Hey guys. New jeep owner here so apologies if any of this should be obvious.

Bought a used 2015 JK, and since I’d never had one before I didn’t think to look - the bumper horns/frame was shortened by about 2-3 inches so the front bumper itself sits much closer to the grille and tires. Didn’t notice until I had the car fully loaded with people/sports equipment and felt the tires scrape the bumper while turning and slowing down/hitting potholes. Fixed that by using an angle grinder and cutting the plastic, noticed that the previous owner had actually cut out some of the metal as well from what looked to be an OEM style replacement for whatever he had on it before - off road warehouse guys thought it was probably cheap Chinese replacement that was just slightly off on the measurements.

So I had a mechanic buddy put on a Trail Force bumper and turns out, it actually pushes against the grille when installed, not enough space to mount a winch really. Some research and crawling under my jeep in its street parking revealed that the horns were certainly not stock
even though I didn’t see obvious custom welding.

I guess my questions are 1: do people do this just to improve angles for rock crawling or is there another benefit? 2: how would anyone recommend spacing it out to allow for a winch mount and to not crush the grille? And 3: is there a better solution where I keep it spaced the same and take advantage of whatever benefits the shorter length provides, while still being able to mount a winch somehow?



“OEM” bumper, before I cut a couple inches off the back to give more wheel clearance

New bumper squashes the grille

 

youre going to have to go with a smaller bumper or weld new frame horns on. I run the savvy lht front bumper, clears 35s with a winch on a 2.5 inch metalcloak lift. Personally i love frame chop bumpers, shorter jeep, lighter, better angles, and looks.

 

Yes, frame chop bumpers are a thing, primarily for rock crawling purposes. Here is an example of my PSC BFH bumper and what you have to cut off to install something like that. You can see the cut frame horn on the passenger side relative to the pre-cut horn on the driver's side -






I suspect someone did their best hack job to revert back to factory to trade it in or sell it. Do you have any pictures what that frame horn looked like when you had the bumper off? I would think your best bet might be to source some factory horns cut off some junkyard jeep and then welded in on yours. Having said that, you're kinda down the same road the rest of us that chop our frame up are on in regard to safety if in a collision

 

Thanks guys, really appreciate the input! I do actually like it being shorter, don’t really mind the bumper impacting the grille since it looks pretty good, and doesn’t displace it just pushes the corners in. And the tire clearance is fine so I’m probably going to keep it that way.

When I want to try and put a winch on, would you suggest cutting the grille out to allow more space? Or ultimately choosing a different bumper?

And how much does that actually affect the front end collision? I kinda figured the bumper itself would provide some damage mitigation as well as dishing some out to whatever it hits…

Edit: unfortunately no pics with the bumper off

 

Not sure on front-end impact structural integrity. That crumple zone is still there, but I imagine they cut off the crash bar that hangs down lower too. It's probably not going to be the difference between life and death if you smash something hard enough, but who knows. I know I've altered the manufacturers design in both the front and rear, threw caution to the wind, and hope for the best.

I'm not sure I'd want that bumper rubbing on the grill constantly, but that's just me. I was originally thinking just clearance the bumper a bit with a small notch, but some might not want to do that. If you're talking about modifying your grill for a winch, you could also notch the grill to clearance the bumper there without interfering with the light. I was thinking though, instead of cutting the grill for a winch, you might have enough room to drill new mounting holes and scoot the winch forward just a bit. Probably depends on the dimensions of the specific winch you choose. Grills don't cost too much and you can usually find a few floating around on FBM or CL, black being an easier color to source, so if you do have to cut the grill likely not the end of the world.

I think the bigger issue for you might be if you get out wheeling notice interference with the tires being stuffed. I'd say that is the bigger thing here. Everyone shortening that front frame is going with a real stubby bumper so tire clearance is no issue. Do you have a 4WP or other local shop around you that has an RTI ramp? I'd probably try to flex the jeep out and see what kinda clearance you have up front there with a tire stuffed on one side.

 

This is the only picture i have. Those were my new tires i had bought; 1.75 inch spacer(were on stock wheels and 33s). The wiring left down was so i could go to work, it was all just fender/fog lights unplugged.

 

Yeah so it *looks* like I should be fine on clearance (again, new to this, so could be very very wrong) but that was a a thought I had. I’ll look around and see what I can find - the off road place I went to ask about the bumper originally apparently didn’t notice the frame cut so might have to look elsewhere, but I dunno if they took a real hard look at it that day.

Planning on taking it out in the desert soon with a buddy who said he knows some trails I could tackle having never really gone off road before, so good to know there’s a way to test it other than finding out the hard way in the middle of nowhere.

appreciate all the help guys!!

 

It's hard to tell when sitting flat on the pavement cuz once that tire gets stuffed up in the wheel well and is turned either direction things aren't the same. Anyhow, not the end of the world either way, just keep it in mind. Happy jeepin'

 

Looking for Jeep JK Wrangler Frame Horn 07-2017