The time has come to start planning for bumpers.

[MrSmithsTB]

Time to start getting serious. I have been doing some thinking about which direction to go with bumpers. I know I want to upgrade both front and rear and I have been leaning towards doing full tube. I've also been looking both into either doing fully custom bumpers or fabbing brackets to adapt production bumpers. Based on the fitment of Teebees front bumper, I have been leaning towards picking up these:




Or this if I want to option of adding a winch:


They look very simple and easily adaptable and based on the price, I will be able to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.

[Trail X]

Make sure your mounting horns are up to the task... don't go bolting them in half-ass!

[MrSmithsTB]

Based on those bumpers, the idea is to fabricate and weld brackets to them that will attach to our factory locations. Doing it this way, they can be placed exactly where they will work with the 2" body lift. Strutcural integrity will not be an issue.

[chevycrew]

One thing to consider with this style of bumper. The outer tube up by the headlight has no support, if you hit a tree, or rock, that tube will just fold in and still allow the headlight to get smashed. If you can add a leg from the outer point back the the frame it should help a bunch.


My fender and marker light were casualties. Here are before and after photos:

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[MrSmithsTB]

Thank you for the feedback. The thing I like about it is that its a blank canvas and for the price, I won't cringe so much and cutting it up to mod it.

[fishsticks]

Wow...that thing looks a lot like my bumper.

[MrSmithsTB]

Wow...that thing looks a lot like my bumper.

Indeed it does. It's simple and i love it. And using the first one, I should be able to integrate a top plate in the modification to serve as a winch mount.

[MrSmithsTB]

Ok, so further research has indicated that TJ and YJ Jeeps have front frame horns incredibly similar to ours concerning size, shape, and placement. Knowing this, the bumper I will soon order is the Smittybuilt SRC bumper. Shown here(apologies for picturing a Jeep ) :


It looks like I will be making one of three modifications to make it fit. I will either have to drill new holes in the frame horns, cut the frame to recess the bumper enough to use stock mounts, or have some flat stock welded on the top and bottom of the bumper in order to extend the mounting points back. I am seriously considering option 3, as I will be able to add a flat plate across the entire top and have it predrilled to fit a winch(should I want to add one in the future. However, there should be enough room to add one regardless of which attachment method I use.

Best part is that the savings from using this will allow me to order the rad skid from Mike @ the same time, instead of having to do one and then the other. That and I think the full tube will look badass.