I installed my new Smitty XRC rear bumper with tire carrier yesterday(Thanks for the help Allan!!)

It was one of the easier installs I've done, everything bolted right up. and in case you were wondering it now comes with a bracket for the 3rd brake light. afterwards we decided to drive up to Wildomar to try it out. It sounded there was one of the car carrier trucks following me there was so much noise rattle, rattle, rattle. When we got there I noticed the carrier was unlatched. When we went to latch it again we saw that the pins in the latch were not welded correctly:



You can see while the pin on the left is seated the pin on the right is a couple of MM off, not making contact at all. As soon as you go over a bump the latch pops free... yeah that's not good!!!
And on the drive home the swing away carrier swung away........ On the 91 freeway!!!!

I called smitty this morning and they gave me a few things to try which did not work, luckilly I only work about 5 minutes away from their corporate office so I am going there tomorrow to have them look at it and
I will see what they have to say but unless they come up with a good solution I will just leave it there and try to get a refund...

 

That sucks!
Let us know how it goes we got our XRC Rear Bumper and Carrier but it was missing the hardware for the Carrier so we are waiting for it to come in.

Which latch design do you have? Wonder if their new design (looks like a beer tap) doesn't work as good as the old one (pistol grip)

 

It has the new design beer tap style. I am actually wondering if the new design is because they changed manufacturers? There was nothing wrong with the old style, I wonder why they changed

 

Good question! I asked and the customer service guy Ray said it was a new better design and admitted that he too liked the previous pistol grip better...didn't help to answer the why...my thought is that it's cheaper to mfg the new design and some bean counter determined they can increase margin by the new change...just a guess

 

You may be right, I hope they did not pay too much to the guy who welded the part in the picture in the first post.

Ray is actually the guy I am meeting today at 2:30. I have a 15 mile drive into work, mostly freeway and when I got here the carrier was totally unlatched. Luckilly I tightened the bolts on the part of the carrier that mounts to the large pin on the bumper making alot of resistance toward opening the carrier. Pretty sad when you have to rely on that to make sure your capable off road vehicle can make the same commute that a Toyota Prius can...

I know there are alot of people happy with this bumper so hopefully Smitty can take care of this.

 

We got the missing parts from UPS yesterday and will most likely install the tire carrier tonight or tomorrow night so I'm definitely looking forward to your update after meeting with them! Hopefully, they be able to address the issue and it's not a design issue with the new latch

Good Luck - Please keep us posted!

 

I dont understand what it is those pictures are of :(

but I just got the same bumper (not sure if its new or old latch system) and I am going to be picking it up tomorrow... can someone show me what that is actually a picture of with some better photos (I mean better as in I dont know what I am looking at because I am not familiar with the workings of the latch mech so I am unsure what part that is, thats all.)

 

I will keep you updated but I feel my experience is (hopefully) a fluke. If you have seen the pics of jptwins' jeep youknow this bumper can take the weight!!!

One thing that did just occur to me though is the directions specifically spec all American bolts where the new version uses all metric. I am now thinking the entire thing has been redesigned.

 

That wouldn't surprise me they probably found another "cheaper" factory to produce them and had to make other changes...more costly to buy American hardware overseas so changed that as well...

Thanks for sharing your experiences and let them know your brother JK owners who have yet to install theirs are waiting for your feedback...might leverage them to take care of you if there's a risk that they could see some of them being returned for refunds...

 

You can tell them that the new handle looks worse and although it saved them a couple of bucks in production, it may cost them sales. I know I like the design of the old handle enough to say "no" to the new one, or at least explore other bumper/carriers again. Even if it works properly, the original looked much better IMHO