BKEvans
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Ben
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2018
- Threads
- 18
- Messages
- 47
- Reaction score
- 19
- Location
- Shelby, NC
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 Sting Gray JLUR Diesel
- Occupation
- Software Engineer
- Thread starter
- #1
After being a long time lurker of the forums, I have been compelled to post here regarding my experience with installing an AEV RX bumper and tire carrier on my 2021 JLUR.
TLDR: it has not been a good experience, and I would be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone else at this time.
A little backstory: I ordered a 2019 JLUR in Fall 2018 and recently sold it in favor of a diesel variant. Like a lot of other Jeepers, I have been patiently waiting for the AEV bumpers to become available for purchase ever since they were shown at SEMA. After all of the waiting, and waiting, and waiting, I finally got my hands on one; and was very excited to get it installed. AEV has consistently shown "out of stock" for these bumpers on their site, so I ordered the bumper and tire carrier from @Quadratec along with fender flare extensions, aux backup light, and AEV touch up paint (more on this later) from @Northridge4x4
The first parts I took out of the boxes were the corner tubes and corner tanks. Both of the corner tubes were scraped pretty badly from shipping, with spots of powdercoat chipped to the bare metal. I ultimately decided to sand the problem areas and touch them up with the AEV touch up paint since these would be taking abuse off-road anyway. I was able to install the corner tubes onto the Jeep without much issue aside from having to grind down less than smooth factory welds on top of the rear frame rails. Next up were some tire carrier bits, which installed without issue. I did call AEV at one point due to some confusion. The main carrier assembly was labeled as a JK part, so I called just to confirm that it was the same part for the JL before opening it.
Then came the center section, which is a large, powdercoated bent piece of steel. The center section was also damaged, and I was not willing to touch up spots on such a large flat piece. I contacted Quadratec, sent them some pictures, and they promptly overnighted a replacement center section, along with sending a return label for the damaged part. Kudos to @Quadratec for excellent customer service. Pictures of the original damaged center section (the box it shipped in was undamaged):
Unfortunately, the replacement center section arrived with its own damage. Not as bad as the first, but there nonetheless. Instead of starting a continuous return/replace cycle hoping for an undamaged part to be delivered, I decided to sand the areas and touch them up. FYI: the AEV touch up texture black paint is a slightly shinier sheen than the powdercoating on the bumpers. While the touch up was drying, I installed the corner tanks on the corner tubes. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be straight (level) relative to the body lines on the Jeep...but they definitely aren't. AEV does included shims to get the corner tubes to sit straight, and mine are shimmed so that the vertical ends are vertical. There is a gap on the bottom side of the tanks where they meet the vertical recovery point. The funny things is that the fender flare extensions are level with the bottom of the fender flares, but the gaps are 1/8" different from side to side.
After the touch up paint on the replacement center section had dried, I went to install it on the Jeep and found that 3 of the 7 holes to attach the center section did not line up. 3 holes doesn't sound too bad...unless you think of it as 43% of the holes to mount that piece. Not good. Not by a long shot. This mean I had to remove the center section and ream out those holes with a die grinder. And then sand, etch prime, and paint AGAIN.
From here things were pretty uneventful...until it cam time to install the backup camera. Details to follow...
TLDR: it has not been a good experience, and I would be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone else at this time.
A little backstory: I ordered a 2019 JLUR in Fall 2018 and recently sold it in favor of a diesel variant. Like a lot of other Jeepers, I have been patiently waiting for the AEV bumpers to become available for purchase ever since they were shown at SEMA. After all of the waiting, and waiting, and waiting, I finally got my hands on one; and was very excited to get it installed. AEV has consistently shown "out of stock" for these bumpers on their site, so I ordered the bumper and tire carrier from @Quadratec along with fender flare extensions, aux backup light, and AEV touch up paint (more on this later) from @Northridge4x4
The first parts I took out of the boxes were the corner tubes and corner tanks. Both of the corner tubes were scraped pretty badly from shipping, with spots of powdercoat chipped to the bare metal. I ultimately decided to sand the problem areas and touch them up with the AEV touch up paint since these would be taking abuse off-road anyway. I was able to install the corner tubes onto the Jeep without much issue aside from having to grind down less than smooth factory welds on top of the rear frame rails. Next up were some tire carrier bits, which installed without issue. I did call AEV at one point due to some confusion. The main carrier assembly was labeled as a JK part, so I called just to confirm that it was the same part for the JL before opening it.
Then came the center section, which is a large, powdercoated bent piece of steel. The center section was also damaged, and I was not willing to touch up spots on such a large flat piece. I contacted Quadratec, sent them some pictures, and they promptly overnighted a replacement center section, along with sending a return label for the damaged part. Kudos to @Quadratec for excellent customer service. Pictures of the original damaged center section (the box it shipped in was undamaged):
Unfortunately, the replacement center section arrived with its own damage. Not as bad as the first, but there nonetheless. Instead of starting a continuous return/replace cycle hoping for an undamaged part to be delivered, I decided to sand the areas and touch them up. FYI: the AEV touch up texture black paint is a slightly shinier sheen than the powdercoating on the bumpers. While the touch up was drying, I installed the corner tanks on the corner tubes. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be straight (level) relative to the body lines on the Jeep...but they definitely aren't. AEV does included shims to get the corner tubes to sit straight, and mine are shimmed so that the vertical ends are vertical. There is a gap on the bottom side of the tanks where they meet the vertical recovery point. The funny things is that the fender flare extensions are level with the bottom of the fender flares, but the gaps are 1/8" different from side to side.
After the touch up paint on the replacement center section had dried, I went to install it on the Jeep and found that 3 of the 7 holes to attach the center section did not line up. 3 holes doesn't sound too bad...unless you think of it as 43% of the holes to mount that piece. Not good. Not by a long shot. This mean I had to remove the center section and ream out those holes with a die grinder. And then sand, etch prime, and paint AGAIN.
From here things were pretty uneventful...until it cam time to install the backup camera. Details to follow...
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