BooBoo from the Bumper Bumping into the Body

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
From day one, our Jeep JL Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited came with an optional rear steel bumper that sat kind of cockeyed and right from the factory. Essentially, the driver side of the bumper sat lower than the passenger side. While I had been meaning to fix this before heading out to Moab, I ran out of time and didn't give it a second thought. Unfortunately, while we were out on our very first run out in Moab, I ended up dragging the passenger side rear corner of our bumper on an obstacle and quickly found that this caused enough movement for the bumper to make contact with the body. Here's a shot of the bumper.
20180331180421-b1148bf5-me.jpg


And here's a shot of where the bumper had moved high enough to make contact with the quarter panel.
20180331180418-f2602726-me.jpg


While the nick in the paint is minor, so what the dragging that caused it. For sure, part of this was caused by the nice body mounts allowing for a lot of movement but the rest was definitely caused by the bumper moving too. Certainly, the bumper was sitting significantly more cockeyed after the obstacle.

Fortunately, I was able to straighten out the bumper simply by loosening up the mounting nuts, re-positioning things and then tightening everything up again. I should note that the nuts weren't anywhere as tight as I would have thought they should be and part of what happened most likely came from that. Needless to say, if you got your JL Wrangler Rubicon with the optional steel bumper, I would definitely give these nuts a check. That being said, I can't say I'm 100% convinced that the bumper wouldn't still bump into the body of our JL with a big enough hit and give it a booboo like this or worse, even with nuts on super tight.

Anyway, just thought I'd put this out there for those of you who have the optional steel Rubicon bumpers.
 
I am a little worried that your out doing nut checks. :eek:

Good to know info though.
 
another blemish!! ohh hell..you need to get rid of that JL quick, you don't need to put up with that crap...

I'll come right away and pick it up to get it out of your sight. :D
 
Looks like time for some quarter panel armor [emoji14]

You listening Off-road Evo? [emoji848]

LOL!! Yeah, that and rocker skins :D

That sucks. Hope that is the most damage that you acquire from EJS this year.

Yeah, that was the "worst" of it so I think we did okay :crazyeyes:

I am a little worried that your out doing nut checks. :eek:

Good to know info though.

:cheesy:
 
Damn that sucks!

I should note, it sucks mainly because I was going to pull the bumper before heading out to Moab but then thought I should keep it on to help "prevent" body damage :rolleyes2:

another blemish!! ohh hell..you need to get rid of that JL quick, you don't need to put up with that crap...

I'll come right away and pick it up to get it out of your sight. :D

Man you're so nice :D
 
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