I like that bumper alot. whats it made of? how thick is it? and i wonder if the could cut to holes in it and make some mounts for 55w back up lights??

 

I would like to see pics of how you got that big tire under there. I can not do it with my bumper. I jams the spare into the panhard rod.

Gadget

 

TS1...did you have to do any modifications to make your spare fit under the trailer hitch?

 

Personally, I don't like how far it sticks out on the corners. Looks clunky. I think there would be a better way to wrap the corners and not over-extend the already clean lines of the 4Runner's rear. The rest of the fit and finish is nice, but $850??? I think that might be a fair price WITH the tire carrier included, but without it, no way.

But, as long as you're happy Ashu.

Peace
G

 

Folks have said the same thing about the corners of my bumper, but I can tell that those clunky corners has prevented damage to my truck on several occations.

If you tuck it in to tight the only thing that hits is the body and tail lights.

Gadget

 

After I wrote that, I realized why they extended it out so far. But, without the tire carrier in place, I don't like the lines of the bumper as much. If I were to get one, I'd definitely get the tire carrier.

I think yours looks good too, Gadget.

G

 

Lots of people piss and moan about cost. It bothers me since most of the people do not have the rear bumpers themselves. Do me it is a way of discrediting the outstanding craftsmanship, service and product that comes from Mr. Peterson and Rockware.

If you can build a comparable bumper, specific to each individual truck for less money, which it sounds like a lot of people can, then do it. You would have the market absolutely cornered and could make a killing. Schaefer is the only person approaching this and I would bet his product is about as close to perfect as one can get, Steve is very particular about these things. The fact remains that even that will not be a bumper built custom to your truck.

Regarding the lines, I wondered that at CO4RJ too. I am not sure if it is my bodylift or the bodystyle, but it seems mine tucked up higher than Darren's, Lance's or Mike's.

 

I understand where you are coming from Flygtenstein, and I realize that with inflation being the way it is, things just cost more. I have no doubts that the RockWare bumpers are a quality product. I was only making the statement based on a comparison of prices of the front bumpers available for our trucks.

Peace.
G

 

This is what custom means, to have it built to your rig. They just extended the bumper out further than yours and designed it around the tire. I don't need to tell that to you, though. Mine is tucked in further and my spare will no longer fit underneath, either. It fit fine with the OEM bumper. Right after you got yours, I thought you indicated you put yours away when you weren't on the trails? I thought that meant that you planned to have the spare underneath. Do you put in the cargo area, then?



I was just looking at the pics of yours again, Adrian, and it looks like yours is, in fact, higher than mine. I requested a 1" gap, and that is what Lance and I got. I don't have Michael's pics I took here at work, but I believe he has less of a gap. Ashu, here, wasn't planning to bang his around on the rocks, so he had his made pretty close as well.

I agree with you about the complaining of costs on things. It never ceases to amaze me, either.

 

I have noticed one thing about Rockware bumpers is that on the surface they may all look alike but if you look closely there is a lot of subtle variability. That is what you get from a custom job. That is the reason cost goes up. People always ask "how much that cost you?" I don't mind giving the info if it is helpful but I at the same time I know that I am also going to get comments about how I paid too much. Well, that is my business. If someone can afford a $5000 bumper so be it if he likes it or has the money to burn. I guess I will adopt Gadgets policy of never quoting prices. It has some merit to it.

Galen,

If you compare my bumper to Darren's bumper, you will notice his corners are a bit more streamlined. I would have liked that too but it is just one of the details I missed to tell them. In the end, I still love the way it came out. Overall I am very happy with the look but more so with the quality. These guys take a fair amount of time to build one of these.

Gadget,

The 285 spare fits pretty easily for me without modification. On the stock bumper, I just pulled the spare to the rear when winching and this kept the spare from hitting the panhard bar. There is even more room now because I don't have the stock bumper brackets getting in the way.

Again all, thanks for the nice words!!

 

I've always been under the impression that there is more work to be done to get a bumper that is even remotely clean looking for the sides of the rear than the front. Thus, one of the increases in cost.

Two,I assume there's more metal involved.

Three, simple supply and demand. How many of us have front aftermarket bumpers, but don't have rears? I know it was the first thing I took off my truck because I could get the TJM so cheap from Mike that I figured I'd jump on it. There's a pretty good market for people buying aftermarket front bumpers for the "tough" look of them more so then the actual "function" of them which I'm sure helps to keep the cost down a bit as well. Hell, up until Saturday, when I finally get dirty, I'm one of these web wheelers myself.

Obviously, the other thing would be, that if some other large company like TJM was making a rear bumper for our trucks then the cost would probably be less do to the resources available to them, but as it stands, most of the rear 4Runner bumpers are either custom, or pretty damn close in the case of Steve and Trail Carnage.

Next to Steve's and Trail Carnages, the Rockware looks the most OEM to me. I'm sure Steve's has the lock on departure angle compared to the Rockware, but the Rockware looks a little nicer on the truck do to the thickness of the rear.

If money were no object, I'd probably go with a Rockware when I get a rear someday, simply because I like the look of it compared to the other rear bumpers I've seen, and I'll probably never do anything as extreme as someone like Steve in my truck (at least until it's paid for).

Bill

 

When I was at Schaefers, we measured ground to bottom of the rear bumper at street pressure. Steve's was taller and this was when he was on 285's. I think it somewhat obvious, but Steve has a bumper for climbing slowly over large rocks. Departure is a major issue. He made the bumper for his and only his truck. It works well.

The rest of you are completely missing the point of why some cost more, especially if you are sold on the idea that they should cost what a front does. Did you notice how ts1 said his truck was gone? That is because the bumper was made for his truck, not for his year or trim level, but just for his personal truck. All of the front bumper prices being considered are off the shelf made for a run of model years. Are they going to fit? Yeah. Are they going to be custom? Nope!

My recollection was that Mike's was the squarest of you three. I have no pics of it either.

Ashu is right. Prices no longer come out of my mouth. Usually the "if you have to ask, you..." comes in to play.

 

SWEET!!!

Another member down.

I went rear tire carrier, but it is cool to see my bumper without the swing.

Looks great. No doubt. Congratulations. Welcome to the exclusive club.

How many now, 8 of us?

 

That's nice! Especially without the carrier. Looks good and is a decent price. But, I'm saving up for that Tacoma Crawler (2400.00). My stock bumper can afford to be beat up some more.

It also looks like you can actually sit on the bumper like a tailgate. Nice side feature.

Is there going to be enough gap for body flex? If I understand correctly he has about a 1/2" gap between the body and Darren has about a 1" gap. And I also heard that Darren's body has flexed into his bumper near the inside corner. Darren, am I correct?

 

That is correct, Scott. My little ding is in a weird place: below the driver's side tail light on the inside corner, which is next to the lower left corner of the tailgate. It's almost like the bumper shifted forward and to the left at some point, which I can't figure out. It's just a small dent and no biggie. I haven't even really hit it yet, just small bumps here and there. Even when all flexed out, the bumper on one side is noticeably closer to the body. I wouldn't want it any closer than what mine is, especially the first time I come down on it as hard as you did your slider in AZ! (Where's that video clip already?! )

A crawler, eh? Tina gonna start letting you out of the house more?!

 

Yea, look for that video this weekend.

 

I've got a ding from my bumper on the passenger side of my rear liftgate. It looks like I have a tad less clearance on the passenger side between the side of my rear door (~2" from the bottom corner) and the bumper. When everything is flexing, a part of the bumper is pushing into my back door causing the blemish. It doesn't concern me other than the fact that I didn't notice until I was back in NC after CO4RJ.

I remember the string of e-mails Darren and I had going on about what measurements we wanted for the bumpers. I know we were both concerned about pushing the bumper up and into the body so we decided to err on the wider gap between body and bumper. I am real happy with how the twin bumpers came out.

Adrian: Mike's (the guy from Oregon, right?) was the squarest of our 3 in Buena Vista. I was at Rockware picking mine up when he was talking to Matt about what design he wanted. I think he wanted it simple and quick to save fabrication time, and maybe some dough, and so he could get it on in time to make the start of the meet.

 

Yeah, Mike is the dude from Oregon. I always thought it was funny when I was planning my bumper it turned out that Darren got in the shop before me, I had met Darren before, but got to meet his bumper later. When I was getting my bumper I met yours, but did not meet you until CO4RJ. Mike, on the other hand, I got to meet at the same time I met his bumper.

I have hit mine hard. Like so hard I thought the truck was going to break in half. I do not have flexing issues though because my sliders connect the body to the frame so there is very little if any movement between the too. If you pay close attention you can see the body moving differently in relation to the frame which causes problems, as y'all have seen, when things are stationary when they should not be.

I still have not gotten an answer, was Matt's buggy there? Based on UROC last weekend, it sure does not have much "Jeep" left.

 

The stock bumper is attached to the body. the aftermarket bumper is attached to the frame. Much more clearence is needed to allow for the differential frame and body movement.

My bumper had the same problem and I needed to drop it slightly to fix the problem. I used a stack of 3 fender washers on the main mounting points under the frame and that worked perfectly. The rest of the holes had to be redrilled to line up with the new position. Worked like a champ.

Gadget

 

This is how the corners look on my new bumper



Back view



I'm not too worried about the amount of departure angle, it has more than enough for my wheelin. This weekend I'll get more done, then I'll post a full set of pictures. To deal with the 1"+ gap It'll be covered with some weather stripping and I'm gonna add a few bumpstops to the stock bumper mounts on the sides, so if it tries to flex more than 1" it'll hit them.

you can see more of the build-up here:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...463#post269463