Front bumper or Rear? Which to do first?

[duggy]

Truthfully, if I had an alternate means of carrying a 35" spare tire that's not inside my trunk or on top of my roof rack (because of RTT), I probably wouldn't get a rear bumper. I've gone down some pretty steep ledges on the stock rear so I feel the departure angle argument is meh.

The rear bumper was useful to store my hi-lift and mounting a camping light but I've also come up with alternate solutions for those on my 100. The cost/benefit graph is not linear in a rear bumper purchase. You get more for your money with a front bumper, IMO.

With that being said, my BIOR rear bumper should be done soon with the modifications I had Mike complete!

 

[Callahan Offroad]

If you need a winch, the front bumper is the obvious choice. If you want a better departure angle, then the rear is the choice. OR throw everyone for a loop and buy sliders instead!

 

[RobRed]

Well Sliders are the obvious first choice.

Regarding the rear: I bought that first to solve a several issues.

- Spare tire drags over just about everything and I kind of need it to be good and ready
- Carrying Jerry cans full of unleaded inside the truck kinda sucks
- Improved recovery points
- Improved departure (if I wasn't dragging the spare I was grinding the tow hitch)
- Ability to carry two spares (one stock location the other on a swing out)
- Improved cosmetics (my stock rear was chewed up)

Having stated all of that I have a Warn 9.5xp-s coming to me and I will be ordering a slee front bumper to mount it to. total time between rear and front maybe 6 weeks.

take a look at these rear shots with a 285 spare:

 

[Altaf]

I finally got to wheel the LX and I'd have to agree with those recommending getting the rear bumper first. I was on some pretty narrow jeep trails and the rear was often in jeopardy. Traction was very poor on many parts of the trail because of snow and mud over rocks. The rear tends to slide around and there were more than a few occasions where I was fortunate to avoid trail damage. The MetalTech sliders took some hits and their rear slider kick-out really works. Granted I'm not an experienced off-roader but these narrow trails magnified the size of the Cruiser. The Jeeps were much more nimble and navigated through obstacles I had difficulty with. I need to go out with some cruiserheads and get some more experience to learn how to wheel this thing proper.

I want get the Slee rear bumper but with the small side hoop like he's done with the 80 series bumper. Has anyone had Slee do this to their 100 series rear bumper?

 

[fireball]

Slee won't modify their bumpers in any way. You can contact Mike at BIOR and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help out and is willing to tweak his bumpers to fit your needs.

BTW, let me know if you want to come up to Rausch Creek sometime for a day wheeling trip!