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Those of you with the Mopar Steel bumper

aldo98229

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Your jeep looks great! I have a few questions, where did you get your steel bumper did you do one in the back as well and finally did the weight make the from end droop? Thanks so much!
Thanks!

I got it from BAM Wholesale. It is a dealer group in Massachusetts. I paid $900 one-and-a-half years ago. Even with shipping to Washington State it was less than other dealers.

Be advised that the bumper includes the LED fogs and the red hooks. If you were to upgrade the fogs separately it would cost you $500 for that alone.

I did not replace the rear bumper. You cannot even tell, to be honest.

If there’s some droop I didn’t notice. The Mopar lift got me a lot more lift than I asked for.
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jeme

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So do you order the bumper as one piece or is there a kit or several parts, also any modification to put one on a Saraha? Thanks!
 
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Steph1

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So do you order the bumper as one piece or is there a kit or several parts, also any modification to put one on a Saraha? Thanks!
If you buy new from the dealer, you can buy complete or just stubby, and you also have to buy the skidplate no matter which version bumper you get.

Other than that, bolts right onto a Sahara. Mine is also a Sahara 🤪

B12660A2-B327-435A-B8A8-75D6EABF5C17.jpeg


D2826082-7B80-40E8-BC46-E701379EF953.jpeg
 

Traveller128

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Most of the time if you are not being stupid or causing problems of some type the LEO's will leave you alone. If your behaving badly then you get what you deserve :(
This right here ^^^^. Straight from the officer's mouths (State Patrol and Deputies I know), don't be a nuisance, keep it down to a dull roar, don't do anything egregious and they'll leave you alone and look for the people that are really screwing up.

Yeah, you'll catch the occasional officer that's going to save the world for Democracy by writing a fix-it ticket, but for the most part there's a lot else they need to be doing.

Nice looking Jeep!
 

Dudley Dawson

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no ticket by nazi VA state police?? How’d you pass state inspection?
To my knowledge, the only mention of bumpers in VA code relates to the “altitude” of the bumper, or how low/high it is from the ground. Never heard of bumper width being an issue. Correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve not had any issues with passing inspection either.
 

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AnnDee4444

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Early in my build concept, one of the things that I agreed with myself upon was to keep the OEM "look" to the extent that was possible. The steel factory bumpers were on the list to "stay". I have beefed up the rear bumper mounts with ARS/MC parts to help it better handle a drop from a ledge so I am still happy with my choice.
BD (Cowl + Bumper).jpg


EDIT:

I had a few folks ask me about the rear brackets, so I wanted to add some information here to help those who may have questions. Happy to answer any that you may have:

The brackets for the OEM steel rear bumper are these - https://metalcloak.com/jl-wrangler-rear-metal-bumper-braces.html

Installation instructions can be found here - https://images.metalcloak.com/KMS/P...-Bumper-Edition-Installation-Instructions.pdf

A photo of them installed (lower guards not installed yet):

20220606_174443.jpg



The OEM are very thin (less than 3/32" thick) and will bend very easily. These brackets (about 1/4" thick) will better support the OEM steel bumper so that if you drop it on a something (within reason), it will not bend into the body of the Jeep.

A few thoughts from my install:


1. You do not have to remove the bumper.

2. You will be replacing two of the OEM brackets (4 total - two on each side) with the new brackets from ARS/MC:

2022_07_20_19_13_52_Slide_1_and_6_more_pages_Personal_Microsoft_Edge.png


3. There are some "christmas tree" style retainers provided by ARS/MC to hold the lower plastic inner fender guard in place on the outer bracket. These are pretty cheezy and will break in short order (they go in the areas circled in red). I am about to install some rivnuts in those areas (6 total) and use bolts to secure the guards. If you are thinking you want to do the same, then install the rivnuts before you install the brackets--it will be a lot easier. I am using M5 rivnuts and button head hex bolts along with a fender washer + lock washer (all in stainless steel).

4. For the inner bracket, there are two nuts that go into studs (built into the bumper) that are REALLY hard to get to and a 12 point 16mm combination wrench (that you can "double wrench") to tighten them will make the job much easier. I only had a 6pt combination wrench and it was really tedious. You can see those nuts in the photo that I posted (near the red tow loop).

5. You do have to enlarge the holes on the lower fender guard for the christmas tree fasteners to go in, but if you use rivnuts and bolts, it will not be necessary to do that.

Hope this helps!

Relevant thread: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/oem-steel-rear-bumper-improvements.90638/
 

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balucipher

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I am stupid - I noticed that after I posted my message and subsequently deleted. Thanks so much!
It’s actually my most asked question in person. Just yesterday I came out of the grocery store to a guy asking me about where I bought my hood and I explained it came with the trim (which he didn’t know existed) so I started it for him
 

Sazabi19

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If you're scared of a few pounds you may want to go the aluminum route. I'm getting the MP Concepts Forged Aluminum front because it weights 41lbs installed and won't rust. Hope you never want to add a winch lol.
 
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Steph1

Steph1

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If you're scared of a few pounds you may want to go the aluminum route. I'm getting the MP Concepts Forged Aluminum front because it weights 41lbs installed and won't rust. Hope you never want to add a winch lol.
LOL..... no not that afraid of weight :)
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