First off, Merry Christmas! My question is, has anyone installed/ fabricated a short bumper for their rig and then gotten into a low speed collision and damaged their jeeps tires/ fenders /etc. that would have otherwise been protected by a long bumper? I personally have been hit by a giant tractor and my jeep was saved by my full size stock bumper. My dads cj has a bend in the bumper attesting to the benefits of a long bumper. I still will go stubby soon but just want to hear stories. Cheers!

 

A JK stock bumper took on a giant tractor and actually protected something?

 

Hmmmmmmmmm? The outer corners are just plastic and the frame that it sits on is not that thick of metal. I just installed a Warn Rock Crawler Stubby and that thing is very heavy duty compared to the stock.

 

I can see how an off center low speed hit could tear the S out of a front wheel, linkage, etc that would otherwise be protected by the full width bumper. Solution = go with a modular bumper with removable ends and you will have much more flexibility.

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Yea a tractor turned into me and hit the corner. The ends are steel an protected good.

 

how big was that giant tractor? We must have a different opinion of what a giant tractor is lol.
I lopped the ends of my new jku bumper off and mine were just plastic no steel until you are almost to the crush cans. The ends probably would have stopped a lawn tractor but not a full size tractor.

 

^^ this. Hahaha.

 

grain hauling tractor. It bounced me right off and into the ditch i actually hit the giant wagon filled with corn.

 

Well, regardless of your unusually good fortune, your basic question is whether a full-width bumper will provide better protection than a stubby. And that's sort of a no-brainer. The tires, connected linkage, and front fenders are exposed--and the smaller that bumper, the greater that exposure. On top of that, some folks (look at expedition/overlanding rigs, except mine, LOL) also add a hood hoop that provides additional protection to the front end--the grill, headlights, etc. For me, I preferred the appearance of the mid-width (and having fog light holes) and figured that since I'm looking that direction, I will avoid running into things (my rear is a full-width for the opposite line of reasoning, LOL). That usually works, but not always ...


This is why I recommend against steel fenders, BTW. There probably would have been some serious sheetmetal damage rather than just a tore off fender from getting too close to a tree on a tight trail ...

 

I went with the Schmittybilt XRC M.O.D. for this very reason; I'm in stubby mode now but plan to order the mid-legnth end caps w/o fogs since I have them mounted next to the bull bar. The bumper is heavy duty and the end caps would make a difference in a corner collision methinks'.