How are you guys resizing pictures to post on this forum? I would post some pictures but says the files are too big
If that helps keep your anxiety in check, go for it. Dissent has been making very high quality bumpers for years and has a strong following. You may be the first person that I've heard express concerns about the robustness of the recovery points. As a shop, if it helps you avoid callbacks, welding may be worthwhile. As a lone owner and self installer, I like the idea that is modular - I can easily remove parts to adjust them, resolve issues without grinding welds, and have the ability to replace individual damaged parts, if needed. Maybe you should stick willth the simpler full bumper, one piece, replacement options?
I just know that a slotted hole with a bolt through is going to allow the part to eventually slide to the end of the slot. This is a recovery point that is going to get jerked on, and have thousands of pounds of pressure against it and possibly severe shock loads, it needs to be very secure.
Why are ARB recovery point holes not slotted? Why does ARB have you drill and put stake bolts in their front winch bumper mounting points? Its so the bumper will not slide in the slotted adjustment holes once its adjusted into place.
I have attention to detail and I noticed there is no way to make the Dissent bumper stay in place in a hard pull once its all bolted together because all the holes are slotted and I think its a design issue.
Maybe everyone is ok with the bumper possibly sliding back a half inch or more and putting stress on the small 5/16" bolts and aluminum wing parts and pulling the bumper out of alignment but I'm not ok with that. Once I have all the bumper lines adjusted correctly and everything in place I want it to stay in place and not move, bend or break any mounting hardware when using a recovery point.
I also have a problem with the clearance issue of the recovery point on the passenger side hitting a welded on bracket on the frame and not allowing me to center the bumper, but maybe everyone else is ok with that. I'm not sure what to do with this problem now because I don't want to cut that bracket off the frame because it may be needed for other items to mount to, I'm just not sure at this point. To clearance the passenger side steel recovery bracket to clear the frame bracket would mean many hours of taking the bumper all back apart to remove the recovery point, grind down the area that is hitting the frame bracket. touch up the paint on the bracket, reinstall and adjust everything again. I could probably cut the bracket on the frame off to clear but its not easy to get to and it would have been much easier to do with the bumper off the vehicle. I'm also not sure if that bracket is needed for other things that I'm planning on installing like a LRA fuel tank and possibly rear BudBuilt skid plate.
Also if this is a problem on my vehicle its probably a problem on others too. This is something that should be addressed in the directions before the whole bumper is installed. The recovery point bracket probably needs to be changed slightly in their drawings so this doesn't continue to happen. If I was doing another one of these I would know to grind down the recovery point bracket to clear.
I also have a problem with the bumper center piece vibrating against the frame, its too close to the hitch crossmember on the drivers side, but not on the passenger side, it looks like the drivers side part of it was overbroke in the forming process. If it wasn't bent so much it would be fine. This also wouldn't be a problem if the bumper center piece still bolted to the hitch with the 7/16" bolts in the center like they used to but they changed the design. I may be able to put some large crescent wrenches on it with some tape and rags to protect the finish and bend it down some.
I also followed the directions for drilling and tapping the two bolt holes on the bottom of the hitch for the 7/16" bolts only to find out the directions were wrong for my version bumper and I didn't need to do this. The new directions were not out yet when they sent this bumper to me. I think the new directions are out now and I will print out the new directions and go over them but there should have been a note in with the bumper that the online directions were not correct for this version of the bumper.
The two thicker bump stops supplied in the kit for the swing arms also do not work and are too long. I emailed Dissent and they were right on it and are sending me new shorter bump stops.
Mainly I was wondering if anyone else has ran into these issues and what was done to resolve the problems. These bumpers are expensive and I expect things to fit properly paying this kind of money. I also know lots of installers out there just throw things together and hope for the best.
I have a high attention to detail and I want everything to be lined up, centered and not get out of alignment if its actually used hard.
These Landcruisers are heavy empty, they are crazy heavy loaded. If burried to the frame you also have all the rolling resitance to deal with and using a winch or tow strap there could be 12k to 20k pounds or more of pressure against one recovery point. I don't think it would rip off but I do think the bracket will slide to the end of the slotted hole and everything attached to it will move or possibly bend. I want to solve any problems now and not be back in the shop going wow thats all bent out of place now and trying to fix things afterwards.
I will post some pictures of what I'm talking about when I get time.
