- Location
- NJ, U.S.A.
I've spent a good bit of time in the past week or two combing through threads here and on JU, as well as a number of manufacturer sites looking at aftermarket bumpers.
The time has come for me to decommission my Rusty's tow hook brackets for something, well, that isn't half an inch from actually ripping into two pieces. Since I've been abusing the OEM bumper's endcaps, it was suggested that I go for a new bumper and get my front recovery points up out of, as Egon would call it, "Bitch Slap" territory. It was also suggested that if there was ever a chance I might want to add a winch some day, go for a winch bumper and be done with it (do it right/do it once)...
Which has lead me to search, read, and browse threads and websites for bumpers until my head was ready to explode. There's a lot of nice-looking ones out there, and some that are stupid expensive (Warn, anyone?). There's even some really slick ideas too - Rock Hard 4x4 has a simple front bumper with a bolt-on winch plate that really looks nice and slick, but I have a couple of issues with its lines and the fact that there's no place to put my driving lights.
Since I live in NJ, I need to run a front license plate. I also have a set of Hella 550 (rectangular) driving lights that I want to keep mounted, which means I need a place to put them. I'm also not doing a winch this minute, and I don't know what my long-range plans might be. Lastly, since the rig's still fairly stock-looking and I do take it to work occasionally, I want something that looks like it was intended to look good as well as be strong.
Many of the winch bumpers look nice, but also look to me like if I don't have a winch acutally on it, it's going to look as if something's missing. Also, since I'm not too lifted right now (2"), something that sticks out that far looks like it might negatively impact my approach angle.
Interestingly enough, while I didn't initially think I'd care for the look of the OR-Fab unit on my truck, I found pics of a bone-stock 97+ buried in deep in the JU XJ forum with the OR-Fab non-winch model on it, and it actually looked decent. Of course, their winch model is rather pricey even before you add the bolt-on brushguard hoop.
From looking at the JCR bumpers (BTW, does anyone else find it hard to tell the difference between the different "stages"?), it got me to thinking that perhaps a good stout bumper with both shackle tabs and integrated receiver might better meet my needs - not as bulky/incomplete looking as a dedicated winch bumper, lower cost (to offset adding a light bar or tabs for the 550s), but I could use a locking hitch pin and receiver insert for the front plate, and be able to swap on a multi-mount winch on in the future if I wanted.
Thoughts?
The time has come for me to decommission my Rusty's tow hook brackets for something, well, that isn't half an inch from actually ripping into two pieces. Since I've been abusing the OEM bumper's endcaps, it was suggested that I go for a new bumper and get my front recovery points up out of, as Egon would call it, "Bitch Slap" territory. It was also suggested that if there was ever a chance I might want to add a winch some day, go for a winch bumper and be done with it (do it right/do it once)...
Which has lead me to search, read, and browse threads and websites for bumpers until my head was ready to explode. There's a lot of nice-looking ones out there, and some that are stupid expensive (Warn, anyone?). There's even some really slick ideas too - Rock Hard 4x4 has a simple front bumper with a bolt-on winch plate that really looks nice and slick, but I have a couple of issues with its lines and the fact that there's no place to put my driving lights.
Since I live in NJ, I need to run a front license plate. I also have a set of Hella 550 (rectangular) driving lights that I want to keep mounted, which means I need a place to put them. I'm also not doing a winch this minute, and I don't know what my long-range plans might be. Lastly, since the rig's still fairly stock-looking and I do take it to work occasionally, I want something that looks like it was intended to look good as well as be strong.
Many of the winch bumpers look nice, but also look to me like if I don't have a winch acutally on it, it's going to look as if something's missing. Also, since I'm not too lifted right now (2"), something that sticks out that far looks like it might negatively impact my approach angle.
Interestingly enough, while I didn't initially think I'd care for the look of the OR-Fab unit on my truck, I found pics of a bone-stock 97+ buried in deep in the JU XJ forum with the OR-Fab non-winch model on it, and it actually looked decent. Of course, their winch model is rather pricey even before you add the bolt-on brushguard hoop.
From looking at the JCR bumpers (BTW, does anyone else find it hard to tell the difference between the different "stages"?), it got me to thinking that perhaps a good stout bumper with both shackle tabs and integrated receiver might better meet my needs - not as bulky/incomplete looking as a dedicated winch bumper, lower cost (to offset adding a light bar or tabs for the 550s), but I could use a locking hitch pin and receiver insert for the front plate, and be able to swap on a multi-mount winch on in the future if I wanted.
Thoughts?
