Can anyone tell me about this step bumper? (Aftermarket?)

Safetyguy said:

Had a guy that I worked with in the mid '70s. He bought a new Ford (Horrors!) pick up. It had no rear bumper. He got pulled over by CHP or local PD and given a ticket for "No Bumper". I told i to take it back to the 'stealer' show them the ticket and complain. He took it back to the stealer and they put one on for him. True story!

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That’s an actual ticket in TN currently… Fortunately, they don’t care what actually is back there. My K1500 had Schedule 40 black iron pipe cut in half, backed with 3/4” steel and core filled with “fish plates” used to hold railroad rails together… About 300lbs of “you really do not want to rearend this truck”… Front bumper was 5” structural I-beam faced with heart pine 4x6s on railroad tie plates…

My 85 has stock bumpers, but also has a tag bracket/light combo on the driver rear corner. Have never seen a pre-1995 Chevy truck w/o that bracket combo…

Scruffy49 said:

That’s an actual ticket in TN currently… Fortunately, they don’t care what actually is back there. My K1500 had Schedule 40 black iron pipe cut in half, backed with 3/4” steel and core filled with “fish plates” used to hold railroad rails together… About 300lbs of “you really do not want to rearend this truck”… Front bumper was 5” structural I-beam faced with heart pine 4x6s on railroad tie plates…

My 85 has stock bumpers, but also has a tag bracket/light combo on the driver rear corner. Have never seen a pre-1995 Chevy truck w/o that bracket combo…

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Wow, why? I’d just concentrate more on not running into schitt than to design and install 600lbs worth of bumpers. And maybe a trailer hitch which is also useful for towing when it’s not protecting from rear end collisions.
I got a truck with a back bumper like that once. aside from being ugly AF ANd blocking access to install a proper trailer hitch receiver (vs the hole torched in the bumper beam), it was also like 300lbs.
Painted the truck right before moving x country. Ended up digging a hole and burying that monstrosity next to the driveway. Couldn’t leave it for the new home owners that just signed on our house and wasn’t going to spend 2 hrs and a potential hernia taking it to recycle…lol.

Was built by a now deceased friend for use on his cattle farm, no such thing as a “ranch” east of the MS River. Truck has a proper Class 4 frame mounted receiver hitch that is getting swapped to the front of my K3500.

The K1500, The Shipwreckrolet, cost me $300 in 2013, running and drivable with working 4wd. It is now a parts roach, as those f’n hydroformed frame rails under the firewall are rotten, as is the rear axle. It is donating the following parts, to the following: 1985 C10- rear gears, hotrodded 350, any power door guts that cross over; 1969 D100- gas tank, fuel filler door graft, body patches, door patches, sawblade 6 lug wheels on 80s K10 f/r axles, possibly seat (graft onto 69 factory frame), stereo and speakers, rear seatbelts (69 cab is 3 point ready, stock); 1999 K3500- receiver hitch (front mount, temp until hidden winch mount arrives), movable winch cradle; 1975 Kubota L1501 rice paddy tractor- f/r bumpers cut down for front ballast weights; 1970s Massey Ferguson 165- front LT265/75r16E HT steer tires.

Waste not want not. I was a SeaBee, improvise adapt and overcome.