Ok, with my truck getting worked on and once its out, I'll be itching to get some things done to it that I wanted, one thing I want to tackle is new bumpers.

Keeping the thought of having a winch later down the road or not, I think my best bet right now is to get front and rears with multi-winch receivers.

Front Bumper wise, I'm leaning very hard towards getting Bigrocks Offroad Type 2 bumper, as seen here on Smiling Jim's truck:


Rear bumper, keeping it with the tube idea, only appears to be one style across the board:
Bigrocks- 325.00


All-Pro- 299.00


Marlin- 379.00 with DOM tube


I like the idea of having the receiver on the back with the 2 d-rings like marlins has, but I'm sure I could weld on d-rings on any of them.

Just curious to see if anyone else knows of any different designs or other companies out there to check out or any to avoid due to fitment issues? I've checked out most of the ones that I can think of, Marlin, Bigrocks, Trail-Gear, All-Pro, Badlands.

I think Bigrocks might be easiest for me, as I can take a weekend and drive down to pick them up and save on shipping (on those who charge regardless of price) and possibly get them installed there.

Only other issue I will have to deal with is front and rear license plate mounting. Probably just drill into the tailgate and mount it that way for the rear.

 

Front winch bumper mount I sell...build your own...what I'm doing.

Rear bumper...build your own or buy local and you can save the shipping.

Shipping bumpers is $$$.

 

Maybe it's just me but why do most tube front bumpers offer next to zero front protection? The bigrocks for example ... everything is exposed on the front. Any number of things could fly/bounce up and cause harm to a number of parts.

Just a curious observation

 

Building my own is out of the question. Don't know anyone who has a tube bender and paying for the tube then someone to do it, I don't see myself saving much money.

Front winch bumper mount, I looked at those, but I don't see myself having a fixed winch in the near future, nor have a seen a front tube bumper that I like that I would add a winch to later, except for one but i think it would look funny with a empty winch hole. But again on the front, I've been pretty narrow on the search for the fact of having the receiver for a d-ring or winch, but I could just weld d-rings on any bumper I'd assume.

 

Just as much as my stock bumper, lol. Not big on the big bulky bumpers.

 

Thats why you want something like this:

 

I liked the same ones you do, but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. I went to a local fab shop and had this made...



For the front I got a good deal on an All-Pro...not my first choice , but the price was right and I will add to it to make it better



If I was to do it over again, I would go Marlin or Big Rocks for the rear and have the front custom made.

 

Marc, how much did it cost to have a shop build you one?

I don't mind the look of the All-Pro bumper, but the fitment issues I've read about I don't want to deal with if its as common as they say. Plus, I think having a bumper made for a fixed winch with no winch in it would look silly and take a while to fill!

 

Ric, when you say boxed type, are you referring to a ARB or TJM type bumper or are you referring to a different type?

I like the simpleness of a tube bumper, they look cleaner to me for being on a smaller truck.

 

Another place to look for ideas, especially for the front is the Pirate 4x4 FAQ

I paid $350.00 for mine a couple years ago.

 

I love the look of the bumper you have on your runner, but in my eye, your runner is bigger than my truck, so its proportional.

I forgot about looking at pirate, duh! I think with the price of tubing and then labor, its going to just be easier to order a bumper than to find someone build one and buy the tubing.

 

I like the approach angle of the Bigrocks front, but worry about strength/protection with only being a single tube.

If you can weld, but don't have a bender, square tube is the way to go. I cut all the pieces for my rear bumper, then had a friend weld them up. The front is full custom by AllPhase in Longmont, CO because there was some serious repair work and rust removal to be done to make the mounting secure enough.





But then I have square tube sliders, so they kinda match that way too...

 

Can't weld either. I'm a man of little tricks, hahah. The square tube bumpers with square sliders looks good, I think i'll be going with round sliders though, so round tube bumpers as well.
As far as stength, marlin uses round tubing and his bumpers are stout, so I can't see the single tube BigRocks being much less in strength. Protection wise, I don't have much if any with the current bumper so its about the same.
Gonna go sift through some pics on pirate to see if anything else catches my eye. Not going to go with a stinger though, just not my style.

 

I can tell you from experience that Greg at Bigrocks Offroad has awesome customer support, and stand behind their product. That (for me) is worth its weight in gold. Sometime later I will post up in full about their service, but I definitely recommend them.

 

all pro really pisses me off and they lost all of my business. their damn crossmember didnt line up right with most of the bolts. and hearing what marc had problems with on his bumper i wont go to them again.

Which sucks because i really liked their bumper