rear bumper that 'plugs' into a hitch?

I'm just curious if this would work.

The idea that I'm talking about is a simple, almost universal, bumper that would plug into a 2" square receiver hitch. Mulitple 2" squares might be needed. An XJ could use a Class III hitch and remove the rear bumper whenever needed. For example, when towing or when using recovery D-rings.

The rear bumpers could even be swapped for different uses. An owner could have a nice stealthy, lightweight street legal bumper and a heavy duty offroad bumper, or no bumper. All that would be needed would be to pull the pin.

I also like the idea of using identical front and rear bumpers, if something like this were standardized.

by multiple 2" squares do you mean like 2 receivers behind each end of the frame?

Yeah. I could have said it better, I think.

What I was thinking was 3 receivers; one middle and two sides. Then the bumper would slide right in and attach with 3 pins.

There was a member, I forget who...about a year ago who had a problem with his rear bumper height and the cops so he came up with what I thought was a great idea and made a sort of 6" valance that bolted to the bottom of his bumper to make it legal and he could unbolt it to regain clearance and departure angle when going off-road.

Not the same as you're saying I know, but just a practical example of wanting 2 different rear bumpers I guess. Personally I'd rather have one bumper that works for everything, I have enough PIA just packing/unpacking my Jeep for a trip to bother with swapping bumpers.

Why not build a better bumper that allows the approach and departure angles you want with a nod toward it being safe all the time? I like the idea of a detachable component that could be installed to make the bumpers street legal.

The physical limitations of the XJ rear end and receiver hitch would mean you would still need to have the receivers hanging down after you remove the detachable bumper.

It makes more sense, to me anyway, to build a bumper that provides you a margin of safety and the offroad angles you need.

Now if you were doing this with detachable rock rails or something else that is protective in nature offroad but heavy all the time, I can see that making sense.

Quick disconnect rock rails would be kinda cool. Especially if you carried them on your bumper...they start out as your street legal bumper and then get installed as rock rails offroad.

I don't know that a detachable bumper would be very safe. If you were rear-ended, all the force of the impact would be transferred to the three hitch pins, which would probably leave you with a non-removable bumper.

Good ideas!

Well, you could build a 'legal' bumper that hangs down a little bit. Then you could pull the 3 pins, flip it around so it points UP, and have a high clearance bumper.

The quick disconnect rock rail idea is pretty neat.

aspera said:

Good ideas!

Well, you could build a 'legal' bumper that hangs down a little bit. Then you could pull the 3 pins, flip it around so it points UP, and have a high clearance bumper.

The quick disconnect rock rail idea is pretty neat.

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check out how the rear hatch opens for you to gain legality and then flip it over and get aproach angle you would have to modify the hatch. ther is less than an inch of clearance between teh bumper and the hatch stock.

the thought is nice but i think when ya actually get down to it if your going to be adding a bumper for hitting things on the trail and not just mall crawlin, your gonna end up with something on all the time. once ya reach the point of needing a beefy bumper your not just gonna swap it out for a lighter one to save .25 of a mpg or save your rig from the duty of carrying around an extra 40lbs on it's back. if your going to build a bumper to take hits i know i want mine to be mounted rock solid to not only handle the hit but also help in adding rigidity to the un-frame. receiver hitches are a far cry from beign a snug fit, this would cause the bumper to bounce and rattle around.

TekkaMaki said:

There was a member, I forget who...about a year ago who had a problem with his rear bumper height and the cops so he came up with what I thought was a great idea and made a sort of 6" valance that bolted to the bottom of his bumper to make it legal and he could unbolt it to regain clearance and departure angle when going off-road.

Not the same as you're saying I know, but just a practical example of wanting 2 different rear bumpers I guess. Personally I'd rather have one bumper that works for everything, I have enough PIA just packing/unpacking my Jeep for a trip to bother with swapping bumpers.

Click to expand...

incredible hulk did that using his receiver to keep legal