Purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group?

[MacombRoger]

I got them for all the reasons already stated. But I wish it was not a "group". I do plan on replacing the rear bumper one day with a different model with a tire swing on it. The front is great. The rear bumper is so-so.

Edit to Add: Also I got an early 2018 when there were no aftermarket options yet, that would play into my decisions now.

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[HeavyUser]

LOL, 3 pages to answer
Purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group

 

[grimmjeeper]

LOL, 3 pages to answer
Purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group

Yeah, and it's just getting started. Welcome to the internet.

Lots of people will chime in with largely the same reasons for and against. Lots of people will criticize the opinions of others. It may peter out quick or it could grow to dozens of pages.

 

[jonahgetz]

What would be the purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group?

You can mount a winch to the steel bumper. You can’t with plastic unless youre going to cut it up and mount a winch plate.

 

[aldo98229]

I got the Mopar steel bumper for my Sahara because I plan to mount a winch.

I have been buying Mopar steel bumpers for years. To me, Mopar makes the best looking bumpers. They go through a lot of effort to make the bumpers look well integrated into the overall look of the vehicle.

Having said that, Mopar has been getting increasingly convoluted with each bumper iteration.

My first bumper for my 2009 Rubicon was the Mopar Off-road bumper: it was one piece; made of thick gauge steel; the winch plate and hoop were welded into the design. It looked great, was a breeze to install and was very strong. The only drawback was that it only took one winch, the Warn 9.5ti. You could easily bolt on a Mopar skid plate to the bottom if you wanted.

The one-piece Mopar Off-road bumper was a masterpiece in rugged simplicity

A few years later came the 10th Anniversary bumper with more style; it had removable ends and a separate winch plate to accommodate different types and brands of winches. Two drawbacks were that the steel gauge got thinner, and the Mopar winch plate didn’t always align well with the bumper. You could still bolt a heavily stamped skid plate, for additional cost, directly onto the bumper.

The 10th Anniversary bumper added style and allowed different winches to be mounted. The optional skid plate bolted right on. The Mopar winch plate didn’t always align with the bumper, though.

Then came the current steel Mopar steel bumper used on JLs. It looks a lot like the 10th Anniversary, but if you want to mount a winch and the skid plate, you need to replace a jigsaw puzzle of braces, supports, boots, rivet bolts and other over-engineered, unnecessary crap. The Mopar winch mount install sheet is 10 pages long, and it still doesn’t even line up with the bumper...!

The Steel Bumper Group looks a lot like the 10th Anniversary bumper but needs a lot more parts to hold everything in place

AEV, Maximus-3, and other aftermarket vendors, have upped their game, designing, engineering and producing bumpers, winch plates and hoops that work better, are easier to install, and often look better, than the unnecessarily complicated crap from Mopar.

 

[word302]

To have a winch capable more rugged bumper with removable end caps in the front, and an equally more rugged rear bumper with all the integrated sensors that Jeep makes available.

Also, it is the only metal bumper that was designed with crash performance in mind and to perform well in crash tests.

More rugged rear bumper? Hope you don’t get hit by a balloon with that pos. The factory steel rear bumper is absolute garbage and will damage your tub at the tiniest impact. The thing weighs nothing.

 

[Jazzman65]

What would be the purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group?

I think they look better than the plastic bumpers; they're more durable and give you the option to go with a winch, etc..

 

[word302]

As others mentioned it is winch capable just Add the plate, that’s why I got it

also I do believe the steel bumper group comes with different springs to offset the weight, as a resultif you don’t get it and go the after market bumper route you will have more sag than if you just take the steel bumper group and toss your own winch in

plus if you want to take the end caps off for more clearance or a different look from time to time it takes 5 minutes

not to mention I think it just looks better!

Yeah but a winch plate costs another $200. By the time you add that to the cost of the bumper package you can get a much more stout front bumper that is already winch ready. The rear steel bumper is absolute garbage, you’d be better off with the plastic one.

 

[LoganDzwon]

I have the MOPAR steel bumper and I really like it. It’s lighter then most full length after-market bumpers too.

However, a lot of comments in this thread are just wrong. The “plastic bumper” is also a steel bumper. The difference is how much plastic is used and visible. Both are just as safe in an on collision. The plastic bumper arguably more so as it has greater “give” which would drastically increase the odd for a living thing impacting it at slower speeds. Even against solid objects the plastic bumper cover will obsorb much more energy than an all metal bumper. Plus, minor dents can be repaired with heat and patience. At any rate the actual bumper is behind that plastic and Is high strength steel bolted directly to the high carbon frame rails.
The plastic bumper may look bad and offer no winch support, but it’s not unsafe or even less safe. It’s arguably more safe in most on-road collision situations.

 

[GearWhore]

We debated a lot about this, and it was basically a wash after adding a winch plate to the steel bumper group vs aftermarket front and rear bumpers. We went with the factory steel because we KNEW it worked with the backup sensors. Also looks integral (I would hope so). I had similar steel bumpers on my '14 JKUR-X and had no issues with them there either.

My advice, other than buy what you like, is to decide if you want an aftermarket tire carrier. If you want a frame-mount swing-out get something else.

 

[pnut]

What would be the purpose of ordering the Steel Bumper Group?

For me:

1) I wanted OEM, not aftermarket. I hold a high value on OEM parts which are heavily designed and proven to work and meet OEM standards. ALOT of aftermarket parts over the years have failed to meet the same expectation (lifts, axles, bumpers, tops, etc - almost all of them without fail, have not met the same standard as OEM for me)
2) Durable / strong (stronger than the plastic)
3) Looks
3) Upgradeable (remove end caps, add tubes, lights, etc)

I think it fits the bill perfectly for me.

 

[rickinAZ]

Because of this:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...ng-on-ordering-the-steel-bumper-option.44772/

 

[entropy]

To have actual functional bumpers. The plastic ones only play a bumper on TV. So the real question is why not get the steel bumper group?

The answer to that is so you have a street legal vehicle with bare minimum disposable bumpers unil you install real bumpers that actually protect things in a collision. You should never get the plastic bumpers and intend to keep them.

I dont really want to get into the argument of "collision" with a metal bumper vs. the plastic.

A few corrections from what I've been reading on this post and some real reasons of going metal. The plastic front bumper IS NOT PLASTIC. It is an aluminum bumper with a hard plastic bumper. Whoever has installed their own aftermarket bumpers know this. I can share a picture of how the oem real bumper looks like. The rear bumper is plastic.

The steel bumper won't protect you more or less on a collision, it will protect your rig better on a very low speed collision, but the oem bumper should do well too. It might seem like a steel bumper will protect you from a real life collision better. But this is false. Steel or not, on a real life collision your injuries will come from the energy that transfer to the inside of the cabin. If you are in a collision that crushes your Wrangler, and injuries come from the crushing, the steel won't help because those will be massive forces.

Anyway. The reasons to order steel bumpers are:

1. A winch. The steel bumper can better support a winch, but you'll need to order a winch plate.
2. Offroad protection. The steel bumper will better protect your Jeep when off roading, I got a huge hole underneath my plastic bumper from barely scraping it on a rock. The bumper was still functional, but the plastic cover can't take much.
3. Being able to actually use a hi-lift jack. You can't use these on the plastic bumper.
4. Ordering the steel group gives you a beefier suspension. If you decide to go aftermarket bumper + winch and keep the Rubicon suspension, it won't sag. Unless you get a very heavy bumper + winch.
5. Durability. It wont fade, you can re-touch it if it gets scratch/rust. You can always sand and paint, or pay a shop to powder coat in a few years and have a brand new bumper again.
6. Gives you better protection to the rear of the jeep, the plastic rear bumper is just plastic. But keep in mind, the rear steel rubicon bumper sucks and if you go offroading and hit something coming down it will give you body damage.
7. Steel bumpers look better.

 

[rickinAZ]

4. Ordering the steel group gives you a beefier suspension. If you decide to go aftermarket bumper + winch and keep the Rubicon suspension, it won't sag. Unless you get a very heavy bumper + winch.

Is this true? Stiffer springs to offset added weight makes sense, but I've never heard this before.

 

[Pig-Pen]

the front oem steel bumper looks cool. but you gotta spend more to make it winch capable. the rear steel bumper is junk. seen a few of them damage the jeep while offroading including a local buddy who didnt believe me and damaged his new rubicon the next day on a trail when the rear bumper landed on a rock lol. he immediately went out and bought an aftermarket steel bumper, though he went cheap....

theyre a great option if youre going to keep the jeep mostly stock and on the road. if you plan to do any kind of moderate to serious off roading, you will want to replace the stock steel rear bumper asap. the plastic rear bumper will at least just be crushed and not going to damage your jeep. a cheap aftermarket steel bumper can also damage your jeep. you definitely want to have a stout rear steel bumper.

same thing with the oem rock rails. i had them for a while but then saw some people damaged the body with them when they landed on the oem rock rails a little too hard. ive done that more than a few times so i immediately went out and bought aftermarket sliders.

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