airagain

I just installed both the LoD front bumper and rear bumper with tire carrier. After reading many different stories about many issues experienced with these installations I was a little worried about the rear install in particular.

I started with the front winch bumper with fog lights. The install of the bumper took about 2 hours and was fairly straight forward. I did not need to splice the wiring for the fogs as it was simple enough to get some slack by separating the wires on the passenger side from the wiring harness and then adding some flexible automotive conduit to enclose the wires again. The install of the Superwinch was a bit of a challenge. It was necessary to install the winch after the bumper to make it easier to access the bumper nuts. Plus, I was working alone and the two would be very heavy together. Getting the bolts up through the bottom of the winch plate and in to the nuts in the winch base was a challenge but not impossible with a little patience.

I was very concerned about the install of the rear bumper as I have read about some install issues with this bumper on the internet. It seems that Lod has been listening and working to make corrections. First, an observation. The stock rear bumper is a piece of @#$#. I could not believe how light and unsubstantial it is . My 11 year old could take it and throw it 15 feet in the air. It took me about 15 minutes to remove the stock bumper and tow hitch. Seeing as how the Lod bumper comes with no directions(which I completely don't understand unless it is a way to avoid liability or something) I found information on the internet my best source of instruction. There has been much talk about alignment of this bumper along with clearance from the body that I wanted to make sure I had clearances that would keep it from hitting the body. The best way to achieve this is to first mount the two plates provided by Lod to the frame rails. Don't tighten the stock bolts all the way. Once installed slide the bumper on and place the one bolt on each side that can go through the existing holes in the frame rails and tighten slightly. Now, align the bumper as there is some play to move it up and down. Once you have it where you want it really tighten down the factory bolts to maintain the position of the plates on the frame rail. Remove the other two bolts holding the bumper and pull it off again. Now using the two holes on each plate as a guide drill through the frame rail with a 1/2" bit. This should take about 5 minutes with a sharp bit. Having used the plate as a guide you have now placed the bolt holes where they need to be to maintain alignment of the bumper. Slide the bumper on again and install all 3 bolts on each side as provided by LoD. Now if you open the door on top the the bumper you can push the right side bolt up through the hole in the rear frame rail and cinch the bolt tight. The left side bolt hole will need to be drilled through the rear frame rail. Again, using the hole in the bumper as a guide drill a 1/2" hole through the bottom of the rear frame rail. Push the bolt up through the hole, put the nut on and cinch it up. I now removed the stock tire carrier and put the bolts back in the existing holes. I took the grommet out the the break light wire comes through and pulled it to the end of the wire close to the connector. I then feed the extra wire back in to the tailgate and reinstalled the grommet. I did not want the extra wire flopping around. Installing the tire carrier was easy. I applied some grease to the shaft and slid the carrier over it. I worked it down with a couple swings back and forth and then took a block of wood and gave it about 3 wacks with my 22 ounce framing hammer....done. I installed the latching hardware and reinstalled my spare. The carrier fits tight with now rattles at all.

mrsig

Cool thanks I just payed for the rear bumper yesterday.. How do you like it so far? I have their front one but modified it to my needs and love it.

airagain

I like it a lot so far. I think it is a great deal if you have the ability to get past no install instructions.

VBS4

I'd love to see some good pic.s of the front and rear bumpers.
I'm tossing around a couple of them now.

airagain

The last picture shows the mounting plate for the rear bumper. The two bolts on the left are the factory bolts. The one to the very right is the one you should install first to make alignment and then drill the other two in the middle.

VBS4

Thanks for the pic.s. The black on black really looks good.
This really makes it hard to decide(between 3 of them)

If you happen to have a side view please post it
Thanks again

airagain

mcnaught6

LoD has NOT fixed the problem with their rear bumper banging against the body.

i ordered mine in the middle of september and got it at the end of october. it rattles and bangs against the body. i ground it down quite a bit on the passenger side and it is quite a bit better, but still rattles against the body scraped the paint off the body and now my brand new, $30K has rust on the body, after having that bumper on for one month.

the holes for mounting the d-rings in are too small for 3/4" shackles. i spent about an hour and went through several bits on my dremel grinding out the holes to get them large enough to fit a standard 3/4" shackle.

all the holes that they were supposed to have pre-tapped were crap. i had to buy new, larger, self-drilling metal screws to put the handle on, because the holes for their bolts were'nt even tapped at all. they did a crappy job tapping the zerk hole. they either did it incorrectly, or just stripped it out, because the zerk won't go in.

i've sent them three e-mails and got no response. but, even if they did respond, what am i supposed to do? screw with trying to ship the old one back and wait another 8 weeks to get a new one?

if you buy an LoD bumper, expect to get what you pay for.

mcnaught6

LoD has NOT fixed the problem with their rear bumper banging on the body - and this was only one of several problems with this bumper.

here are pics of the damage the LoD rear bumper caused to the body of my jk.



Here is how much of it I have ground off so far. This made the problem better - now it doesn't bang on EVERY little imperfection on paved roads. I am still going to have to take it off and grind away even more.




sent LoD three e-mails and got no response.

besides, even if they do respond, i just have to deal with trying to figure out how to ship this POS bumper back to them and wait another 6 weeks for a new one???

don't buy LoD, unless you expect to get what you pay for....wait....you don't even get that much.

Nelly

^^^^I have to disagree. I got my rear bumper mounted perfectly. Does not rattle against the body at all! Maybe your jeep tub is a little wider than it should be?? My LOD bumpers were worth every penny!