Rear bumper saved my Jeep today

[ZachMan]

Well I backed into a huge (4' in diameter) tree while offroad today. I was going atleast 5 mph in reverse and boom! I have a 130lbs. rear bumper (no tire carrier) 1/4" steel for the body and 1/2" for the mounting points to the original 8 bolt holes. Well it saved my Jeep! One of the welds was cracked on it and it scraped some paint off right under my right rear light. This could have been a $3-$4k damge bill easy if I still had the stock bumper. My unibody did great, I was actually very worried, but once I looked everything is fine. The bumper and the unibody must have taken alot of the shock because it scraped into my Jeep, but the bumper is a good 1/4" away from where it did the damage.So I guess a 130lbs. bumper can give before the unibody. :clap:

So now I know steel bumpers are a must offroad!

 

[DDCxj]

my front bumper from Protofab 4x4 has saved my frontend from a tree, a carolla (which I totaled), a 2002 Saab 93, and a guardrail. Out of four incidents, I paid 2.50 for a botl and $3.00 for touchup paint. Best investment I've made.

 

[taco502]

my front bumper from Protofab 4x4 has saved my frontend from a tree, a carolla (which I totaled), a 2002 Saab 93, and a guardrail. Out of four incidents, I paid 2.50 for a botl and $3.00 for touchup paint. Best investment I've made.

You need sober up before you get behind the wheel.

 

[DDCxj]

not drunk, just stupid

tree= 2mph on 2" of ice in a driveway
carolla= one of those wet leaves incidents (first time I could ever get my brakes to lock up besides off road)
Saab 93= she was on the wrong side of the road
guardrail= hub and u-joint busted going 40 and cut left across the road and hit

I could drive my sisters 89 POS Camry for 20 years and nothing would happen but i could drive my jeep for 20 minutes and a thousand things could go wrong.

Dean

 

[Lucas]

130lbs and it still broke? Something needs better engineering. My tomken is 1.2 that weight and has saved my hatch from numerous backups into trees after sliding (fast) downhill.

 

[ZachMan]

Well after further looking my unibody is fine, but I did bend the piece of sheetmetal that comes off the bottom of the rear unibody rail and attaches to the rear of the Jeep where the bumper attaches, no biggie I guess.

 

[korda]

Add some pieces that bolt up under the rear framrail like a hitch.

I also agree with Lucas, a weld shouldn't have let go. I've plowed into my fair share of stuff and I've never had a weld break, with metal less than half as thick as 1/4".