If you're looking for a great bumper at very reasonable pricing, I can highly recommend Backwoods Bumpers. The owner, Evan House, is a great guy - he truly cares about his customers. And, as a small shop, he can and will customize things by request if within reason.
http://backwoodsbumpers.com/
Started off with the bumper being damaged in transit by UPS Freight. Even after doing great job prepping the bumper for shipment, UPS managed to break the pallet in half... If I had noted that it had been damaged in shipment, perhaps it would have been possible to get UPS to pay for the stripping and recoating of the bumper, but I didn't, so it was up to me to take care of that. Again, Evan is a stand up guy - he worked very hard to get me covered, but it is what it is. He even offered to cover the cost out of his pocket - something I felt was not his fault, and wouldn't accept. So, the first step was to strip the bumper. Took me a while... I used an air chisel where possible, aircraft paint stripper and a 3000 PSI pressure washer to get the rest. After that, the bumper was sanded with 40 grit on a DA sander to rough it up.
After doing some looking on line, I decided to try the Duplicolor rattle can bed liner. Started the coating process by doing the inside surfaces on Friday after work, letting that dry.
I finishing the exterior on Saturday. In between coats, I removed the stock bumper, and while I knew it was pretty thin, I didn't expect it would weight about 15 lbs. No wonder they bend so easily... The bumper bolts to the stock mounts in three places on each side. The factory hitch is an interesting design, and doesn't have to be removed or loosened for the install.
I was able to retain my mounts for the removable mud flaps we use when towing the trailer. The stock brackets were bolted back in place with the Backwoods Bumper. I didn't take photos during the install - it was difficult enough to do basically one handed as it was. I'll be having Carpal Tunnel surgery on my right hand in June, so working with no grip and the constant funny bone tingle is not really much fun. The impact wrench was a huge help! I supported the bumper on two milk crates to move it into position, and once in place, it's only three bolts per side. I replaced the stock bolts with longer grade 10.9 hardware to make up for the added thickness since I was also adding the stock brackets back on. To wire in the provided LED license plate lights, I used 2 wire trailer plugs so the bumper can be removed if necessary. An extra step, but it will make it easy to R&R if needed.
If the bumper hadn't been damaged by UPS, this would have been an easy afternoon install. I think it looks really good!
Mark
