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nellipj

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How was the ease of install? Looks like a quality bumper! Very nice looking!

Also, which Warn did you do with?
The bumper install was relatively easy. The winch plate, not so much. Ace does not include paper instructions with their products. They send you an email for their video install of the products. Problem was the video for this bumper was not on YouTube. We had to call Ace and ask what was up. They apologized that the video was missing and said it would be up this week. They sent me pictures in the interim of what needed to be trimmed for the winch plate to fit. After that it was easy.

I went with the new VR Evo 10S from Warn. Should be more than I’ll need.
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CarterRuss

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The bumper install was relatively easy. The winch plate, not so much. Ace does not include paper instructions with their products. They send you an email for their video install of the products. Problem was the video for this bumper was not on YouTube. We had to call Ace and ask what was up. They apologized that the video was missing and said it would be up this week. They sent me pictures in the interim of what needed to be trimmed for the winch plate to fit. After that it was easy.

I went with the new VR Evo 10S from Warn. Should be more than I’ll need.
Where did you trim? I just tried to mock up how it would fit in there and the back seems to be making contact with the swaybar motor...but yours doesn't seem to be.
 

AstroDave

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Following this as I ordered both a front (Expedition) and rear bumper with tire carrier during Black Friday. I decided to try the new Smittybilt 9.5K Gen3 winch. According to Nick at Ace, you have to make a notch in the frame on the driver's side to fit in the winch plate. He told me they don't have video instructions yet and that it should be pretty easy... This is my first Jeep and first major modification.
 

CarterRuss

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Following this as I ordered both a front (Expedition) and rear bumper with tire carrier during Black Friday. I decided to try the new Smittybilt 9.5K Gen3 winch. According to Nick at Ace, you have to make a notch in the frame on the driver's side to fit in the winch plate. He told me they don't have video instructions yet and that it should be pretty easy... This is my first Jeep and first major modification.
I installed the same bumper this afternoon...well close. I was under the assumption that direct bolt on was actually direct bolt on. In addition to triming the winch plate, you need to drill out the mounting holes along with modifying the fog light housing to fit the new bolts and sit flush. Neither a huge deal but I don't have those tools nor was I planning to need them so I now have no winch plate (not an issue since I don't have the winch yet) or fog lights and am running with 6 of 8 bolts securing the bumper.

IMG_20191217_151005.jpg
 

AstroDave

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I installed the same bumper this afternoon...well close. I was under the assumption that direct bolt on was actually direct bolt on. In addition to triming the winch plate, you need to drill out the mounting holes along with modifying the fog light housing to fit the new bolts and sit flush. Neither a huge deal but I don't have those tools nor was I planning to need them so I now have no winch plate (not an issue since I don't have the winch yet) or fog lights and am running with 6 of 8 bolts securing the bumper.

IMG_20191217_151005.jpg
Did you reach out to Ace to get their reaction? I don't have a lot of tools for drilling and cutting metal so this may be a challenge. Although any excuse to buy tools is OK by me.
 

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CarterRuss

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Did you reach out to Ace to get their reaction? I don't have a lot of tools for drilling and cutting metal so this may be a challenge. Although any excuse to buy tools is OK by me.
I caught them after hours so I'm going to call back tomorrow. A bit disappointed since these seem to be made to order so why not make them correctly? From what I gather the drilling of the frame holes is to accommodate the larger bumper bolts. The fog lights aren't a huge deal since I wanted to go aftermarket LED anyway but wasn't planning on it right now so forcing my hand a little. The winch plate is my biggest gripe but at the end of the day I don't even have the winch yet.
 

AstroDave

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I caught them after hours so I'm going to call back tomorrow. A bit disappointed since these seem to be made to order so why not make them correctly? From what I gather the drilling of the frame holes is to accommodate the larger bumper bolts. The fog lights aren't a huge deal since I wanted to go aftermarket LED anyway but wasn't planning on it right now so forcing my hand a little. The winch plate is my biggest gripe but at the end of the day I don't even have the winch yet.
I'll be interested to see what they say. I have their sliders and am very happy. I have had several conversations with them and they've been very responsive...and I mean "very". I am hoping to reuse my factory fogs as that was one of the reasons I opted for this bumper... I am sure it will work out in the end and I will learn a skill along the way.
 

nellipj

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Where did you trim? I just tried to mock up how it would fit in there and the back seems to be making contact with the swaybar motor...but yours doesn't seem to be.
with everything installed into the Jeep I cannot take pictures of where we trimmed. Email Ace, they will send you the pics.
 

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n1vek

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Appreciate everyone's responses in this thread. I am strongly considering this bumper. Love the look, price, and quality.

One question I have for another with it installed. The D-ring mounts are pretty close to the fog light openings and stick out a decent bit from the bumper. Have you noticed any lack of lateral light from your fogs vs a stock setup? I plan on installing some additional halogen fogs, but would only be running those in severe weather/remote locations.
 

Silent Panda

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I have this bumper...I had no issue with install but I am sure that depends on your level of skill and equipment.

@n1vek - There is no issue with light blockage.

For those that have the bumper or are looking at the bumper, get the sway bar disconnect flip kit. It is a fantastic little part. you gain almost 3" of clearance under the disconnect unit and can remove the flimsy shield that "protects" it.

here are a couple pics of the bumper (and the rear bumper) and linked below is my link to the install of the bumpers (and my lift).

IMG_7262.jpeg

IMG_7265.jpeg


Rear bumper

IMG_7219.jpeg


Build thread with tons more pics:

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/silent-pandas-2-door-rubicon-build.25628/

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DailyDouble

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installed mine this morning. All of the above mentioned cuts and drilling seemed appropriate and necessary. I also ran into an issue with inner side support brackets hitting the winch plate, it seems reasonable as in the ace photo above that they are removed. I considered that, but the fitment of the winch-plate really seem like they should stay installed, so I had to cut an angled bit off the bottom of each, then it worked fine. attached photo.


bumper.jpg


bumper2.jpg


Dremel'd the foglight

fogtlightcut.jpg


as seen in one of the pix below, the red is what the bottom blue area looked like, before I cut it.

winchplate.jpg
 

broox

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Thanks for this side-angle pic. The frame sticking down below the bumper like that looks really unfinished. It's kinda surprising. I wish they offered a skid plate to cover some of that up... Out of curiosity, why'd you remove the factory metal plate that goes across there?

It looks likE @CarterRuss left the factory plate on... which, I can't decide if that looks better or not :)

And I saw that @Silent Panda just completely cut his frame off after installing the sway bar disconnect flip... but I'm still not quite ready to cut factory pieces off :)

Sway bar disconnect flip
IMG_7257.JPG
 
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DailyDouble

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Thanks for this side-angle pic. The frame sticking down below the bumper like looks really unfinished. It's kinda surprising. I wish they offered a skid plate to cover some of that up... Out of curiosity, why'd you remove the factory metal plate that goes across there?

It looks likE @CarterRuss left the factory plate on... which, I can't decide if that looks better or not :)



And I saw that @Silent Panda just completely cut his frame off after installing the sway bar disconnect flip... but I'm still quite not ready to cut factory pieces off :)
yeah I think down the road I will cut those lower tabs off. I guess just general preference on leaving or removing that that crosspiece.
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