I'm thinking of building my own rear bumper (working on a front stubby winch mount right now). I was checking out the diagram from the rear in the service manual (and peeking at it through the fender wells), and I was wondering about the mounting locations -- or lack thereof.

Basically, it looks like there are only six bolts holding the bumper on, four of which are at the end of these long and weak-looking flanges. I'm nervous about building a bumper with D-ring mounts to use as a winching surface (or even a jacking point) using only these mounting locations, but not knowing anything about this, I'd like to follow the lead of other aftermarket options out there.

For folks who have installed one of these, do they do anything fancy, or just use the bolts labeled 1 and 3 in this diagram:

 

Your missing the other 4 bolts.. There are 2 on each side..(on flanges) Those #2 & 3's stay on the plastic bumper part your removing..
After you have the old bumper off you will see more places to run bolts thru.. Depending if you have the factory hitch or not.. No hitch and you will have up to about 8 places to bolt to.. With the hitch, about 6... So.. I wouldn't worry...
I just replaced my rear with a Bestop steel and love it.. ( Down the road, and had I thought about it more I would have gone for the swing away carrier..)

 

I'll bump this back up for ya.

I'm finishing up a rear bumper and am curious how the aftermarket has attached theirs. Anybody got any pics of the brackets?

 

This rear frame section is much easier than most to mount to, there is actually a good amount of stout places to catch for mounting. You just have to take the shell of and look.

Nick