this pains me as i just paid $550 for my front with tax.

jcwhitney has the XRC rear bumper with tire carrier for $799 - 20% (code: BAWBEX9) and $12 shipping! this is $652 shipped!!! I cannot find the front, but it is for $400 shipped!

i got this from jkowners (http://www.jkowners.com/forum/showthread.php?p=128686&posted=1#post128686)

i love to support locals and vendors, but to save hundreds, i will buy from whoever...

How about an update on that smittybuilt bumper.

I am looking at the SRC fro the rear.

I hear a lot of people talking bad about smittybuilt. I had a tube bumper of theirs in the early 90's and beat the crap out of it. It was on an F150 (more weight) and never dented. Had a lot of scratches but held up very well.

I know a lot of time has passed since then and so could their standards.

How has the XRC held up? Not worried so much about finish because you can always paint it. Are the mounting points solid? Are the D ring mounts welded front and rear? Does it hold up on the rocks?

have not wheeled it yet... looks good. will get pics soon. didn't check d ring welds.

I know this post is a little old but I have the same front bumper. I'm running the XRC rear too. The welds look okay.

The front went on fine. The rear needed some massaging to get it to fit right. Nothing too bad though.

Rear


Front

I know that there are some better bumpers out there but it was too good of a price to pass up. Besides, if the powder coat sux, I'll just redo it. I figured that it will get scratched up regardless.

thebigtman, are those the 7" HID lights like these? They look like the 4" version, though. How do you like them? I've been very seriously considering ordering a pair.


As to Smittybilt, I personally don't like to buy from them because their business model, in the vaguely recalled words of a fabricator, revolves primarily around letting other companies come up with good and innovative products, then taking one off their shelf and sending it to China where it's run through a copier that's low on toner, so to speak. Then they mass-produce it in China with varying results and sell it back here. That said, I still have their SRC front tube bumper on my TJ, bought before I knew better, and it's alright. It hasn't been really tested yet, though.

D - those are the 4". I drive a lot out West and I found the stock light woefully inadequate. These help A LOT. I don't run them all the time around here b/c there's too much traffic and I don't want to be an a-hole and blind other drivers. They light up the road a long ways away.

Regarding Smittybilt, I hear what you're saying. However, at a 1/3 of the cost of another bumper, I couldn't resist. I buy a lot of American products but sometimes I'm overcome by the dark side when the deal is too good.

Yeah, you JK owners have it tough. I don't know why everything for JK's is so expensive. Honestly if I had a JK, even though I really don't know what I'm doing, I'd be rolling up my sleeves and trying to put something together myself for something like a bumper.

Thanks for the lights info. I really want to get those 7-inchers, but money's tight at the moment.

Hopefully it will get better.

I like a lot of the custom stuff out there but I'm not paying $1500 for a rear bumper. That cuts into the Hemi fund!

nice bumper

Deacon,

re: Chinese vs American made

I didn't pay attention to my bumpers when I installed them but another JK owner said that his XRC's had "made in the USA" stamped on them somewhere. So, maybe all this stuff isn't Chinese made. I'll see if I can find anything on my bumpers while the body is off the frame.

Yeah, it's possible that some pieces are stamped or welded together in the US. Most of it isn't, though. I can't really talk, because I bought Superwinch's EPi9.0 which is made in China