Swaybar Skidplate Necessary?

[GinjaNinja]

Hi All,

I am having a tough time deciding between the Ace Pro Series front bumper and the LOD Destroyer Stubby...

I am leaning towards the Ace bumper as it is beefy (1/4” steel) and I am planning on going with their rear Halfback bumper, BUT Ace does not have a lower skid plate to protect the sway bar motor. They do however have a swaybar motor flip kit that tucks most of it behind the bumper.

So my questions are:
1. How necessary is a lower skidplate really?
2. Any real concerns with daily driving / light trail use without a lower skid?
3. Any insights regarding Ace vs LOD regarding strength/ quality / powdercoating/ customer service?

Thanks!

Sponsored

 

[GinjaNinja]

Am I the only one worried about this? Given the number of people buying front bumpers with lower skidplates I am surprised. So really, the short questions are does anyone have any reasons they did not just run a sway bar motor flip kit or why do you feel it necessary to install a lower skidplate?

Maybe some pics will help...should be clear which bumper is which.

Cheers

 

[Bingy]

I'm of the school, better to have it and not need it. You never know what may get kicked up under the bumper. I would say if you have the electronic disconnect, sure run one to protect the components. You may get a 50/50 response for and against. I decided to get one to cover up the frame mounts for the OEM plate. Just looks cleaner.

 

[arcticaaron]

Hi All,
I am leaning towards the Ace bumper as it is beefy (1/4” steel) and I am planning on going with their rear Halfback bumper, BUT Ace does not have a lower skid plate to protect the sway bar motor. They do however have a swaybar motor flip kit that tucks most of it behind the bumper.

So my questions are:
1. How necessary is a lower skidplate really?
2. Any real concerns with daily driving / light trail use without a lower skid?
3. Any insights regarding Ace vs LOD regarding strength/ quality / powdercoating/ customer service?

I went with a genright ultra clearance bumper and used the ace swaybar motor flip bolt. I just don't like the look of those lower skid plates. In my opinion it's better to be up and out of the way than to be down where something can get hit. With the swaybar motor rotated it is tucked way up tight and it would be really tough to hit it. No concerns for light wheeling.

If you end up running without the lower skidplate I'd also cut off the crash bars since they look pretty bad hanging down.

Here is my current setup.

 

[GinjaNinja]

I went with a genright ultra clearance bumper and used the ace swaybar motor flip bolt. I just don't like the look of those lower skid plates. In my opinion it's better to be up and out of the way than to be down where something can get hit. With the swaybar motor rotated it is tucked way up tight and it would be really tough to hit it. No concerns for light wheeling.

If you end up running without the lower skidplate I'd also cut off the crash bars since they look pretty bad hanging down.

Here is my current setup.

Thank so for the replies Dave and Aaron..

@Aaron - do you have any close up pictures of how you cut the crash bars? Your setup looks great!

Cheers

 

[arcticaaron]

Here is a photo showing the cuts in progress

and a photo after the cuts were done.

I had to notch the front of the cut a bit to get the bumper to fit correctly. You can see how far the swaybar motor hangs down stock. I didn’t get a photo of the motor rotated up but it does rotate way up out of the way (the bottom moves forward and up in this photo to the next bolt hole) with about 2.5 inches hanging down behind and below the bumper.

 

[arcticaaron]

One more thing for anyone reading this in the future...to use this specific genright ultra clearance bumper with the sway bar motor flip, you do have to notch the winch tray in two locations. It isn’t too much work, the sections cut out are about 1” x 1.5” in the back of the winch tray.

 

[GinjaNinja]

Here is a photo showing the cuts in progress

and a photo after the cuts were done.

I had to notch the front of the cut a bit to get the bumper to fit correctly. You can see how far the swaybar motor hangs down stock. I didn’t get a photo of the motor rotated up but it does rotate way up out of the way (the bottom moves forward and up in this photo to the next bolt hole) with about an inch hanging down behind and below the bumper.

This is fantastic, thanks for posting!

 

[arcticaaron]

Here are two finished photos showing final placement of the swaybar motor. It hangs down about 2.5” lower than the bumper but you really can’t see it unless you crouch down in front of the Jeep

 

[Nordy]

Semi old Post but to provide an input for others with this question...we smashed our sway bar disconnect wheeling. Thru the stock "skid" it just broke the electronics and connector. If we had done a rotate it likely wouldn't have been an issue. This being said I can only get a full replacement of the sway bar for $1200, and not just the electronics board... So I'd say in my experience at a minimum do the rotate, and to be extra safe I'd spend the few $ to get a good plate to protect it. I also personally like the skid up there because it gives me nice clean place to mount my license plate without antagonizing the local blue line for attention.

 

[Brian0128]

Semi old Post but to provide an input for others with this question...we smashed our sway bar disconnect wheeling. Thru the stock "skid" it just broke the electronics and connector. If we had done a rotate it likely wouldn't have been an issue. This being said I can only get a full replacement of the sway bar for $1200, and not just the electronics board... So I'd say in my experience at a minimum do the rotate, and to be extra safe I'd spend the few $ to get a good plate to protect it. I also personally like the skid up there because it gives me nice clean place to mount my license plate without antagonizing the local blue line for attention.

Any pics of the damage? I think I'll buy the Ace flip kit to rotate it out of the way.

 

[GinjaNinja]

Just to close the loop, I have the Ace bumper installed without a lower skid plate with their sway bar flip kit. As mentioned earlier, you really cannot see the sway bar motor unless you are looking under the bumper intentionally. In the picture attached I lowered the camera and still could not see it.

Now hearing about Nordy's story, a flip kit is probably cheap insurance that might save the sway bar in some circumstances.

 

[Nordy]

Any pics of the damage? I think I'll buy the Ace flip kit to rotate it out of the way.

For now, I hammered the old skid back into place, going to have a local shop fab up a new skid for the future, but for now I don't have anything more to break up front so it doesn't matter until I get a new part! lol

 

[irishtim7]

@arcticaaron How did you manage to get the fairlead centered on this bumper? I installed this with a Zeon 8S and there is absolutely no room in the winch tray to get that T nut to slide over far enough. The winch is in the way.

 

[mlebofsky]

When you flip the motor, can you rotate it to the back? I cant rotate it frontwards since I have a warn winch plate blocking front rotation.

Sponsored