Hi Guys, an update of my experience with the bumper so far.
I got around to mounting the bashplate and I must say that it is a bit of work getting that done. The holes are made into the bumper but they are not threaded so a nut needs to be place on the other end, meaning you have to twist and bend yourself a lot to get them on. It is doable though. The same goes for the bottom part, the bashplate comes with holes pre-drilled but there is nowhere to mount it on the vehicle. I think I'll drill some holes and tap thread into them to mount it to the bottom chassis bar.
Anyway, now to the less positive part. I recently did a play-day at one of our more challenging terrains and the car slipped into a fairly deep right hand down hole. Not the end of the world but a rock of sorts stuck out of the mud and I hit it dead on with the front bumper. Once I got out the other side I noticed heavy rubbing so I got out to asses the damage. The bumper appeared to have been knocked back so I called it a day and returned home. Once home I tried to find any chassis damage or perhaps see some slippage of the bolts but knothing of that. Whilst staring between the bumper and headlights I noticed a bend in the steel. Turns out the bumper simply bent out of shape just behind the chassis mounts. Since the car was quite dirty I did not make any pictures of that right old mess but suffice it to say that this is quite the design flaw. I never went any faster than a slip from 50cm up and IMHO the bumper should have easily taken that beating. I huge sledge and elbow grease got it back into shape but I do plan on stiffening that part up when I remove the bumper for powder coating after I have built my brushbar on top of it.
so, in all, I guess you get what you pay for. These things are not that expensive and made of decent steel but beyond the winch mounting and recovery points they seem quite weak.
That's it for now,
-P
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