Protofab bumpers

slujeeper5 · May 13, 2004

Does anyone have experience with protofab bumpers? I really like their new xj plate front bumper with winch mount. Good ? Bad? I like the hanson rear bumpers but cant find them on their website, how about the hanson ones? are they good? Im looking for something that i will be able to wheel pretty hard. Thanks.

SOOLONG · May 14, 2004

I have the pre-runner style winch bumper. It is very stout and well made. it comes with brackets that run back along the sides to tie in to the unibody. Unfortunatley no winch yet. It does come bare metal. I had mine sprayed with Line-X. Very nice! I am not saying its the best bumper out there but it suits me fine. Here is a picture.

http//www.pbase.com/image/28219780

RockRod · May 14, 2004

Great product, very pleased. :thumbup:
Have front and rear, no problems.

79yj · May 14, 2004

Front rock winch bumper is awesome.
Comes plain you will need paint.
I used herculiner and it looks great.
Get the light bar also.
What club in the StL. are you in?
You could see it for your self at the next MRJT meeting.
later, Eric

slujeeper5 · May 14, 2004

Thanks guys,
Yeah i figure protofab stuff is pretty good quality, i like their nex plate bumper. Thanks for the advice. 79yj i am actually not a member of mrjt, but i was thinking about joining midwestjeepthing. Who knows maybe ill join both. By light bar do you mean the hoop on the front bumper? Is there a way to put tow hooks on the protofab bumpers? i cant really tell.

woody431 · May 14, 2004

SOOLONG said:
I have the pre-runner style winch bumper. It is very stout and well made. it comes with brackets that run back along the sides to tie in to the unibody. Unfortunatley no winch yet. It does come bare metal. I had mine sprayed with Line-X. Very nice! I am not saying its the best bumper out there but it suits me fine. Here is a picture.

http//www.pbase.com/image/28219780

Nice pic. I want the pre-runner style bumper, but I don't want the non-winch bumper. How far is the gap between the body and the bumper? Like where the winch sits. Do you have any other pics of your XJ?

themud · May 14, 2004

When I was looking I actually drove up and talked to mike(great guy) knows his stuff anyway I left with a prerunner winch bumper and get this his old swing away rear for my xj

...The stuff is just plain stout good weight ratio, though not sure about which gap your talking about??? vetically its about 1-1.5" from the bumper plate to the grill from the crossmember to the bumper its about 2" or so...
themud

Roxtar · May 14, 2004

I liked theirs so much I "borrowed" some of their design when building mine.

woody431 · May 14, 2004

themud said:
When I was looking I actually drove up and talked to mike(great guy) knows his stuff anyway I left with a prerunner winch bumper and get this his old swing away rear for my xj ...The stuff is just plain stout good weight ratio, though not sure about which gap your talking about??? vetically its about 1-1.5" from the bumper plate to the grill from the crossmember to the bumper its about 2" or so...
themud

When I said the gap, I meant the spot for the winch as I won't be running one. I like the winch bumper better than the non winch one just because of that ugly diamond plate skid. I guess I could have them leave it off or just put a different one on there, but yea

Ivan · May 14, 2004

woody431 said:
When I said the gap, I meant the spot for the winch as I won't be running one. I like the winch bumper better than the non winch one just because of that ugly diamond plate skid. I guess I could have them leave it off or just put a different one on there, but yea

I've got the non-winch prerunner bumper, and also was not too keen on the pimpy shiney diamond plate front. I just flipped it around to the smooth side and paint bombed it with some body color match paint... turned out a lot better...

Ivan

SOOLONG · May 14, 2004

woody431 said:
Nice pic. I want the pre-runner style bumper, but I don't want the non-winch bumper. How far is the gap between the body and the bumper? Like where the winch sits. Do you have any other pics of your XJ?

Here are some more pictures. I have alot more but there not on the digital. These were some shots I took from work for a tire clearance thread a couple of weeks ago.

http//www.pbase.com/image/28219653

http//www.pbase.com/image/28219775

http//www.pbase.com/image/28219815

Joe

SOOLONG · May 14, 2004

Oh I forgot. The bumper will fit almost any winch up to 9500 lb but it is designed for low profile winches so that it does not obstruct radiator flow.
Protofab makes the bumpers for Truck Farm so here are some direct links.

http//www.protofab4x4.com

http//www.truckfarm.com

karstic · May 14, 2004

Joe how did you mount the Hi-Lift to the Yakima rack?

LT1XJ · May 14, 2004

For the hanson Ent stuff, you really should give him a call. The owners name is wayne. Their website is rarely if ever updated and they don't respond too quickly to email. I have been extremely happy with my rear bumper from them. If you have trouble getting a hold of them, let me know.
Dustin

SOOLONG · May 14, 2004

That is a Yakima Steel Head lockable bike carrier. The straps that hold down the rear wheels on the trays hold the HI lift on. It works sweet. It also keeps the jack just out from the roof so you have less chance of damaging your roof when removeing and replacing it. They could not have designed it any better because it locks to the load bars that lock to the rain gutters. The only draw back is they were about $120.00 per bike carrier about six years ago. Who Knows what they want now. The beauty is that I can strap our bikes up top and then mount the hi lift to the mount built into the spare tire carrier. I keep the hi lift up top normally to offset the weight of the spare tire carrier that is set to the right.

Joe

roke40 · May 14, 2004

slujeeper5 said:
Thanks guys,
Yeah i figure protofab stuff is pretty good quality, i like their nex plate bumper. Thanks for the advice. 79yj i am actually not a member of mrjt, but i was thinking about joining midwestjeepthing. Who knows maybe ill join both. By light bar do you mean the hoop on the front bumper? Is there a way to put tow hooks on the protofab bumpers? i cant really tell.

If you look closely at the pics of the red one on their site you can see tow hooks mounted to the top of the bumper like on a stock TJ.

SOOLONG · May 14, 2004

You cannot see the tow hooks in the picture I posted because they are tucked in close to the attachment points down behind the fog lights. But yes it has mounting points for them which are shown in the directions when you order. ( Not that it would be hard to figure out on your own.)

Joe

bburge · May 15, 2004

I have the protofab plate bumper with the light bar.

I like it pretty well. I wish the front mounting tied into more places, like the swaybar bracket bolts, etc and I wish there was a clevis/d-ring option.

Here's some pics of mine: http://www.4footed.com/images/mods/bumper/

bburge

rockwerks · May 15, 2004

I feel that protofab is the best bumper on the market for the $$$$ hands down. I have had 2 the tube style winch bumper and the plate on the new rig. Right now I feel there is not a comperable product out there for the $$$ that is why I sell their bumpers.

slujeeper5 · May 15, 2004

hey bburge,
yeah i think ill end up with that plate bumper just like yours. what did you use to coat it? And also what are those two hole below the tow hooks for?

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