re-mounting rear bumper

[pasty63]

The rear bumper on my truck had been whacked severely at some point by the previous owner. I don't if they backed into something or were rear ended. It is one of those really heavy step bumpers that are about 1/4" thick with the 1/4" plate supporting the ball mount. The top of the step is maybe 16 ga steel. It was mounted on a monsterous camper slider assembly that was bolted to the frame rails just behind the last crossmember. The bumper is still in good shape. I figured I'd remove the ball and weld a 2" receiver below the ball plate and a couple of shackle hangers on the inside for tow points - and give it a coat of paint. I took the slider rails off (they're tweaked a bit) and will recycle them. The frame channels just aft of the last crossmember are torqued (from the bottom up) to the passenger side almost an inch. What's the best way to square the rail ends up before I make my new mounts? I don't want to remove the bed if I don't have to.

Thanks.

[foghorn]

If you had the bed off you could just whack them back in line with a sledge hammer.




Foggy

[1971ford]

i dont know if this will help any because its not about the end rails really but...
i had the same setup on my truck when i got it. when i got it, it had the really strong step bumper with ball mount (bumper still on truck), and it had some metal thing that extended the bumper 2 feet out. it looked rediculous in my opinion. so i took off the bumper (damn, that was heavy!) and i took off the extension setup. then i got a ice chest that was about level with the rear frame, and bolted it up.
hope this helped in someway.

[flyboy2610]

FYI: The slider assembly was installed on some trucks as an option, so that when a camper was installed in the bed, the bumper could be pulled back to be at the very back of the truck again.

[1971ford]

i dont want to hijack this thread but,
thats interesting. mine wasnt a slider.