MOWrangler

I got this thing today and was able to put it on in about an hour. There weren't too many gotcha's, but here is my thoughts.

To take the bumper off, there are 2 bolts on each side right behind the rear wheel, and then two on the back on each side of the hitch. Save the bolts, as you will need them to mount the RR brackets. (sorry, no pics of this step as I didn't have my camera out, but you will see the same mounts during installation below)

It came in a large box and was listed on the loading sheet as weighing 108 lbs. The box was long enough that it barely fit in the back of my unlimited with the front seat pushed all the way up and the rear seat laying down flat. I'd guess it was somewhere around 7' x 3' x 1' deep. The bumper was well packed and nothing was rattling around in the box.



It was completely assembled, so the first step was actually do disassemble it and remove the brackets from the bumper. Once you broke the bolts loose with a ratchet or wrench, they were easy to remove with your fingers. This also took the D-Rings off.



Then you mounted the brackets on the frame. They kind of need to be lifted up and angled into place so that the mount for the middle bolt is in the correct place.



Here is the drivers side middle bolt (behind the muffler) followed by the passengers side bolt.





One gotcha on this step... the passenger side bracket has an extra piece of metal and bolt attached. I didn't notice this until having it in place, so I had to take it apart and do it again to make the bumper fit on the brackets correctly. This metal piece will go inside of the frame and gives that side another mount since it will eventually house the tire carrier.



On all of the mounts above, I did not get them totally tight for this step because I wanted a little play for when I set the bumper on., The nice thing is that the bumper sets on top of the brackets in a way that you only have to worry about lining up the holes and not holding up the bumper. I did have to use a punch to get the holes lined up to start one set of bolts through the D-Ring and bumper to get to the bracket. It was off by about 1/2 the width of the bolt, so not a major deal but for those of you perfectionists, it did require a little muscle power to get things perfectly lined up.



Last but not least, here are a few pics of it installed. It was dark by this point, so they aren't that great. I'll try to get more tomorrow...









I felt that the fit of the bumper is really good and for the money it would be really hard to beat. Next on my list is to get the rear tire carrier for this bumper, but it hasn't been produced yet so I guess I'll have to be patient. I'd give this one a big

Offroad

Nice. Thanks for the write-up I'll keep it handy for when my bumper arrives...

Breaktrack

Now that looks like a bumper that will be useful. Did you feel like the mounting method will support being pulled on pretty hard?

Mac

tomb raider

Looks like a good bumper, May I ask what it cost

jonnyringo893

glad to see that these bumpers are starting to ship out!!! just wish mine would get here already!!! not sure what he paid but i got mine for a little over $400 from 4wd

MOWrangler

I got mine from 4WS for $357.94 w/ free shipping (have the receipt here on my desk), but since I ordered it Omix-Ada upped the prices on their stuff. I have seen them going for $450-500 at the various vendors and 4WS has it for around $510 shipped when I checked on the tire carrier earlier today.

tomb raider

Thank you, where is 4ws out of?

MOWrangler

Springfield, MO. They have a really nice JK with a hemi and do a lot of hemi swaps or kits to install the hemis. The upgrade is WAY out of my price range right now, but it is pretty amazing that they are able to wheel pretty hard on the D30/D44 combo with alloy shafts.

tomb raider

I will have to check them out thank You

MOWrangler

Here's a few shots in daylight