I went with the steel RH bumper because I wanted a front receiver. Added about 115 lbs with the winch.
Rock hard seems significantly more expensive than LOD (comparing steel bumper to steel bumper). RH’s skid plate looks “boxier” than LOD too. Wish I could see them together in person.
Great looking RV and Jeep combo! Good to hear your comments on the Cooltech harness, as due to my very limited auto elec skills, I'll be searching for local shop to handle the install. Or I will gladly pay you in beverages for a day trip up to Austin. . .Towed over 5k miles like this...
Love my JL Turbo!
It's not a true apples to apples comparison. I just jumped on their site and did a quick front bumper comparison to ours. I took a steel bumper of theirs to a steel bumper of ours. Full width with lowered winch tray.
Obviously I need to look closer. I’m assuming an aluminum version of the RH would be about another $100?
Our RH-90245 comes fully loaded at $1,349.95 and weighs 37 pounds.
While Rock hard makes a great bumper from what I have learned this is not a good solution. Keep in mind the bumper has Nothing to do with the towing other than light and brake connections. I ordered this same bumper for the purpose of towing and after learning of the issues I canceled the order just prior to shipping.
The problem with this is the 4 bolts that attached each side of the bumper to the Jeeps frame is attached to a welded thin gauge face-plate in the front of the Jeeps frame. This design is problematic two fold:
The tow bracket only attaches to the two lower frame bolts which puts un-even stress on that plate and welds, so during pulling and braking all the pressure is on the lite gauge steel frame face plate not the actual Jeep linear frame. No part of that bracket is actually backed by the Jeeps tubular frame just the bottom flange of the faceplate. With contact pushing and pulling of a 5000lb TOAD myself and others were very concerned with the long term integrity of the Jeeps frame faceplate. When I say other that includes Jeep them selves, the tow bar manufacture and two large RV service centers that specialized in TOAD hardware installations.
Below is that frame plate I am referring to as you can see the attachment points are offset from the Jeep frame so again all the weight of the jeep and tow pressure points are on one half of the frame plate. I am not sure what Rockhard was thinking when they designed this. At the very least they should have designed a tow brackets that attached to all 4 frame plate bolts with the bar attachment in the middle of the tubular frame.
Also pictured above is what I decided to use. That is the actual Blue Ox approved tow plate that attaches to three point on each side the side of the frames. As you can see the tow plate (bar connection) is only 4" below the bottom bolt of the frame so there is is no approach loss compared to say the Rockhard bumper Infact may a slight gain). However I am not a serious rock crawler whereas this would be a likely issue, however the Aluminum Rock Hard Bumper is also not common equipment for a serious rock crawler.
I too added a aftermarket bumper for the ability of having a winch and thu-bumper connections, I opted for the Barricade Aluminum bumper (to keep weight down) and the tow bar manufacture recommended tow plate. This way I know especially from a liability perspective I have set the towing system up according to their specifications.
One final note: Notice how my D-ring brackets attached via all 4 frame bolts this is how Rock Hard should have done it IMO, however of all the bumper manufactures only Rock Hard and LOD allow for a tow connection directly to the bumpers, all the others said they do not authorize that use and they do not recommend towing directly off a bumper. Towing safety is serious business for me there were just too many tow industry nay sayers that were against bumper towing that I was not willing to take that risk especially since the Jeep JLU is so close to maximum tow weight as it is. This is my opinion based on the research I did that is not to say that bumper towing is not feasable it was just not recommended by may industry pro's. Aesthetically I would prefer not having the visible tow plate but safety is first and foremost.
Thanks for info. I have new 2018 Rubicon JL that I will be towing behind Class A. Was towing Cherokee with Blue Ox towbar and base plate and I have been wondering how to set up the Rubicon. I also want to put winch in front. I also approach this with an abundance of caution. Where is your 7-pin harness and braking connection located?While Rock hard makes a great bumper from what I have learned this is not a good solution. Keep in mind the bumper has Nothing to do with the towing other than light and brake connections. I ordered this same bumper for the purpose of towing and after learning of the issues I canceled the order just prior to shipping.
The problem with this is the 4 bolts that attached each side of the bumper to the Jeeps frame is attached to a welded thin gauge face-plate in the front of the Jeeps frame. This design is problematic two fold:
The tow bracket only attaches to the two lower frame bolts which puts un-even stress on that plate and welds, so during pulling and braking all the pressure is on the lite gauge steel frame face plate not the actual Jeep linear frame. No part of that bracket is actually backed by the Jeeps tubular frame just the bottom flange of the faceplate. With contact pushing and pulling of a 5000lb TOAD myself and others were very concerned with the long term integrity of the Jeeps frame faceplate. When I say other that includes Jeep them selves, the tow bar manufacture and two large RV service centers that specialized in TOAD hardware installations.
Below is that frame plate I am referring to as you can see the attachment points are offset from the Jeep frame so again all the weight of the jeep and tow pressure points are on one half of the frame plate. I am not sure what Rockhard was thinking when they designed this. At the very least they should have designed a tow brackets that attached to all 4 frame plate bolts with the bar attachment in the middle of the tubular frame.
Also pictured above is what I decided to use. That is the actual Blue Ox approved tow plate that attaches to three point on each side the side of the frames. As you can see the tow plate (bar connection) is only 4" below the bottom bolt of the frame so there is is no approach loss compared to say the Rockhard bumper Infact may a slight gain). However I am not a serious rock crawler whereas this would be a likely issue, however the Aluminum Rock Hard Bumper is also not common equipment for a serious rock crawler.
I too added a aftermarket bumper for the ability of having a winch and thu-bumper connections, I opted for the Barricade Aluminum bumper (to keep weight down) and the tow bar manufacture recommended tow plate. This way I know especially from a liability perspective I have set the towing system up according to their specifications.
One final note: Notice how my D-ring brackets attached via all 4 frame bolts this is how Rock Hard should have done it IMO, however of all the bumper manufactures only Rock Hard and LOD allow for a tow connection directly to the bumpers, all the others said they do not authorize that use and they do not recommend towing directly off a bumper. Towing safety is serious business for me there were just too many tow industry nay sayers that were against bumper towing that I was not willing to take that risk especially since the Jeep JLU is so close to maximum tow weight as it is. This is my opinion based on the research I did that is not to say that bumper towing is not feasable it was just not recommended by may industry pro's. Aesthetically I would prefer not having the visible tow plate but safety is first and foremost.
Rick, if you haven't read the many posts in this thread - https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/best-setup-for-rv-flat-tow.4797/ - taking a lap thru it might be helpful to you. I am in the final moments of setting up my Rubi to be flat towed with my Class C and I found the posts extremely helpful in working out the solutions. I went with the Maximus tow loops (I prefer that clean look under the bumper vs a tow bar), BO Ascent tow bar, Cooltech harness, RVi Brake and their 12v power outlet and battery trickle charger. I put the 6-pin and breakaway switch in the face of the skid under the bumper between the tow loops.
I've yet to hear one word from the 1 in 6 loser!! Seriously! The Jeep community is internet verbal so why haven't we heard of any Rockhard bumper towing failures? I respect you went with the baseplate, that's your choice. Does anyone have a single example of the Rockford bumper actually failing as a towing option?I went with the proven. No knock on RH or LOD. ... you know.... you win at russian roulette 5 out of 6 times, right? I sure hope that those of you using aftermarket bumpers to flat tow will continue to post miles on the donkey so those of us wary of it may have peace!
AND... I should have went with a new bumper... CAUSE... the roadmaster base plate and the smittybilt winch will not work together per my local guy that does all my installs. I just posted about this... I might have an OEM bumper for sell...
