Removable rear bumper?

[Brian VT]

My truck has some square tubing that sticks out the side of the bed. Underneath. I guess they are tie downs for an in-bed camper. Today I noticed that my rear bumper has some pins. Would this be to remove the bumper for the camper or is it OEM and serves another purpose?

 

[Nero]

Certainly looks that way, that's not the factory bumper supports in there.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

It's not OEM. That much is sure.

 

[Nero]

My guess is it's for a camper where the hangover the bed goes further down than the bumper. Must be a very specific application, cause my camper fits on just fine with my bumper right where it's at.

 

[Jesus Freak]

It kinda cool whatever it's for. You could have different bumpers for different occasions. Like towing, or shoving, or accommodating a camper, racing bumpers like the dodges Richard Petty used to drive, or weddings....... that's cool, man.

 

[Brian VT]

I'll have to mess with it one of these days and get more details.

 

[gandalf]

When I put my cabover camper on my '86 I had to remove the rear bumper. Otherwise a holding tank would hit the bumper. The only other option was to place some plywood in the truck bed to lift the entire camper enough for the holding tank to clear the bumper.

 

[Nero]

I have to do that trick to keep the cabover part from rubbing the roof of my cab

 

[gandalf]

I have to do that trick to keep the cabover part from rubbing the roof of my cab

There was a model year change at some year with Ford (I don't remember the year) where the cab apparently was made taller. People with older cabover campers had the problem you've described.

 

[snicklas]

It could also be a “slide” for the rear bumper. Lat’s say you have an 11’ Camper. The bumper would be 2+ feet in front of the rear of the Camper. You might be able to pull those pins, and slide the bumper back to another set of holes, and then the bumper would be even with the back of the camper. I know that IH had something like that for the camper special packages on the IH Pickups….

 

[Brian VT]

Ah. Then you could pull a trailer while the in-bed camper is on.