BIO rear bumper issues

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wareagle

wareagle

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Threads
53
Messages
773
Location
Mark - Knoxville, TN
Guy,
I am having a couple of issues with my rear bumper, wanted o see if you all had solutions

First, I have a 60" hilift. BIO attachment acts a pivot point on the 60" jack. There is lots of movement and noise on rough trails. The jack pivots upward and has smashed my tail light. I have used a strap to secure base, but occasionally it will shift upwards.

Second, the swing away locking pin often freezes up. I have tried various greases and no seize, but continue to find a lot of moisture in mechanism. The pin often freezes due to temps and/or corrosion.

Any suggestions to these issues?
 
my hi lift moves around a little but my base on bumper is bent lower than normal...so I have two heavy duty zip ties going around the base plate and the jack base plate to keep them together and prevent shifting. doesnt move at all now....

I find that I need to clean and relube mine a couple times a year to keep them going good....I clean and spray over zealously with WD40 to loosen up any corrosion and remove moisture then put silicone grease in...I spray from bottom hole and then lift pin and spray from top for cleaning and lubing...last a few months and I do it again.

hope you work yours out. they are in dust and mud and sand and weather....so have to do a little maintenance to keep them running good.
 
I bolted the end of the high lift to the bottom tray mount. i used a wing nut on top. I had the same issues with the pin.. i took it a part and lightly sanded the inside and the pin itself. Also sand the neck area nearest the ball. That area seemed to hang up more than the body of the pin. To be clear I sanded the area of the pin that goes through the black screw in thingy and it seemed to help the most.
 
The pin for my wheel mount arm was making some noise. When i pulled it i noticed a good bit of corrosion. I took my dremel with the wire wheel attachment and cleaned the threads and the hole, cleaned the pin, then used a lot of anti sieze and put it back together. Has been problem free since.

The hi-lift mount could use some tweaking, like welding a catch to the end of the base holder that prevents the bottom of the jack from coming out. A bolt and wing nut would work perfectly. My 315s on stock wheels won't allow the jack to mount. I had to use one of my 10mm spacers on the mount for the wheel and now it fits perfectly. The upper part of the jack rests firmly against the tire.
 
My pins froze once and since then i've made sure to spray them with fluid film pretty regularly. As far as the hi-lift, mine doesn't move at all. Have you tried moving the hi-lift base away or toward the tire to see if the holes on the vertical arm line up so when it's bolted in place the base is somewhat locked in place?
 
On the jack I've also been using zip ties on the base to keep it still. Just remember that UV destroys zip ties fairly quickly so they need to be replaced every couple of months.

Both my pins (one for ladder/fuel carrier, the other for spare tire) have been a constant headache. Currently they are both jammed in the up position. I need to spend some time and try some of the tips above.

I get quite a bit of rattling/clunking from the bumper and arms. Do others have the same? If so, any tips to reduce this?
 
if your arms are rattling you need to readjust the closing hasps as they will stretch some...but should not be rattling with the poly spacers on top of bumper lower that the arms rest when snugged down.
 
I've got them to the point where they are as tight as I can make them and still have my wife be able to release the closing levers. Maybe I need to try and install taller poly spacers.
 
if they are tight and sitting on top of the spacers then should not be any rattle. are you sure it is the bumper and not a trailer hitch or tools in your driver side storage bin in rear causing the noise...or bolts loose somewhere else....like remaining tire holder underneath or heaven forbid...the bolts on your bumper or attachments. There isnt anything to make noise really....

mine is bone quiet.....and my ps swingout needs the clamp adjusted so there is slightly more pressure needed to lock. only noise I hear is from my Recovery Hook vibrating and only hear it at low speeds offroad when trying to be quiet driving to hunting property LOL. otherwise it is quiet.
 
I installed a 3/8 inch bolt (tapped the jack mount base plate in the bumper) for one of the holes in the jack base plate to sit on. Keeps it from moving around. The jack body also sits up against the sidewall of my spare (255 85 16).

I have zero rattles from the entire bumper.

As someone else suggested, you may need a thicker plastic bump stop that the swing arm can pull down tight on.

I lube the locking pins every couple months with Kroil to keep them operating smoothly.

Sent from my Thunderbonner using IH8MUD
 
I love my BIOR rear, but if there is one thing that could stand to be improved it is the pin locking mechanism. I haven't had the same sort of seizing issues some of the rest of you have had just yet, but right from the start, the surface that the pin screws into wasn't completely flat so when I screwed it all the way down, it would cause the pin to just slightly cant, which in turn made it seize. I ended up making a crescent shaped half-washer type thing in order to straighten the pin out while it was torqued down. Not sure if anyone else has had a similar issue.

I don't have any rattles though and my jack sits very snug in its carrier. It's a great bumper overall and I still would get it again.
 
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FYI, I have no rattles. This is the quietest tier carrier that I have ever run. My complaints are small (except for broken tail light :mad:). Would definitely buy again.
 
saillaw said:
I've got them to the point where they are as tight as I can make them and still have my wife be able to release the closing levers. Maybe I need to try and install taller poly spacers.
Click to expand...

Mine was rattling. I retightened the ubolts and it no longer rattled but was very hard to undo. Sprayed it with a little PB blaster and it is super easy to get the latch to undo now.
 
my only complaint is I used red instead of blue loctite to mount the pins when installing...now cant get them off to clean and lube properly so I have to do the.....

-knock debris, rust, etc out with small hammer
-spray wd40 liberally from top with pin pulled up...and bottom with it both raised and inlower position
-repeat 3 more times to flush it good and get rust out and moisture barrier
-light spray of silicone from top and bottom

repeat every 3 months....


other than that it is quietest setup I have ever owned both on road and offroad...i need to adjust the u-clasp for spare tire arm to tighten slightly but otherwise is flawless and would DEFINITELY BUY ANOTHER if needed.
 
FWIW, the pins that BIOR uses are off the shelf units where the actual pin is zinc coated, but the sleeve is not. So the sleeve will always corrode and eventually make it impossible to remove the pin. We used those same pins in the beginning.

Currently we machine out pins and sleeves out of stainless with a larger diameter to resist corrosion and also breakage.
 
wareagle said:
First, I have a 60" hilift. BIO attachment acts a pivot point on the 60" jack. There is lots of movement and noise on rough trails. The jack pivots upward and has smashed my tail light. I have used a strap to secure base, but occasionally it will shift upwards.
Click to expand...

I run the same Jack. When I first received my bumper I was worried about what has happened to you. So, I ordered some adhesive backed foam rubber sheeting and cut a piece to fit where the base sits. Also after about a year or so, I realized that the the little plate that goes between the butterfly nut and the jack handle was directional on mine.... Meaning, when I install it one way it doesn't hold the jack as secure, but if I rotate it 180 degrees, it is much more secure. (and no I am not talking about with the bent pieces pointing out vs. in). With the bent pieces of that plate holding the jack, one direction fit and held the jack better than the other. If this doesn't make sense, let me know and I will try and capture it in a photo. Last thing I do, is I tighten mine with a crescent wrench. Not super tight. Just enough that it cant be removed by hand. All of these things have worked for me so that I get NO movement or vibration or noise... Hope this helps!
 
Thanks all, next time I am in the US I will retighten the U bolts, reading here I suspect that is my problem. I only hope I haven't done any damage as I recently did a 9000+ mile trip with the rear bumper clunking the whole way (and many of those miles I had my pop-up camper attached). I just assumed the clunking was from the spare tire arm (my spare is heavy as s***, 35 inch 295 Nitto trail grapplers).

Other than the noise I have been happy with the bumper. I did however break my Jerry can holder. After the second day on some Moab trails, with two full 20 liter Jerry cans in the holder, one of the bottom welds broke. The holder still held the fuel but caused it to pivot a bit on that side and bend part of the holder. I'll try to remember to snap some photos next time I'm home.
 
saillaw said:
Other than the noise I have been happy with the bumper. I did however break my Jerry can holder. After the second day on some Moab trails, with two full 20 liter Jerry cans in the holder, one of the bottom welds broke. The holder still held the fuel but caused it to pivot a bit on that side and bend part of the holder. I'll try to remember to snap some photos next time I'm home.
Click to expand...

You have the ladder with can holder or the one that just holds two cans?
 
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