i wanted to tell y'all about a project that i've been working on for the
past few weeks. "tow brackets" for the front of my ford ranger pick up.
(i'm not going to use them as tow brackets but as a "hard point" to hang a
(removable) ladder rack on.) (and maybe also a "get-out-of-my-way" ram with
spikes on it) first pic is of a commercially available tow bracket. costs
somewhere around $350. i didn't want to spend that kind of money on it.
i'm assuming it actually ended up costing more to build it myself in time
and energy... but cost less in materials, and since i had the tools
available (except i broke my hitachi jigsaw and treated myself to a new
bosch jigsaw and i wanted to say to you guys as a "product review" i'm
entirely pleased with it, it's a NICE jigsaw model 1590EVSK). well, so,
first pic is the commercially available version. second pic is the back
view of the copy i made, third pic is the front view.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/bracket.JPG
http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/bracketback.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/bracketfront.jpg

i think they used 5/16" plate (or maybe even 1/2") on the main part but i
wanted to use 1/4" so i made that "truncated pyramid" thing to reinforce the
skinny part of the main plate. that gaping hole in their version is to go
around a bulge in the front part of the truck frame and behind a bracket in
the front bumper.

i was pleased with the way mine turned out, i mean, they're not PERFECT, but
hopefully strong enough to do what i want them to do. i bolted 'em on my
truck a couple days ago. next is to make the ladder rack. (i wanna make
the ladder rack look as if it was drawn up by the guy(s) who designed this
model year ranger. no square straight lines or right angles but smooth
flowing curves.)

b.w.