Last summer while camping with a friend who has a beautiful 2011 F350 SD. We were all hooking up to leave when we heard a bang. My friend had misjudged his approach while backing to hook-up his trailer and the trailer hitch hit the bumper squarely on the chrome metal part putting in a very deep and large dent it it. Needless to say he was almost sick about it and the thought of having to get a new bumper.
This episode made me appreciate the bumper all the more on my truck. I have myself done the same thing a few times when backing to hook-up my equipment trailer over the years with no damage or at worst some chipped paint on the bumper. Also you can add getting rear-ended twice at between 20 and 30 mph by cars. The first was by a lady in a 1969 Dodge Polara on a freeway on-ramp when I was stopped and was waiting for a little old lady in front of me to finally decide it was safe to merge on the freeway. Too late the lady in the Polara saw that we were stopped and slammed into the back of me. She hit me so hard the whole front end of her Dodge was destroyed with the hood folded in half. Her car was totaled, but luckily she was not injured. After seeing her car I thought the back of my truck must be destroyed also. So I was surprised when I got out to looked that the only damage was a small dent at the very bottom of the tailgate and some marks and chips in the silver paint on the bumper.
The next time my bumper was tested was by two surfer dudes in an old VW slicing and dicing their way through freeway traffic when they misjudge the gap and slammed into the back of me. This time there was no damage at all to my truck not even a chip in the paint. They were both unhurt but the VW's front end was pretty well smashed in but they were able to still drive it away after the accident.
The last time my bumper was tested (and hopefully never again) was when I was backing out of a parking space at a local McDonald's and I did not see a new 3 foot high, 8" metal post filled with concrete put in place to keep people from driving through the landscaped islands in the parking lot. Since it was lower than my tailgate I did not see it till after hitting it. When I finally saw the post, it was bent over at about 33 degrees with it's 3 foot wide concrete base also pulled out of the ground. This time I was sure there had to be some damage to the bumper. Much to my surprise except for some yellow post paint on the bumper there was none.
So my old painted bumper is not one of the nicest looking ones. But it is one of the toughest.
This episode made me appreciate the bumper all the more on my truck. I have myself done the same thing a few times when backing to hook-up my equipment trailer over the years with no damage or at worst some chipped paint on the bumper. Also you can add getting rear-ended twice at between 20 and 30 mph by cars. The first was by a lady in a 1969 Dodge Polara on a freeway on-ramp when I was stopped and was waiting for a little old lady in front of me to finally decide it was safe to merge on the freeway. Too late the lady in the Polara saw that we were stopped and slammed into the back of me. She hit me so hard the whole front end of her Dodge was destroyed with the hood folded in half. Her car was totaled, but luckily she was not injured. After seeing her car I thought the back of my truck must be destroyed also. So I was surprised when I got out to looked that the only damage was a small dent at the very bottom of the tailgate and some marks and chips in the silver paint on the bumper.
The next time my bumper was tested was by two surfer dudes in an old VW slicing and dicing their way through freeway traffic when they misjudge the gap and slammed into the back of me. This time there was no damage at all to my truck not even a chip in the paint. They were both unhurt but the VW's front end was pretty well smashed in but they were able to still drive it away after the accident.
The last time my bumper was tested (and hopefully never again) was when I was backing out of a parking space at a local McDonald's and I did not see a new 3 foot high, 8" metal post filled with concrete put in place to keep people from driving through the landscaped islands in the parking lot. Since it was lower than my tailgate I did not see it till after hitting it. When I finally saw the post, it was bent over at about 33 degrees with it's 3 foot wide concrete base also pulled out of the ground. This time I was sure there had to be some damage to the bumper. Much to my surprise except for some yellow post paint on the bumper there was none.
So my old painted bumper is not one of the nicest looking ones. But it is one of the toughest.
