Unbranded rear bumper - 100 Series ? (1 Viewer)

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There are lots of places in the world where you’re a fool for only having one spare.

And that place is most definitely OP's location of Portland, OR

If you are a fool for only having one spare, you are probably a fool for using a budget bumper with questionable welds and materials.

That part of the world probably requires level 4 ceramic plates too.... but Portland? junkies aren't using AP rounds, level 3 would work fine.
 
Portland: I'm willing to bet there are plenty of places that 2 spares is handy.

Speculation: Plenty of logging land where you are deep into wilderness. Let's no forget the "mental toll" of having a non repairable flat and running w/o any further recourse if another flat happens.

Ask me how I know: in Baja 1.5 hrs out of Ensenada (1 hrs mild off-road). Got a sliced sidewall about 11p (admitted shouldn't have run after dark....sometime ya gotta). That stopped our progress and had to plan to run back to town next am. So, that ended up being a 10-12 her delay & end of trip. Second spare would have been insurance, especially if you are working with limited time off. Good news is we camped @ top of mountain burning petrified cow dung for fire to keep us warm.

How does that saying go:

Two is One and One is None | The Power of Redundancy​


Forgive me for rambling.....
 
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Portland: I'm willing to bet there are plenty of places that 2 spares is handy.

Speculation: Plenty of logging land where you are deep into wilderness. Let's no forget the "mental toll" of having a non repairable flat and running w/o any further recourse if another flat happens.

Ask me how I know: in Baja 1.5 hrs out of Ensenada (1 hrs mild off-road). Got a sliced sidewall about 11p (admitted shouldn't have run after dark....sometime ya gotta). That stopped our progress and had to plan to run back to town next am. So, that ended up being a 10-12 her delay & end of trip. Second spare would have been insurance, especially if you are working with limited time off. Good news is we camped @ top of mountain burning petrified cow dung for fire to keep us warm.

How does that saying go:

Two is One and One is None | The Power of Redundancy​


Forgive me for rambling.....

You better have two extra drive shafts, 4 jerry cans, 15 gallons of water, 2 spare LCAs, a full set of wheel bearings, a set of spare u joints, 2 spare calipers and 2 bleed kits, 2 spare brake lines for every location, a gallon of brake fluid, 4 extra keys, 2 gallons of ATF, 2 extra bolts for everything on the rig..... I can go on and on. "Two is one, and one is none" Right?

The key here is bring a spare for the highly probability failures, don't be stupid, don't be in a hurry, and develop skills to fix what you can't replace....
 
You better have two extra drive shafts, 4 jerry cans, 15 gallons of water, 2 spare LCAs, a full set of wheel bearings, a set of spare u joints, 2 spare calipers and 2 bleed kits, 2 spare brake lines for every location, a gallon of brake fluid, 4 extra keys, 2 gallons of ATF, 2 extra bolts for everything on the rig..... I can go on and on. "Two is one, and one is none" Right?

The key here is bring a spare for the highly probability failures, don't be stupid, don't be in a hurry, and develop skills to fix what you can't replace....
 
Point taken. However, need to consider the expertise (or lack there of) of passengers. Tire = easy, all the above = difficult for Joe average (that be me).

That is not my story and I'm not stickin too it.
 
I wanted to move my spare tire out from under the rig because the most likely spot that I would blow out a tire would be pulling the bead off the rim in a rock garden. How'm I gonna get the tire out from under there when the truck is stuck between a rock and a hard place and I'm wishing I had 35s for one extra inch of clearance? I've been in a lot of spots where it would be super difficult to jack the truck up high enough to get the wheel off, let alone drop a spare tire out from underneath it. Dunno. I'm probably just paranoid, but I like the idea that I can get to it easily when I need it.

Now, as for that cheap bumper - that thing is f-ugly and the departure angle looks like it would be worse than stock. I'd look for other options.
 
I wanted to move my spare tire out from under the rig because the most likely spot that I would blow out a tire would be pulling the bead off the rim in a rock garden. How'm I gonna get the tire out from under there when the truck is stuck between a rock and a hard place and I'm wishing I had 35s for one extra inch of clearance? I've been in a lot of spots where it would be super difficult to jack the truck up high enough to get the wheel off, let alone drop a spare tire out from underneath it. Dunno. I'm probably just paranoid, but I like the idea that I can get to it easily when I need it.

Now, as for that cheap bumper - that thing is f-ugly and the departure angle looks like it would be worse than stock. I'd look for other options.
Now that's the best reason I've heard so far. Did not think of it as I have never experienced it in the mode I travel (car camping....er overlanding).
 
I wanted to move my spare tire out from under the rig because the most likely spot that I would blow out a tire would be pulling the bead off the rim in a rock garden. How'm I gonna get the tire out from under there when the truck is stuck between a rock and a hard place and I'm wishing I had 35s for one extra inch of clearance? I've been in a lot of spots where it would be super difficult to jack the truck up high enough to get the wheel off, let alone drop a spare tire out from underneath it. Dunno. I'm probably just paranoid, but I like the idea that I can get to it easily when I need it.

I had exactly this happen to me in Baja in September, though it was about 6 hours south of Ensenada. I had a spare on my roof, though it was for a 4-runner that was with our group, because the trail was not passable without the extra clearance not having a spare underneath brings. I got a puncture flat on the way in. Then I rolled a bead and sure as hell wouldn't have been able to access my own spare had it been under the truck. Luckily we were able to reseat it on the trail, otherwise I would have had to borrow the spare from the other 100 series in our group. Then, to top it off, I bent my steering arm in a hole a little further along the trail to the point where the tire was rubbing on the steering arm at the upper ball joint, and by the time we made it out, there was a deep groove in my sidewall. Not quite to the ply, thankfully. So I had a puncture in one tire and sidewall damage on the spare I replaced it with. All in the course of about 75 offroad miles.

So I'm all for getting the spare out from underneath, and have a new appreciation for carrying two spares (or at least two per group of 100's) when you're really out there.

Hardest trail of my life. It was great!
 
I would have no qualms at all about putting a mountain bike on that bumper. I’d just hesitate to tow with it. It’s fine, it does it’s job well, it just lacks some elegance that the more expensive bumpers have. I use the vehicle to camp and to do some moderate four wheeling, I suppose I go “overlanding” but I really hate that word. Since I’m parking on level ground at camp, I don’t need shocks on the swing outs. I find the rack an inconvenient place to store things, and I like to keep the wind noise and center of gravity low. This bumper is fine if you aren’t towing and doing hard core rock crawling.
Just finished the install of mine. It comes with zero instructions, wiring the lights took a bit to figure out, I ended up just patching into the trailer harness. Overall it's fine. Not great, but just fine. It replaces the broken old flapping plastic bumper quite well. The swing outs (I only put the tire one on for now) is fine. It swings. Overall it fit... fine. Needed some hammering to get it on.

Agree, I wouldn't tow much with it, maybe a utility trailer. But it's not going to fall off anytime soon. I sprayed the underside of it with a ton of woolwax and it other than some surface rust from before, I suspect it'll be just ..fine.

Looks - it looks like cheap metal off road bumper. The sides hang down way too long. The swing out tire carrier completely covers the rear taillight. The cheap plastic tail lights it comes with are very cheap and they stick out off of the bumper. (On the plus side, when I break one, they're $14 on eBay for a pair.)

Would I buy it again, yes probably - it saved ~$1000+ from the next cheapest option. I used the savings to buy an on-sale ironman front bumper. Would I recommend it to someone else - meh... I kind of feel like I got lucky that it actually fit. Anyone buying it should just be someone that would rather take the risk vs. spend the $.
 
Just finished the install of mine. It comes with zero instructions, wiring the lights took a bit to figure out, I ended up just patching into the trailer harness. Overall it's fine. Not great, but just fine. It replaces the broken old flapping plastic bumper quite well. The swing outs (I only put the tire one on for now) is fine. It swings. Overall it fit... fine. Needed some hammering to get it on.

Agree, I wouldn't tow much with it, maybe a utility trailer. But it's not going to fall off anytime soon. I sprayed the underside of it with a ton of woolwax and it other than some surface rust from before, I suspect it'll be just ..fine.

Looks - it looks like cheap metal off road bumper. The sides hang down way too long. The swing out tire carrier completely covers the rear taillight. The cheap plastic tail lights it comes with are very cheap and they stick out off of the bumper. (On the plus side, when I break one, they're $14 on eBay for a pair.)

Would I buy it again, yes probably - it saved ~$1000+ from the next cheapest option. I used the savings to buy an on-sale ironman front bumper. Would I recommend it to someone else - meh... I kind of feel like I got lucky that it actually fit. Anyone buying it should just be someone that would rather take the risk vs. spend the $.
Great review!

Now that I’ve had mine on for a year I still think it’s fine.

It’s proved its strength. I came across a very stuck jeep a few months ago, he had a 10,000 lb winch but nothing to attach it to, so we hooked it to my back bumper. That bumper took the full load, at an angle even, and didn’t shift at all. In the end we couldn’t get that jeep out, it was so deep in the muck.

The lights suck, mine kept filling with water. A couple months ago I replaced them with the $14 ones off Amazon and tried to seal them up with silicone. So far so good.

Behind the lights there’s kind of a cup with no drainage that collects mud and rocks, less than ideal. I’m showing quite a few spots of rust and wish I’d done some coating before installation. Since I live in California that’s about the last thing I would have thought of at the time.

I only put the jerry can holder on when I’m going adventuring, it only takes a few minutes to install.

And yeah, I still really hate how far down the sides go, there’s just no need for it. But I saved a ton of money, and it works, so I’m happy with my decision.
 
Great review!

Now that I’ve had mine on for a year I still think it’s fine.

It’s proved its strength. I came across a very stuck jeep a few months ago, he had a 10,000 lb winch but nothing to attach it to, so we hooked it to my back bumper. That bumper took the full load, at an angle even, and didn’t shift at all. In the end we couldn’t get that jeep out, it was so deep in the muck.

The lights suck, mine kept filling with water. A couple months ago I replaced them with the $14 ones off Amazon and tried to seal them up with silicone. So far so good.

Behind the lights there’s kind of a cup with no drainage that collects mud and rocks, less than ideal. I’m showing quite a few spots of rust and wish I’d done some coating before installation. Since I live in California that’s about the last thing I would have thought of at the time.

I only put the jerry can holder on when I’m going adventuring, it only takes a few minutes to install.

And yeah, I still really hate how far down the sides go, there’s just no need for it. But I saved a ton of money, and it works, so I’m happy with my decision.
Good call with the lights. I'll dig up some silicone tape or messily slap silicone from my bathroom tub job on them. Nice thing about $14 parts is that they're $14 parts :)

I bet we could strategically hit the bumper on a ledge of rocks to bend it in a bit. Could look kind of cool... or it could come out terrible and bend parts we don't want to bend. :rofl:
 

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