Hey man, you got any pics of the new front bumper? What are your thoughts on it vs. the old one. Since they are a little different, style wise. And we don't have to say anything about the strength of the new one!
Thoughts are, I like the new one better because its beefier and less obnoxious-looking with the stinger lower where it is not blocking my view of the obstacles I am trying to get over like the original one did. I cut and pasted this in from my build thread over on TTORA...
So the story on the front bumper is that my original CBI front bumper was accidentally built using .090 wall DOM tube for the lower tubes instead of .120 wall DOM. As you might expect, the first time I felt my way up a ledge (on Terminator here in AZ) it caved in the lower tube. Steve at CBI offered to replace the bumper free of charge with one made out of the right material. It took a few months, but this week it arrived. He not only built it out of .120 wall DOM, but he slipped a smaller diameter .120 wall tube inside the lower tube to make it .240 wall DOM on that lowest tube that gets most of the abuse. So we'll see how quarter wall holds up. He also used square tube for the bar that replaces the factory front frame crossmember, lowered the stinger 4 and a half inches, and relocated the fog light tabs to a place between the tubes where the fog lights will be more protected from the rocks.
Check it out...
Compare this view from the driver's seat to the original bumper. The stinger doesn't block the view of the trail so much on this one.
And for comparison, here's the higher stinger on the old bumper. You can see how much lower the light protector hoops and stinger are and how much more well protected the fogs are on the new one.
Even though this one is a smaller bumper with less stinger and lower/smaller light guards it still weighs 4 lbs more than the original due to the thicker wall tube. Original was 88lbs, replacement is 92lbs. I had to modify the mounting plates to get it to line up so I could bolt it on, and this one has the tabs for the BudBuilt skid plate mounted farther back, so I had to modify my front skid plate to get it to bolt on. But I spent the weekend wrestling with the thing and got it all done. Had to tap out new threads in the frame rails, which is a HUGE pain. But its on there and done right, so it was worth it. Yeah, I love the new bumper. Loved the old one too, but this one's even better! I beat it up on the trail today and that lower tube held up admirably.