The front of my Jeep recently encountered an Audi A5 that made an illegal left turn from the far right lane. I punched in the stock bumper on the corner and scraped the front fender a bit, but otherwise you can't tell anything happened. The Audi, on the other hand...

Anyway, for now, I replaced the bumper with another stock bumper I got for free from another forum member (thanks black_night). The Jeep is not my DD, but I've got to drive it out from LA to the desert where I frequently back country camp. Since this is the second time someone has hit me, I figure I'll leave the cheap plastic bumpers on for now.

The one thing I'm thinking of doing something different with is the air dam. I was thinking about replacing it with a skid plate but I want to try to keep the function of the air dam (even though its ugly and POS). I pull an off-road trailer and so on the highway, I'd like to keep the engine and trans as cool as possible. It seems like most of the forum posts suggest that the stock air dam does serve the purpose of keeping the engine and trans cooler. It also wouldn't hurt to save a little in the MPG area while on the highway.

Has anyone replaced the plastic air dam with skids while keeping the stock bumper? I know RR and Skid Row make a skid that works with the stock bumper, but I haven't heard on any of the forums if they also function like the stock air dam.

 

Yes. I used the Mopar front skid plate in place of the plastic POS. The bumper is also Mopar. Not stock, but about the same dimensions.

The skid plate is not quite as good as the plastic air dam to keep the hood from fluttering, but I've had no cooling problems.

The drawbacks are: 1. It is heavier, and 2. I like the look of a Jeep better with nothing mounted under the bumper.

This is the same picture as my avatar except I dodged the area under the bumper for better visibility:

 

I like the look better too, but I was hoping that there was a better looking product that served the same function that also offered some protection as well.

 

You could find a better looking setup for sure. I put mine together with Mopar stuff because I needed a winch bumper, front skid, and tow brackets that would all bolt together in a hurry.

 

Here is my mopar skid. I had it on the stock bumper and now i mounted it to my pavement ends front bumper.

 

I have the same setup. Pavement ends bumper and Mopar skid.

 

Bump for other ideas.

 

This set up looks good.