BDX Bumper Cracking Tunnel

[ACMtnCat]

There are some 09's doing it also.

Where? Havent seen any. We saw the one video of the guy who just got his turbo and was doing wheelies in early snow fall and digging/slamming the rear bumper into the GROUND not snow but DIRT AND ROCKS. That folding/bending is to be expected with abuse like that.

I haven't seen any or heard of any in my neck of the woods.

When I cut my tunnel I was VERY couscous to make that area/cut perfect. Envisioning it breaking at this spot. A nice SOFT CURVE CUT like the stock tunnel will make it tuff and durable. I have had some serious weight on my tunnel and have yanked the crap out of it getting unstuck a bunch and have NO signs of fatigue there at the "breaking" point.

 

[JasonAK]

Also, where are your rivets? They are supposed to go from the inside of the bumper through the tunnel and end inside the bumper. Kinda sandwiching the tunnel between the bumper. That way the rivets go through 3 pieces of material. I don't see any rivets in this picture

The rivets are right above the top edge of the bumper, they go though the tunnel and into the bumper tube on the other side. That is the same way that I did mine. I believe that is what the instructions said to do.

Jason

 

[1080paul]

BigRed118



If you put the rivets though the bumper you won't even catch any of the tunnel. The grove in the bumper isn't very deep. Look at moutain Mikes pics his is mounted the same way as I did it.

 

[christian]

Summer plans in works....quick little drawing for you do it yourselfer's...

1/8 plate for sides and back piece, rivot in a thin flimsy top like stock material. This should lock all four corners nice and tight from the rear suspension to the bumper. And take away the excesive flex by the cooler area.

I going to intregrate mine to fit the BDX bumber and foot pegs. And notches to fit th 09 AC flap/tail light... I just like the look of the bdx parts better than anything I have seen.

 

[jtt454]

BDX is a good company and I'm sure they will find a fix and hopefully help us out in someway!!

This time I rolled the bottom of the tunnel and left the bottom straight and not cut the tunnel up at the angle. To me this should be the fix because if you think about it when the tunnel is cut up at an angle and lift up on the bumper the stress is right in between the end of the bumper and the bracket. And if you make it straight your lifting on the whole tunnel, so it should be stronger at least I hope. but its defintally an expinsive and time consuming fix but got it done and heading to Montana Saturday morning!!

 

[savage]

BDX Bumper solution

A good solution is the bumper at Van Amburg, visit:

http://vanamburgonline.com/index.html/

 

[mtn mike on boost]

Where? Havent seen any. We saw the one video of the guy who just got his turbo and was doing wheelies in early snow fall and digging/slamming the rear bumper into the GROUND not snow but DIRT AND ROCKS. That folding/bending is to be expected with abuse like that.

I haven't seen any or heard of any in my neck of the woods.

When I cut my tunnel I was VERY couscous to make that area/cut perfect. Envisioning it breaking at this spot. A nice SOFT CURVE CUT like the stock tunnel will make it tuff and durable. I have had some serious weight on my tunnel and have yanked the crap out of it getting unstuck a bunch and have NO signs of fatigue there at the "breaking" point.

you probably havent seen any failures and mike at bdx didnt anticipate any because your snow is so dry....take a skid full of Utah pow, and weight it against a skid full of wet washington concrete.probably at least a 50# difference imo....mm

 

[ACMtnCat]

you probably havent seen any failures and mike at bdx didnt anticipate any because your snow is so dry....take a skid full of Utah pow, and weight it against a skid full of wet washington concrete.probably at least a 50# difference imo....mm

Your probably right there. We have had some of that heavy snow this year tho. I have been stuck more ALLOT MORE this year w/Power Claw then last year w/Extrem 2.5" track. Digging to China stucks!!!

I had a 240# guy sit on/crush my rear bumper bottoming out the suspension then bounce up and down on the tunnel. That along with all the super stuck this year is proof to me that the stock '09 tunnels are strong!!! Like German women!

 

[lynxer292b]

Maybe if you guys just bought a VE tunnel extension or bumper you wouldn't have any of these problems. The BDX bumper looks weak and obviously is. If some of you guys are affraid of putting your sled on a warm up stand because of your ***** bumper that you paid 200.00 for that is BS. Now you are making little brackets to mend your tunnels back together. It's really to bad. I don't know anyone from BDX or VE I just look at the products and look at how much stronger and better designed the VE stuff looks than the BDX stuff. It costs just a little bit more to go first class. VE=1st class just go look at it.

http://vanamburgonline.com

 

[JasonAK]

Maybe if you guys just bought a VE tunnel extension or bumper you wouldn't have any of these problems. The BDX bumper looks weak and obviously is. If some of you guys are affraid of putting your sled on a warm up stand because of your ***** bumper that you paid 200.00 for that is BS. Now you are making little brackets to mend your tunnels back together. It's really to bad. I don't know anyone from BDX or VE I just look at the products and look at how much stronger and better designed the VE stuff looks than the BDX stuff. It costs just a little bit more to go first class. VE=1st class just go look at it.

http://vanamburgonline.com

Lynxer292b,

The VE Bumper Kit was not even designed when some of us got our Bdx kits. If fact the new factory 09 stuff was not even out yet.

Jason

 

[M-niner]

Maybe if you guys just bought a VE tunnel extension or bumper you wouldn't have any of these problems. The BDX bumper looks weak and obviously is. If some of you guys are affraid of putting your sled on a warm up stand because of your ***** bumper that you paid 200.00 for that is BS. Now you are making little brackets to mend your tunnels back together. It's really to bad. I don't know anyone from BDX or VE I just look at the products and look at how much stronger and better designed the VE stuff looks than the BDX stuff. It costs just a little bit more to go first class. VE=1st class just go look at it.

http://vanamburgonline.com

I had a VE bumper on my old M. Looks cool, but sled still drug it's *** in the deep snow. No "kicked-up" taper. Looked cool but other than that, it didn't do nothing for the sled.

The BDX serves a purpose. I figure it gave me 4 more inches of clearance in the back. Although it may allow the sled to trench a little more it times, it also gives the sled a chance to get some track speed to pop you back up on top without dragging the *** and slowing it down. I have jerked, lifted, and tail slapped the crap out of this BDX bumper and haven't had a problem yet. After seeing some of the pics I think a couple brackets and tacking the foot holds to the bumper will be in order.

 

[lynxer292b]

VE

Or you do like this guy did by adding the VE extension for 385. All of your problems are solved and it looks bad A$$

 

[m8magicandmystery]

we have this bdx mod cause we tinker..unfortunately some have some regrettable damage..thankfully they posted to make us aware...bottom line is that bdx will likely have a solution ..but if not their will be 10 ways to sunday to reinforce this weak spot...and its no skin probably off most anyones butt cause if we wern;t tinkerers we wouldn;t have gotten the mod in the first place

 

[sunbather1969]

ve kit

thanks mike

 

[Uller]

I had a VE bumper on my old M. Looks cool, but sled still drug it's *** in the deep snow. No "kicked-up" taper. Looked cool but other than that, it didn't do nothing for the sled.

The BDX serves a purpose. I figure it gave me 4 more inches of clearance in the back. Although it may allow the sled to trench a little more it times, it also gives the sled a chance to get some track speed to pop you back up on top without dragging the *** and slowing it down. I have jerked, lifted, and tail slapped the crap out of this BDX bumper and haven't had a problem yet. After seeing some of the pics I think a couple brackets and tacking the foot holds to the bumper will be in order.

M-Niner,

You got the wrong VE piece. They made a new piece that allows you to cut the horizontal portion of the stock running boards off just like the BDX bumper. The end cap is very similar to your version. There is a pic of it in an earlier post on this thread.

I should have gone with ???

http://vanamburgonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=48&products_id=232

I went this route when I did mine. I also incorporated the BDX foot supports. In total it was a little more expensive than the BDX kit but, much, much stronger.

I trimmed the end of my tunnel to allow the VE bumper to extend over the rivets for the front portion of the tunnel that go thru the suspension support bracket. So, essentially my bumper connects to the bracket via 6 rivets and also ties the tail section to the front tunnel section. Very strong IMO. Oh, and it allows the rear of the tunnel to cut through the snow like butter. I can't tell you how many times I haven't gotten stuck this season just because of this bumper mod. It just keeps cutting down to firmer snow layers. And I didn't think that my M7 could get any better.....................

Here is the best pic of it I could find (Crater Lake just after X-mas of 08)

 

[1080paul]

The only down side I can see to the VE bumper is it looks like the handle is right in front of the tail light. Not a big deal.

Anyone have a pic of it from behind with the 2009 tail light?

Uller

That is a great picture!!

 

[harf69]

VE

I did the same thing but I was worried thar if I got rear eanded or something i would only have to replace the rear tunnel section instead of the whole tunnel

 

[Uller]

The only down side I can see to the VE bumper is it looks like the handle is right in front of the tail light. Not a big deal.

Anyone have a pic of it from behind with the 2009 tail light?

Uller

That is a great picture!!

I didn't use the 09 tail light. I thought it was too big, cost too much, and didn't look very "custom". I used a led light from Bluhm Enterprises (I think that is it). It fits real tight to the bumper (pleanty of room for the hands for grabbing the bumper) and looks good IMO.

IMO a "mod" doesn't get "stock" parts. That is an upgrade.

Here is another for you.

 

[harper]

The first time i saw that BDX kit I thought -

If I get that kit i'll never be able to tow my buddies out of the woods if they break down.

Anyone try and tow another sled with that kit?

 

[backcountryislife]

The first time i saw that BDX kit I thought -

If I get that kit i'll never be able to tow my buddies out of the woods if they break down.

Anyone try and tow another sled with that kit?

done it a number of times.

Last year a buddy towed me out because I was a dumbass & went the wrong way on the low end with my bd box.
He was supposed to go slow, so I didn't have my helmet on (way warm day too) at one point he forgot I was there & hammered it. I went into a tree & totalled my 07.

soooo, the sled towing me had a bdx bumper & didn't have a scratch on it or the least bit of bend.

I think that much of the problem comes down to how they were installed. after this thread I have looked under a lot of them & seen HUGE differences in how they were done. I'm not saying everyone with a problem is an idiot that screwed them up, just that idiocy help the problem along!!! (And I should take pics of the one I saw today, WOW.)