The guy that was going to help me build a front bumper, changed his job and is gone a lot now. So I was thinking about asking another guy that has a custom metal fab shop if he would be interested in doing it? I happened to see him standing outside his showroom last week and swung in to talk. I asked him if he would be interested in building a bumper for my jeep? To my surprise he said without skipping a beat...."Not at all". I looked at him with a strange look I'm sure, said ok, and started to walk away. He stopped me by saying....

"Reason being....I built one for a guy awhile back, and the guy got in an accident. The other guy's lawyers saw his bumper and said that their client would not have gotten hurt as bad if he still had the original bumper installed, as the new aftermarket bumper didn't have the "crumple factor". So they ended up suing the guy because of it." Said they had grounds because of the laws in this state.

He didn't say how it all ended up, but that the guy went through all kinds of bs because of it. I said hmmmm....that's interesting. And as I walked away he said "it might be something to consider". It's not going to stop me from getting another bumper someday, and I'm not trying to detour anybody from building, or buying an aftermarket bumper. But I did feel obligated to share this info here with anybody that might want to know, so they can check the laws in their own state and decide for themselves if it's worth it.

 

Hmmm, that's interesting.

 

I've heard of these cases before, but I've never seen anyone actually involved in it. The grounds for the suit are 100% logical tho. I know if you cut the frame in the front in some places you can get a ticket because it damages the "crumple zones" and causes improper equipment issues. How you get a ticket I don't know, but my cousin was just in his driving class and I was looking through the book and it was listed as an improper equipment issue.

 

Really, it sounds like a lawsuit was going to happen regardless of the bumper.

 

That is absolute crap. Everyone wants to sue everyone these days. This is a case of buyer beware. Did the guy that had the bumper built think he was getting a d.o.t. approved bumper? If you think you get that guarantee with any aftermarket bumper then you need to keep the safe plastic stock bumper

 

This is one of the reasons I drive the speed limit and give allot of room ahead of me. You may even say I drive like a old man but I
like driving slow and safe. With the heavy after market bumpers front and back you can do allot of damage and get none in return. It's a different mentality out there. Each man for himself and if he can sue you over some small detail like this then he will. Any way for a fast buck. Drive safe and watch out for the idiots. But then again shit happens.

 

Surprising you don't hear about things like this more often. It is not just aftermarket bumpers for Jeeps, but for many 4x4 vehicles. Essentially they are battering rams. I still want one though.

when I was 18 I rear-ended a truck. The truck had one of those diamond pattern metal bumpers which I barely scratched. However, my front end was up to the windshield. good for them, bad for me.