Help me choose a rear bumper (1 Viewer)

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I’d advise to go back to stock. Swingout bumpers are annoying as s*** for a lot of reasons, had one… sold it.
Yep, that's why I went JW,
 
Yep, that's why I went JW,
I wanted the jw carrier, but there was no eta date so I had a similar one built and that turned out to be garbage. Contacted jw a couple weeks ago asking if it was going to be available before I needed it in November with no response. The victory bumper isn’t my favorite by far, but out of the options it has more modularity and they’ve had no problems running to get measurements when I call asking a bunch of questions wasting their time. I really wish it was higher clearance, but it is what it is.
 
I wanted the jw carrier, but there was no eta date so I had a similar one built and that turned out to be garbage. Contacted jw a couple weeks ago asking if it was going to be available before I needed it in November with no response.
The JW Offroad website lists a lead time in the description for each product. For the tire carrier it says 3-4 weeks. I think it was about a month when I bought mine a few months ago.
 
The JW Offroad website lists a lead time in the description for each product. For the tire carrier it says 3-4 weeks. I think it was about a month when I bought mine a few months ago.
Last I had heard they were redoing the 470 carrier and the 460 version was going to be designed when they got the 470 version worked out. Guess it’s too late now.

Just looked at the site and the 470 version is still saying preorder. There’s not even a swingout listed for the 460.
 
This just isn't true.

It's all about the driver. A bone stock GX is more than capable in the right hands. I take my 2wd truck on some of the mellower Jeep rated trails with nothing more than a little body scrape. Just have to pick good lines.

Big lifts and huge tires do not make a vehicle much more capable unless it's rock crawling. The GX is not a rock crawler.
 
It's all about the driver. A bone stock GX is more than capable in the right hands. I take my 2wd truck on some of the mellower Jeep rated trails with nothing more than a little body scrape. Just have to pick good lines.

Big lifts and huge tires do not make a vehicle much more capable unless it's rock crawling. The GX is not a rock crawler.
Yes, a driver is key, but a good driver with more clearance goes farther than a good driver scraping rocks.
 
Yes, a driver is key, but a good driver with more clearance goes farther than a good driver scraping rocks.
What is the point of taking a GX in those kind of trails? It is not the right tool for the job. When you start putting 33"+ tires and 3" lifts you are going way beyond the parameters of what the GX is designed for. I do get it though. Most guys are doing this for the look and nothing more. There are a very few selected rigs that the owners know that they are going to be destroying and pulling out the wallet after every hard trail they encounter.

I see this time and time again with 4Runners and Tacomas broken on Jeep trails. Independent suspension is very limited on what it can do. There are very few owners rock crawling 4 and above rated trails with the GX.
 
I’m on 32s, 2” lift, front and rear lockers. I can go 99% of the same places as anyone else just a little slower. No body chops, no extra weight from big useless steel or giant tires. Very nimble. The best part is I still get 14/18 MPG.

I’ve had plenty of 35” setups on other vehicles. The very minor offroad advantages are not worth the sacrifice, cost and pain in the ass factors unless it’s a dedicated trail rig. The bigger you go, the more s*** you have to carry and it compounds total weight and cost to drive. s*** breaks faster. Not worth it for 5 minutes of fame on the trail every once in a while.

Are there times I wish I had 1-2” more clearance? Yeah it would be nice here and there… but even guys with 37s and 6” lifts always want to go bigger. No matter what you run, there will always be deeper mud, taller rocks, and other douchebags with bigger tires than you. The manlet & tiny dick complex is very real in the offroad community, though not nearly as bad as the bro-dozer f250 crowd.

Bottom line is big tires and lifts are stupid on a GX. It’s a very capable grocery getter, it’s not a rock crawler.
 
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GX is way more capable off road than the 100 series land cruiser. It's the same chassis as the 4Runner. If you wanna rock 32's fine, but this notion that the GX/Prado platform is nothing but a grocery getter is ludicrous. It is not limited by design to dirt roads and mall parking lots. I have 32's right now. On the trails "I" travel, I've beat the s#!t out of my rear bumper and skid plates. These obstacles would have stopped stock height trucks on 265's simply due to clearance issues. I can either stop going there, or get bigger tires for more clearance. The GX is plenty capable, only limited by low hanging plastic dangly bits.
 
These obstacles would have stopped stock height trucks on 265's simply due to clearance issues. I can either stop going there, or get bigger tires for more clearance.

A good set of traction devices will solve that issue. Just ask any Dakar racer with low clearance vehicles how they do it. I only have 2 cheap plastic ones and they are the saving grace on leges.
The GX is plenty capable, only limited by low hanging plastic dangly bits.

That I can agree to for sure. Unfortunately the assumption of "bigger is better" just does not hold water when you are navigating hard trails. Thinking "less is more" and "go slower to go faster" should be in the mindset. Anytime you add weight and increase height to a vehicle, the capability and reliability decreases proportionately.
 
GX is way more capable off road than the 100 series land cruiser. It's the same chassis as the 4Runner. If you wanna rock 32's fine, but this notion that the GX/Prado platform is nothing but a grocery getter is ludicrous. It is not limited by design to dirt roads and mall parking lots. I have 32's right now. On the trails "I" travel, I've beat the s#!t out of my rear bumper and skid plates. These obstacles would have stopped stock height trucks on 265's simply due to clearance issues. I can either stop going there, or get bigger tires for more clearance. The GX is plenty capable, only limited by low hanging plastic dangly bits.

I never once said it was limited to dirt roads and parking lots. I said it's a very capable grocery getter. A 4Runner is also a very capable grocery getter. "Very capable" being the key words there. You can drive a Prius up a dirt road. I would not consider it "very capable".

My GX goes all kinds of places and am not afraid to scratch it. It's also very pleasant to drive and park at Whole Foods and has plenty of room for bags of overpriced food. It's not a rock crawler. It never will be. A bone-stock short wheelbase Jeep Rubicon is a WAY better vehicle for off roading. The GX/4Runner is a better vehicle all around.

Miner's Gulch a few weeks back, made it all the way up to Yankee Hill without bypassing any of the boulders. Every side-by-side I saw took a bypass. I do not consider this impressive, but it's the only picture I have. Yeah I banged the skids a couple times and used the sliders, that's what they are for. Super glad I did not have 500 extra lbs of expensive s*** to get me another ½" of clearance!

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All of this back and forth because I want a swingout bumper to get a 33” spare out of the cargo area😂. Some of us like to push the limits and some of us don’t.
Have you considered to put it on your roof rack? Plenty of room up there.
 
Have you considered to put it on your roof rack? Plenty of room up there.
I’ve considered it, but it limits the ability to take it some of the places I go due to driving through low clearance areas. Plus when a tent goes up there I’d be back in the same position. In a perfect world I wouldn’t need a spare, but being on one of our properties with a slashed sidewall or 60 miles down the beach without one isn’t something I want to deal with.
 
Did you settle on anything yet? I am in the same boat. Just need the tire carrier and finally ended here looking for a bumper. Not sure if jw carrier is a good solution.
 
Did you settle on anything yet? I am in the same boat. Just need the tire carrier and finally ended here looking for a bumper. Not sure if jw carrier is a good solution.
Ordered a victory rear bumper with one of the swingouts. In the end the modularity is what did it for me. Some of the other options could be custom configured, but if my setup changes in the future it’s much easier to move things around on the adventure carriers than having to cut the welds and reconfigure it. The expedition one seems to be a good mix of modularity and clearance, but the way the spare tire swingout mounts to the door is a no for me.

If I knew I could get a jw swingout carrier for the 460 before November it’s what I would’ve gone with out of the current choices, but they’re currently redesigning the 470 swingout and the 460 version won’t be made until afterwards. Not a fan of the jw door mounted carrier.
 
Did you settle on anything yet? I am in the same boat. Just need the tire carrier and finally ended here looking for a bumper. Not sure if jw carrier is a good solution.

I rocked a JW roof rack for a couple months and it went to s*** fast. Rust everywhere and both side rails completely snapped from it. I did have a RTT on it but I spoke with them directly before purchasing and they assured me it was plenty strong.

I live in Tennessee too so rust should not be an issue.

Not saying the tire carrier isn’t any good but I for sure won’t be buying from them again.
 

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