Reviews for Rugged Ridge 11540.32 HD Stubby Front Bumper for 07-22 Jeep Wrangler JL, JK & Gladiator JT
very tight fit with winch installed. I have to remove the bumper to pull off the grill to install lights. bummer. overall good quality and would recommend
Amazing quality! Heavy duty and love the design of it!
Outstanding value for the money. Color matches JT fenders perfectly and the front lines blend very well. I love the minimalism of it. Weight is the enemy off road most rookies forget about, this has everything you need and nothing you don't in a light package!
Love the looks of this bumper.
Very happy with the quality of this bumper. Straight forward install. Wouldn’t recommend doing this solo. Also loosening the brackets will help greatly with aligning the bolts to the frame.
Got my JK in 2016 and started looking for a bumper right away. It took me this long to find one that had everything I wanted and I wouldn't settle for anything else. I wanted a stubby bumper that held the winch low or inside it. It needed to have mounts for the factory fog lights and have tow hooks. It also needed to look awesome. It has all of that as well as the lift points for the hi lift jack. It took my nephew and I less than an hour and a half to install it and that includes the time trying to adjust the fog lights. The only negative thing is that I had to add some washers to the bolts on the fog lights to angle them up some more. Even with that issue I love this bumper.
I was cautious about buying from Rugged Ridge, since I had a bad experience in the past. However, when I saw that they released this bumper, it looked much better looking than previous bumpers and the claims that it fits the JK, JL and JT made me think that they put some thought into it. I also couldn’t afford an expensive bumper so I thought what the heck lets try it. I couldn’t find any pictures online of this installed on a JK, only JLs so I was skeptical that it would fit well. It does. I installed it on my JKU Rubicon 2015, I posted pictures as well.
Packaging was intact, well padded and had no damage. The powder coating has no obvious defects, it is a little heavy handed in several places and built up, however. Time will tell if there are rust issues. The vacuum pump is relocated with the bumper installation and no issues with the swaybar disconnect motor. My winch (Smittybilt X2O 10K) did hit the vacuum pump after relocation but when i flipped the vacuum pump around on the new mounting location, it didn’t hit anymore. Make sure to have the long part of the pump facing towards the back of the Jeep, the instructions don’t really say how it should face. The instructions also say to install the bumper loosely then install the winch before final tightening. However, it would be impossible to torque many of the bolts with the winch installed, so I installed the bumper and did final tightening of all bumper bolts before installing the winch. The winch mounting bolts are a little hard to reach but not impossible, from under the jeep.
The way the bumper mounts seems a bit cheap to me. There are 4 mounting holes on each side of the frame to which the stock bumper attaches. The bumper has 3 studs on each side attached to free floating washer plates which are not actually welded to the bumper but held in place by plastic slip washers. The 4th hole on each side gets a bolt after mounting. This puts the bumper in a sandwich between the nuts and studs/washer plates. This seems inferior to welding studs to the bumper, but probably it’s fine, the components seem beefy enough. Others have had trouble getting the bumper on with the free floating studs, however I did not, a little jiggling and all 6 studs went right in without issue. I have quadrated LED fog lights which mounted easily to the bumper without the need for modification.
In summary, this bumper seems well thought out, much better looking than previous rugged ridge bumpers, and definitely worth the relatively inexpensive price for a stubby bumper. The shackle mounts with hooks look awesome and the HiLift jack points will be useful. Its modular with 2 different bull bar options, although I didn’t get either and plugs were provided to cover the mounting holes for that. I like having a recessed winch mount.
Installed on my 2018 JK 2 door. Took about two hours to put in; no issues putting the bumper on. Very heavy duty. The Quadratec stealth winch fits in perfectly. Factory LED fog lamps fit perfectly with no modifications. Excellent stubby bumper.
The overall look and quality of the bumper is great, but I do have a complaint on the fitment/installation. The mounting bolts are welded on a metal slat inside a plate and the bolts protrude through elongated holes to allow for lateral adjustment, which is great. What isn't great is there is no adjustment for the spacing vertically which becomes a real problem during install. The plastic retaining washers used to hold the bolts in place are not strong enough unless the bolts are perfectly aligned. I had to file the mounting holes out about 2-3mm in order to get the correct fitment. There just wasn't much thought by the manufacturer when it came to the installation process. Beyond that, it's a quality bumper that appears to have a very sturdy winch plate mount. Looks great as well.
My installation experience. This is a good option for someone that is budget conscious but wants a steel/ metal bumper. In making my selection I considered weight of the unit, need for integrated winch plate, and fog light mounts (with the latter significantly impacting my final rating score).
Price: for its, price, this is good looking bumper. I purchased without the X-striker/ bull bar.
Shipping and packaging: I found all parts to be present and my package arrived without damage. All parts were present even the clear plastic install tabs for mounting the unit to my frame. The tabs color being clear, however, made them difficult to find and ultimately, I ended up installing using only one (available at the time) of the clear plastic tabs. Probably having a different color would help as they were not separately bagged; it can be said a more through inventory on my part is to blame.
Weight: was an important concern when buying this unit for two reasons. The foremost being I’d be installing myself without any additional mechanic support and the second to limit front end droop due to the additional weight. I also purchased a Warn EVO winch with steel wire so any weight savings I could muster was considered. For those that knock steel wire winches (as a side argument), I don’t have to fear someone making off with my Factor55 PROlink as its much harder to cut a steel cable than fabric.
Installation and fog lights: I was able to install this unit as previously alluded to solo without a problem. What I did was partially install the top nuts so at least one or more install points had a nut on it. This allowed the bumper to be put in place without the install points falling back into the bumper/ unit. I was then able to install to the frame and had just enough room to remove the upper nuts and thread the lower nuts. That held everything in place and to the frame mounting points. Try it, it works and can be done, in the garage with basic tools. At the time I installed only one plastic installation aide was available, I did find the others so it wasn’t that they were missing. Overall, installation was slow but probably not much greater than six hours which includes removal of the factory unit. Where I wasted time was on the fog lights. This bumper does not work with a Sport Wranglers LED factory fog lights (I have a 2020 JL Wrangler) which has three mounting points while the Rugged Ridge bumper has four. As a result I am driving without fog lights at the moment and have ordered a set of Quadratec lights. Otherwise this as an easy install with no damaged, bent, or missing parts to the unit. I also wanted the winch to sit low so as to not obstruct air flow to the grill. Overall, I recommend this product with the fog light caveat alert.