The stock TJ bumpers are pretty weak. I looked at some older model YJ bumpers (pre 1996) and the metal is a lot thicker and provides better protection. All the stock bumpers though are a little wide. On the road this isn’t an issue, but offroad you want the free space so you can get your tire onto the obstacle so you can climb over it. We had bent our front bumper a couple of times on the driver’s side and there were scrape marks where the passenger’s side had hit trying to get on top of some rocks the last trip to Rasor Rd. So we decided an upgrade was in order.   

I ordered a Smittybilt SRC Bumper the Sunday night we got back from Rasor Rd and picked it up from Fedex Freight on Wednesday.

Here is the original bumper. You can see how the driver’s side is bent in.

Removal of the old bumper was a snap. There are two bolts (55 Torx bit) where the hook is on top and a single bolt on the bottom for each side. Just remove those bolts and the bumper slides off. You can unbolt the fog lights to put on the new bumper, or since we’re going to get rid of the 55 watt fog lamps and go with 4 ea - 130 watt KC Hi-Lites I just snipped the wires (we’ll need to run new wiring for the larger wattage lights anyway).

Here is a shot of the bumper removed. The new bumper slid right over the frame. I lined up the holes and bolted it on. I put the tow hooks on the new bumper because the stock bolts were longer and I didn’t see a reason to buy new bolts.

 

Overall the project took about 15 - 20 minutes to remove the old bumper and put the new one on.

Here you can see the extra length the new bumper adds to the jeep. This space will be filled with a new winch next month. At the end of June we’re heading to Moab with a group of people (family and friends) so we are quickly chiseling away on our list of modifications to get ready for that trip.

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