Ebay Rubi Steel Bumper (not a knock-off) pretty legit!

[Abnmarine]

I’ve been debating on this bumper for some time now and after reading this post decided to purchase one. I ordered it Monday and was surprised that it arrived today. The box had a few tears but the bumper was wrapped good and didn’t have any damage. I was pretty happy to see this.
I transferred the OEM fog light harness. My LED lights from my Willys wouldn’t work with the brackets but the lights that came with the bumper work just as good.

I chose not to install the winch plate since I now live in Florida and don’t really need one. I weighed my factory bumper at it was 28 lbs. The new bumper without the winch plate and end caps weights 54 lbs.

It easily bolted up and I torqued the nuts. I need to order the steel skid plate, brackets and I’ll get the OEM bump pads.
Overall I’m very happy with the bumper. Thanks to all of you who posted here.

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[davidafuller]

I’ve been debating on this bumper for some time now and after reading this post decided to purchase one. I ordered it Monday and was surprised that it arrived today. The box had a few tears but the bumper was wrapped good and didn’t have any damage. I was pretty happy to see this.
I transferred the OEM fog light harness. My LED lights from my Willys wouldn’t work with the brackets but the lights that came with the bumper work just as good.

I chose not to install the winch plate since I now live in Florida and don’t really need one. I weighed my factory bumper at it was 28 lbs. The new bumper without the winch plate and end caps weights 54 lbs.

It easily bolted up and I torqued the nuts. I need to order the steel skid plate, brackets and I’ll get the OEM bump pads.
Overall I’m very happy with the bumper. Thanks to all of you who posted here.

Since you're one of the most recent posters, I'd love to get your thoughts here. There are a few issues I never really resolved and I'm a bit concerned about them.

1. What did you do with the stock wire harness? I know you said you reused it, but that harness is pretty long and there's really no way to zip tie it or otherwise thread it in a way to keep it "safe."

2. I'm still unsure about this; is there a way to protect the backside of the bumper? At the moment, the backside is open. Did the bumper come with a plate of some sort that was supposed to attach to the back? When it rains, I'm seeing water get on the inside of the back and it's wetting the harness to boot.

3. Is anyone, you included, noticing rust spots? I'm seeing a couple spots here and there (they're tiny, but it's annoying) that appear to be rust already, even though I just installed the bumper not more than a month ago. Any remedies?

Many thanks.

 

[Abnmarine]

1. What did you do with the stock wire harness? I know you said you reused it, but that harness is pretty long and there's really no way to zip tie it or otherwise thread it in a way to keep it "safe."

There are some holes already in the brackets in the back of the bumper. I used these and also the factory harnesses push in clips. I also used one zip tie near each fog light to secure it.

2. I'm still unsure about this; is there a way to protect the backside of the bumper? At the moment, the backside is open. Did the bumper come with a plate of some sort that was supposed to attach to the back? When it rains, I'm seeing water get on the inside of the back and it's wetting the harness to boot.

It is open to the backside. As was my factory fog lights were. I don’t foresee a problem as the connections are water tight.

3. Is anyone, you included, noticing rust spots? I'm seeing a couple spots here and there (they're tiny, but it's annoying) that appear to be rust already, even though I just installed the bumper not more than a month ago. Any remedies?

If this happens to mine I will remove it and just have it powder coated locally. I guess you could just paint it with matte black.

 

[davidafuller]

1. What did you do with the stock wire harness? I know you said you reused it, but that harness is pretty long and there's really no way to zip tie it or otherwise thread it in a way to keep it "safe."

There are some holes already in the brackets in the back of the bumper. I used these and also the factory harnesses push in clips. I also used one zip tie near each fog light to secure it.

2. I'm still unsure about this; is there a way to protect the backside of the bumper? At the moment, the backside is open. Did the bumper come with a plate of some sort that was supposed to attach to the back? When it rains, I'm seeing water get on the inside of the back and it's wetting the harness to boot.

It is open to the backside. As was my factory fog lights were. I don’t foresee a problem as the connections are water tight.

3. Is anyone, you included, noticing rust spots? I'm seeing a couple spots here and there (they're tiny, but it's annoying) that appear to be rust already, even though I just installed the bumper not more than a month ago. Any remedies?

If this happens to mine I will remove it and just have it powder coated locally. I guess you could just paint it with matte black.

Okay, that's good to know. I figured they were water-tight but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious. Appreciate your response. I guess I'll try to reconfigure the harness and find places to zip tie it. Thanks!

 

[CptFloridaMan]

Since you're one of the most recent posters, I'd love to get your thoughts here. There are a few issues I never really resolved and I'm a bit concerned about them.

1. What did you do with the stock wire harness? I know you said you reused it, but that harness is pretty long and there's really no way to zip tie it or otherwise thread it in a way to keep it "safe."

2. I'm still unsure about this; is there a way to protect the backside of the bumper? At the moment, the backside is open. Did the bumper come with a plate of some sort that was supposed to attach to the back? When it rains, I'm seeing water get on the inside of the back and it's wetting the harness to boot.

3. Is anyone, you included, noticing rust spots? I'm seeing a couple spots here and there (they're tiny, but it's annoying) that appear to be rust already, even though I just installed the bumper not more than a month ago. Any remedies?

Many thanks.

I installed a while ago, but I'll chime in.

The wiring harness I sorta have it all over inside the bumper until I get a winch and a few zip ties. It's kinda just there. Gotta find a solution to hold it.

2. It didn't come with a plate for the rear of the bumper.

3. My bumper front and rear have little rust spots. Thinking about sanding and painting the entire thing a new black soon.

 

[davidafuller]

I installed a while ago, but I'll chime in.

The wiring harness I sorta have it all over inside the bumper until I get a winch and a few zip ties. It's kinda just there. Gotta find a solution to hold it.

2. It didn't come with a plate for the rear of the bumper.

3. My bumper front and rear have little rust spots. Thinking about sanding and painting the entire thing a new black soon.

Okay, so I'm not missing anything glaringly obvious. I need to find a solution as well; thank you both.

If you wind up sanding/repainting, let me know how that process goes. I really hope it doesn't come to that but if it's already rusting, might be something I have to do at some point.

 

[CptFloridaMan]

Okay, so I'm not missing anything glaringly obvious. I need to find a solution as well; thank you both.

If you wind up sanding/repainting, let me know how that process goes. I really hope it doesn't come to that but if it's already rusting, might be something I have to do at some point.

I think the best solution is gonna be to have someone powder coat it. I'm looking around to do that sometime in the spring.

 

[davidafuller]

I think the best solution is gonna be to have someone powder coat it. I'm looking around to do that sometime in the spring.

Ugh. That's gonna cost a pretty penny I bet. But you're probably right.

 

[CptFloridaMan]

Ugh. That's gonna cost a pretty penny I bet. But you're probably right.

I definitely wanna do it myself, or rather attempt it on my own first.

 

[Abnmarine]

I installed the plugs yesterday. I ordered the ones mentioned in this post. They fit pretty snug. I already had a few smaller ones that I used to cover the holes for the license plate mount.

 

[Stingray20Idaho]

Tried my hand at the rear bumper today, front bumper next week. I started by stripping and repainting the entire bumper with matte black enamel. I put smoked lens covers on the reflectors. I'm waiting to wire up the reflector brake lights along with some auxiliary backup lights in the sensor holes next week. Did anyone else have problems with the Rubicon spare tire being too tight against the bumper? I wonder if I need to swap my tire carrier since it's not a OEM Rubicon tire carrier?

 

[Fsttanks]

PART 1 of install.

Just installed the front “EBay Rubi” bumper and winch plate over the weekend.

Overall an easy install which I made harder by completely stripping the bumper down to its individual parts and building it back up using my factory: LED lights, red tow hooks and crush cans form my old JK bumper.

An observations. The tow hooks that come with this bumper are not the new JL style they are the old JK style and IMO poorly cast in comparison to the factory JK or JL one. I did take a photo of them side by side with a factory JK hook but did include it in the photos below. Because of the poor casting I went ahead and reused my factory JL hooks. Better safe then sorry.

Below are photos of PART 1 of the install

Tearing the bumper down to base parts

Cutting out crush cans from JK bumper and test fitting them. Note the JK and JL crush cans are identical.

 

[Fsttanks]

PART 2 of install.

Test fitting of factory JL tow hook and crush can.

Installing the factory LED fog lights using the included brackets.

Putting it all back together.

For those asking how the winch plate installs. The first photos below are of the “L” brackets that mount under the plate. I used the supplied bolts for now but will be replacing them with known quality western made automotive grade 8 bolts when I install my winch. No way I will be trusting the included bolts of unknown quality for winching.

Top of winch plate vvvvv

 

[Fsttanks]

PART 3 of install.

This is how it all turned out. Overall weight increase (which including the winch plate) over the stock plastic factory bumper dropped the front end 1/8 inch(~3mm).

I do have the bumper end “wings” but will most likely never use them. I have always liked the stubby Rubicon bumper look.

Only thing left at this point was to confirm the correct fog light aim and make any needed adjustments.

Your thoughts?

 

[Abnmarine]

Looks good. Seems that the 2020 Willys LED fog lights are different than the Rubicon fog lights since mine wouldn’t work with the supplied brackets. I ended up using the lights that came with the bumper.

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