I recently had the pleasure of someone backing into my OEM rear bumper. I used this as an excuse to upgrade to the Rugged Ridge XHD rear and modular front bumper.

At first I was very pleased with this product. It seems well built and looks great. However, within a month I've had some problems. First, they DO NOT keep out water. They seem to store it very well, despite the gaskets and everything being intact. I'm debating if I should drill a small hole in the bottom for drainage. In addition, due to a design flaw, the locking mechanism came undone from the latch and caused the lid to fly off my vehicle while doing 75 on the interstate. I was very fortunate that it didn't seriously hurt anyone else. I have since found this has happened to others. I think if I had to do over, I'd buy the one without the storage.

Also, with the rear bumper, be sure that that tow hooks point down. If your kid lifts it up and you don’t notice it, and the tailgate auto closes, it does some nice damage. The rings should be about ½ inch shorter.

 

I have the XHD front bumper and love it. Rear ended a mustang at slow speeds a couple of weeks ago and I won!

I had to adjust the bent metal pieces on the storage unit lids to adjust the fit. Since doing that they sit flush, don't leak, and have had no trouble out of them. I have not run the bumper under water in a river, cause i don't treat my new Jeep that way, but it has been in some really heavy rains and blowing winds and highway speeds and the inside is always dry. ON the lid you lost, did it break the wire safety lid that is supposed to hold the lid when opened?

 

Wait until you have a flat and your lifting your jeep by the tow hooks, and the bumper shifts up into your tailgate, or your tire carrier goes flying open when you take of from a red light and swings across the hood of the car behind you. Oh yea almost forgot it was shipped to me with the wrong lug bolts in the spare cairrer, ordered for a jeep but the lug treads seemed to fit lug nuts from a toyota better then my jeep ones, that made me loose my spare, luckly not on a very busy street. Oh as mentenioned earlier when the poorly designed keeper fails and your swingout tire holder keeps swinging out, you can use a pice of rope and tie it to the tailgate handle to hold it. If you get rope that matches the color of your $30K Jeep, with $10K in mods it really dosn't look that bad. Sorry for the rant hope I don't get your post deleted.

 

I would agree somewhat: I have the normal rear bumper with tire carrier. Besides a lousy powder coating (hence the name Rugged Rust), we had to modify the locking mechanism to make the tire carrier work.

I guess you get what you pay for: a lot of Chinese steel for little money which doesn't look to bad...

 

Yes, I lost the wire too. It put a tear in the gasket. I have not taken it off road yet. The water storage has only been from rain.

 

That doesn't sound good. Glad I caught that my lids didn't fit well and adjusted them! I'll have to keep a closer eye on it after reading this thread. May not go with the planned addition of the matching rear bumper!

 

OMG!! Thank you for the heads up on the towing! I would have never thought that. I thought that was what they were for. I was planning on going somewhere this weekend where I may have needed to be pulled out by a fellow Jeeper. Fortunately, I didn't get the tire carrier. But I agree about the wrong size nuts. I have wrong size plugs in the holes where the tire carrier is supposed to go. So I guess those rings are just for looks?

 

They are available in Aluminum if you are concerned about rust.

 

Rugged Rust, I like it fits.

 

Their are several brand names that might make a nice sunglass case but thats where it ends. I can't say you get what you pay for...thats because the Crap out there cost as much if not more than shall we say...the long time trusted brands that we know. It's a shame but it takes a lot of home work before anyone gets my money anymore.