I had to look again at your specs. If you're doing any offroading, you'll want skids and sliders. Just looking at the pics for the John Bull Trail, you'll definitely want sliders, and a front skid, if you don't already have one. If you go for a crossmember, keep in mind whether you might do dual cases down the road. I ran a single 4.7 case with the stock crossmember for almost 2 years, until I went dual cases. Of course, I've had a 4" suspension lift the entire time, so I had more ground clearance than you.

Trail Gear has a sell going for there Bomb ProofT-Case Mount on sale for $55. its heavy duty replacement. Fits Stock and modified dual cases. Im think of getting one. Just gotta convince the wife
http://www.trail-gear.com/transfer-case-mounts

Going to get the 4.7s and the Budbuilt transfer case. With the sale it's like buying the 4.7s and getting the 4.7 thrown in for free!

Does this protect the same as the Budbuilt?

i would buy armor for the truck. Sliders before bumpers. and a front locker would be within price range if you went with a front Spartan locker.

It is just the mount between the tcase and the cross member.

Have you considered running dual t-cases? Instead of the 4.7:1 gear set in one t-case you could pick up an adapter (probably 100$ used) and a second t-case (less than 50$ from a junk yard) and run dual t-cases.

Don't forget the driveshaft work necessary for duals.