Before I was a Jeep owner, I had a Honda CRV. Not more than a week after we got it, someone (on their cell phone) rear-ended us, hitting the tailgate mounted spare tire carrier causing damage to the rear door, bumper, and smashing the glass. He basically pushed the spare tire into the vehicle. Anyways, what I was wondering is does having one of those heavy duty steel bumpers with the bumper mounted swing arm tire carrier give good protection in this regards? I would definitely get the tire carrier for my new Jeep if it meant no one was going to push a big tire through my back window/tailgate...at least not so easily. Do the swing-arm tire carriers hold up well in a rear end collision?

 

most of the people i've known to get re-ended and had HD tire carriers all ended up with no damage at all. a lot of this is because their jeeps sat higher than the car that hit them. of course, the car that hit them had their front end totalled.

 

Well..... I originally wanted to buy an armored vehicle, but the government wouldn't let me do that. So I bought the next best thing...a Jeep. I can put armor on it. Thanks. Just getting really sick of other drivers not paying attention and pulling stupid moves. Good to know Jk armor/bumpers/protection is as fuctional on the street as it is off-road.

 

Yeah people that get into accidents here with those bumpers are usually lifted so high the cars can barely touch the bumpers.

 

Unless the guy that hits you has a lifted truck and a big bumper. Anyways, my Jeep has a pretty big suspension lift and 35" tires, so I should probably get a stronger tire carrier anyways. Right now the spare is just sitting on the stock carrier.

 

Yep, my wife was driving the JK and she was hit from behind by a kid on a cell phone. The drop hitch and 2" ball did major damage to the kids radiator and the JK walked away without a scratch on the bumper.

 

HaHa same here. I always keep my drop hitch on. The tow hitch is tough...It F__ed up that car!

 

We get ticketed for leaving the sleeve and ball on if we are not actually pulling a trailer where i live

 

Whats the reason for that?

 

Here's a link to some pics of a rear-end collision between a JK with a Expedition One Rear bumper/carrier and a Liberty. The JK had some damage, the Liberty didn't fair as well.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...dition+liberty