This weekend at a gambler I took another big hit on my rear bumper cover, indicating to me its past time to find something new. So I started looking, and the options appear to have gotten more limited.

Bumpers replacing whole bumper cover

• Northwest Trail Innovations (DIY)
• CBI Rear Plate bumper: note that this bumper has 4 month+ lead times, and is hard to find on their website. Not 100% sure they are even taking orders.
• Victory 4x4 Strike bumper
• 4x4 Labs rear bumper (DIY or Welded)

Bumpers that require an intact bumper cover

• True North Fabrications Molle Panel rear Bumper(DIY or Welded)
• Coastal Offroad high clearance bumper (DIY)

The part that struck me is how many of these are now DIY. As a welded total bumper replacement, your essentially down to 3 options. There are more choices for the 3rd and 5th gens.

Any options I missed that aren't unobtanium? Or do I need to just get over it and learn to weld?

get over it and learn to weld. I did just that with the coastal offroad bumpers.

you can weld these with a harbor freight 110v welder. Obviously it is easier with something nicer like a millermatic with shielding gas and all, but i've seen plenty of people weld these with cheaper options, just requires more cleanup time before paint.

In my opinion you can't beat the price on the costal offroad bumpers.. the kits are very inexpensive and the fit is great. I have both their front and rear bumpers and pretty much learned to weld on these. With thicker material it is pretty easy to learn. I even fabricated my own swingouts for the rear in order to save a few hundred bucks over their available swing-out option.

it will probably come out to the same price as a fully welded if you get a kit and a whole welding setup. Then you also end up with a welder in the end.

There is so much weld area on a plate bumper that you can chicken shit weld the whole thing and it will probably be strong enough

I heard CBI stopped making the 4th gen rear bumpers

I'd probably have to go NWTI, since my bumper is trashed and Coastal reuses part of the bumper cover, but this is how I've been leaning. Your right about the swingouts being the pricey part too -_-

that's a good point.. yea the costal uses the upper portion of the cover. It gets trimmed up a decent amount though. How trashed is yours?

One corner barely connects at the wheel well anymore lol. Was trying to help someone out and they pulled my back corner into a rock face. Just lucky the damage wasn't any worse.

Cost diff between NWTI and Coastal Offroad isn't huge, especially if your doing a swingout.

I reached out to Victory last year because I saw their 5th gen stuff on one or two customer vehicles we customized, they never got back to me whether or not they offered 1.5" BL options, even after a follow-up email. Sorta turned me off..

I'm still on the fence if I want to go with the few options we have available or do it myself. It mostly comes down to how much fabricobbling it from scratch is going to cost me. Would have to have the majority of the panels cut from a shop in town and any tube bending work would need to also be sublet. Most I can do is physically weld it and tweak it once it's tacked/welded. My garage is small and I lack the equipment I'd like for bigger metal fabrication work like that...

It's been on the to do list for years now...

The part that gets me is that most of the expense is the freaking swingout. Most swingouts cost more than my rocksliders did.

I mean, I sort of get it, but still seems crazy. No wonder most manufacturer got rid of swing outs xD

material cost wise swing outs are ridiculously cheap... I think the price is all in the marketing of a bare bumper vs a fully decked out, dual swing bumper. I can tell you the material cost to build my dual swing outs did not even come close to what i would have paid through coastal for their kit.. where as the flat cut steel for the bumper itself, I couldn't touch their cost even if I wanted to design it myself and have a local vendor cut it.



all you need for swing outs is a bit of thick angle steel, some square tube, a few heim joints, large nut/bolt hardware and a couple of latches. My tire carrier is made up of 3 pieces of square tube with a round disk that has studs welded to it. The other size I custom-fabricated a ladder out of some 1.5 (maybe 2"?) square tube and all was cut with an angle grinder lol. Ok.. fine, it was a bit more involved than just some angle grinding here and there, and obviously took some laying out to get it right. I traded my time and effort for cost savings. At the end of the day to have a complete weld-it-yourself swing out kit isn't all that terrible if you consider the time that goes into the design I guess.. but I liked the challenge and really enjoyed building these swingouts. I'm using them to carry my hi-lift, shovel, and axe when on trails as well as having easy access to get up on the roof rack via the ladder.

Is there still access to the stock hitch receiver with this bumper installed? Or do you have to add one?

I don't want to cut the bumper cover on our 2008, but that bumper cover is already damaged from the previous owner. I don't care for how some of the aftermarket rear bumpers look. I just got back yesterday from a trip to Moab and Telluride/Ouray. We messed around on Fins & Things and went over Imogene Pass, and the only thing I scraped or was worried about was that rear bumper. I have a Bilstein 6112/5160 setup with Bilstein rear springs, RCI skids, and some 4x4 Innovations square tube sliders. Never hit any of the armor.

As Ralph the Dog says, I hope that somethin' better comes along.

Not mine, I was looking at someone selling on FB and this ebay/ amazon version apparently fits 4th gens, even though marketed for 5th gen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...98JIW1XB&psc=1

I may pull the trigger eventually

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I also went with the Coastal front and rear bumpers (with dual swing outs). I already had a welder but it's not impossible to buy one, use it to weld your bumpers and then sell it. Add the loss (of the used price) to the total bumper cost and you will still be ahead. I built these both for about the same as one prebuilt and shipped. Don't forget about the shipping costs for a pre-welded unit. As stated above the kits are very well put together and the fit is really nice when welding. Nothing too difficult. I would recommend that you use a 240VAC welder as there are a couple sections in the instructions that require really good penetration. Coastal does have a rear hitch but it's weight capacity is not rated. I don't recommend getting that option (I did order it but will not use it).

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Did you end up buying that bumper?


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Someone want to buy the one I made? Lol, $600 picked up!