Reviews for ARB Deluxe Combination Bull Bar Bumper for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK
I run ARB on most of my off-road rigs, and even my on-road rigs due to the upgraded protection. I have one on my Tacoma which has now hit 3 whitetail deer at/around 55 mph and not fased it.
The jeep this one was purchased for was sadly totalled Superbowl Sunday of 2021 when we were hit head on by a drunk driver. His engine was pushed through his firewall and in his lap, he had to be cut out. We were able to drive home. If we hadn't had our ARB up front there no doubt we would've suffered major personal damage, because let's face Jeeps are not very safe when it comes to wrecks.
Love the ARB bumper, the installation is more involved than other bumpers, but worth it. The weld quality and coatings process is second to none. You’ll pay a lot, but what you’re getting is THE superior bumper. Do yourself a favor, don’t mess with the indicator harness, the instructions are insufficient. Direct wire those indicators to the turn signal wiring and change out to an LED 1156 bulb equivalent since it will run hot.
Recommend professionally installing. 4x4 shop stated that it would take them 4-6 hours.
Bumper looks great!
Nice looking bumper
Solid bumper! a little modification with the mounting holes but, love this bumper
Very good looking bumper. Heavy duty and well manufactured. The rear is also heavy duty. Glad I purchased this one.
Awesome addition to my JK! Easy install and looks great. Highly recommend this product.
Installed over two afternoons. The instructions are truly terrible and are in Australian (for RH drive vehicles), nothing is marked, and all the hardware comes in one giant bag. Installation time was about 8 hours for me, but maybe that's because I'm bad - a lot of it was going back and double - triple checking the crap instructions to make sure I was going to screw anything up.
Build quality is fantastic though, I'm happy I went with this particular bumper despite the pain of install.
Here is my advice to new buyers:
1) The frame cuts ARE NOT NECESSARY unless you have a giant winch. I have a 10k from Quadratec and I easily would have had enough room even if I had not made those cuts.
2) The wiring instructions for the indicators are garbage and wrong for LH drive american cars. Do what another posted suggested and don't bother with the indicator harness, and just wire directly into the indicator loom. Black on black, and the ARB red wire on the outer-most white/something wire on the indicator harness. This will make them run as blinkers, and if you want indicators then connect the red to the center wire. Swap out the bulb for an LED one too.
3) You're going to have a front comb due to weight, so either be prepared to adjust your headlights or get a spacer/lift if you don't have one already. When installing the OEM foglights, make sure the adjustment screw points DOWN towards the ground so you can adjust them later if needed.
4) The exact measurements for cutting out the crush cans is NOT super important, just that you have a reasonable amount of material around the four mounting holes surrounding the crush cans. I cut to size, and then realized I could actually make them a tiny bit smaller so I don't get my hands on any of the corners.
5) Lifting the bumper into place is a huge PITA solo. I ended up putting a 2x4 over the top of the front bumper connection points where the crush cans get sandwiched on, and that allowed me to set the bumper down on the frame and more easily guide the screws through the frame, through the crush cans, and into the bumper. I made my 2x4 too big though and had to cut it out to get it out of the space between the bumper and the frame lol
6) Affix the cut crush cans to the bumper by applying silicone adhesive and sandwiching it by bolting the crush cans onto the bumper and letting it dry. Trust me... it'll make your life easier.
The bumper itself is amazing. High quality and precisely what I wanted.
But….. the installation instructions are hot garbage. I’m mounting this on a ‘17 JK sport. The instructions reference cutting, grinding and light fabrication. That isn’t the case for my Jeep; it just bolts right on to the bumper posts. So… I am REALLY glad that I didn’t cut off the mounts on the bumper posts as the instructions suggested.
Also… the mounting brackets between the bottom rear of the bumper and the frame piece in front of the differential don’t fit.
Bumper is very well designed and well made. Very impressed and happy with it.
Instructions are a joke, hardware is all thrown into a single bag instead of being separated. IKEA does a better job.