Smittybilt XRC Gen 2 bumper

[jabradley]

How many people tow their Jeep Wrangler by an aftermarket bumper? I have the Smittybilt XRC Gen 2 bumper with the Blue Ox adapters. Has anyone had any issues or have any experience with this setup? Thank you!

[falconman]

Five years for me without issue. Just make sure the pins on the adapters are the correct diameter for the bumper tabs.

[FIRE UP]

Originally Posted by jabradley

How many people tow their Jeep Wrangler by an aftermarket bumper? I have the Smittybilt XRC Gen 2 bumper with the Blue Ox adapters. Has anyone had any issues or have any experience with this setup? Thank you!

Well Sir,
We have a '15 JKUR and I set it up with both front and rear Smittybilt XRC bumpers. I think ours are Gen I but, not sure, it was about 3 years ago since I did all that. Anyway, yep, we tow it with the recovery tabs and, use the Blue Ox adapters. The only issue we've ever had was, one of the tow arms came off while doing about 60 mph. I was really, really fortunate that I had a place to pull over, at a very slow rate of deceleration, to keep the Jeep up against the motorcycle rack that I had on the back of the coach.

Once we got stopped, it appeared that, I had those over-center snap type linch pins. Well, I'd been using them for years without issue. But, in the light of what happened, I switched to the hair pin type. I purchased another D-handle 1" diameter pin from a close by Tractor Supply and, bought a couple extra hair pin type retaining pins.

As for that Smittybilt bumper, and its recovery tabs handling the load, without a doubt, I trust them immensely. Three years and several thousand miles and, all is well.
Scott

[robburns76]

I went with the LOD bumper and had them weld the tabs on for blue ox at the factory (for free) and love it. quick and easy to hook up (i use the shackle mounts for the safety chains)

[becks]

Six years with Rockhard Bumper for us.

[jabradley]

Thanks for the info on your experiences with after market bumpers and using them to tow.

[AKIQPilot]

I use the Smittybilt XRC Bumper on my Wrangler as well. Its the original XRC bumper but has thousands and thousands of towed miles on it. I inspect the welds on the tabs regularly from the inside and the outside. I tow from the recovery tabs and my safety cables connect to the frame.

[HaroldPE]

I take it the orange straps are holding the pins as redundancy? Is that surgical tubing ?

Originally Posted by AKIQPilot

I use the Smittybilt XRC Bumper on my Wrangler as well..

[AKIQPilot]

Originally Posted by HaroldPE

I take it the orange straps are holding the pins as redundancy? Is that surgical tubing ?

Yes. Just redundancy for sure. And it prevents the hitch pins from “walking” outward and putting pressure on the linch pin keepers. The “bungee cords” are made of surgical tubing. They are a new style bungee cord with about twice the stretch as a typical rubber bungee cord.

Also, I can see them in the rear view camera so if one fails I can see it with a quick glance in the rear view camera.