow...

Jerk or not, your legal opinion is baloney.

http://www.google.com/search?q=florida+statutes+316.530

Show me where hitch ratings have any legal significance in traffic laws.

The bumper isn't rated for towing or even jacking up under so
technically that is an illegal hitch, let alone an unsafe one.

The stock bumper is essentially a 3 x 4.5 inch 3.5-sided 13 gage steel
box beam 50 inches long. Maybe someone can calculate the strength of
this member.

We're talking about towing a small rig under 1000 lbs, not dragging the
universe behind.

My mechanical intuition is that it is plenty strong when properly
fitted. It doesn't visibly flex when I jump on the step.