Setting aside the hoops/no hoops decision, I have a question for you. And don't take this the wrong way. IIRC in past threads on bumpers, some folks will take issue with the construction, bracing, steel thickness, etc. of bumper A vs. B, etc. Considering that all of the other "serious" bumpers (e.g., ARB, TJM, MetalTech, TrailTailor) are one piece across the front, what are your thoughts about how the Rhino bumper compares? Wouldn't a multi-section, bolted bumper be weaker? (Glad to hear that it isn't noisy/creaking/groaning at the joints).
I'm not Matt nor do I have a Rhino bumper but I've run several "one piece" bumpers and several modular. Again it all comes down to your needs. Is a ARB or TJM going to be stronger than the modular rhino bumper? Sure, especially on an offset hit on one of the wings. But it will still be a heck of a lot stronger than the stock Tupperware. On the trail the wing strength likely doesn't matter because your approach angle is MUCH better than an ARB or TJM and where you might be dragging the ARB over the rocks and banging it around you may never make contact with the wings on the Rhino in years of wheeling. I ran several bumpers on my FJ and my favorite was the All Pro Offroad modular. It was so tucked up and the wings gave some amazing clearance it didn't matter that they were not reinforced structurally beyond what the bends in the metal gave them because they never touched anything other than bushes and trees branches in the 5 years of hard use I gave them. The center of the bumper housed the winch cradle and bolted straight onto the frame. That did make HARD contact with the rock many times but it was as stout as could be and didn't mind one bit.
I actually hit a deer with this bumper as well and sustained no damage beyond a bunch of hide and fur stuck in my fairlead and lightbar. If the deer would have been bigger or my truck a little shorter it would have been a different story but it took ~200lbs of deer at 60MPH without flinching so its not like these types of bumpers are flimsy.
tl;dr I have zero concerns about the strength of this bumper, and it's fully airbag compliant and crash tested.
The question of strength is a good one, and it's one I considered and was concerned about. I've almost always had ARB bull bars in the past with a few exceptions here and there like the aluminium CBI front on my Tacoma. Literally as soon as I saw the Rhino bumper however, I was not concerned any more about strength, mounting, quality, etc.
My family's safety is far more important to me than tire clearance, approach angle, looks, and everything else combined, so for me the first consideration was to buy something that has been crash tested and rated which severely limits the choices in the US. Australia is a great place to look because they have much stricter regulations on what's street legal, and Rhino is fully crash/airbag tested and compliant. We have some great custom options here in the US, but the shops don't have the resources or scale to go through the same level of testing. For me, it made perfect sense to look to Australian options for that reason alone.
Since I was able to install it myself, I got very familiar with the mounting system, thickness of the steel and general design. I am very impressed with how it bolts together, and there are redundancies built in to ensure it holds up. I was a little skeptical of the modular nature, but I prefer now as it allowed me to dial in the perfect amount of spacing between the body and the bumper everywhere. Since it's a full replacement bumper instead of the kind where you have to cut the stock bumper, the ability to align it just right is a huge plus, and you can adjust the left, center and right sections independently. It's more work on the front end without a doubt (pun intended), but 100% worth it.
After driving on the highway at high speeds, "crawling" on Hells Revenge and Poison Spider, wheeling on washboard and rough roads and everything in between, the bumper never moved, flexed, creaked, groaned, or did anything other than stay put. I marked all the mounting bolts with a paint pen, and none of the bolts have moved either which I will periodically recheck.
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@RyanR stated, one of the biggest benefits of this design is that it simply doesn't hit anything (look at the video in post 82 above to see what I mean). With a huge bull bar up front like the ARB I had on my 14, I was dragging and hitting it quite a bit which I would presume causes fatigue and stress over time that lessens its ability to absorb impacts and might even cause frame damage eventually. We saw that happen already with the VPR bumper on the truck that was shipped to Mauritania, and the frame was cracked shortly thereafter because of a poor mounting solution. I've also seen some other bull bars cause cracking at the frame horns which you can find pretty easily with a google search (Mud results appear there too).
Edit adding pics: