Tactical Rover Rear Bumper Install, Trailer Wiring and 3/4" Wheel Spacers
I finished up the bumper installs this weekend. My Tactical Rover rear was ordered with side steps and I had Eric drill and install the dual rear carrier attach points. I have not ordered the spare carrier or jerry can carrier just yet as I might have some custom ideas in mind. Also, I did not reinstall the back up sensors. They will be useless when I put the tire carrier on, so I went simple, capped off the chassis harness connector and weatherproofed it inside the left tail light area. I can go back to stock if needed but do not ever predict that crisis occurring. While I was in there, I realized the right rear wheel well splash guard is super easy to remove, therefore I held off on the trimming and heater hose relocation until I get the future tire size nailed down. I am not going into too much detail on the TR Rear bumper install because it is super easy. I highly suggest a buddy, even if you have a flat motorcycle jack like I do. Again, the hardest part is removing the OEM rear fender flares, rear bumper and the attaching clip brackets that hold the plastic bumper in place. It's not required to remove the rear wheels for installation but I took advantage of the extra space since I was installing wheel spacers anyway.
My next step was to install the Atlantic British trailer harness. Follow the instructions, it's super easy and with the bumper off it only took me about 20 min. I would expect more time and routing is not too easy with the bumper on. I am happy I left this project on the shelf knowing the bumper install was taking place in the near future.
http://www.roverparts.com/Parts/YWJ500220ABP
A little cleaning up in there, painted the recovery point red like the front and then laid out the rear Tactical Rover bumper for install. I used my motorcycle jack just like when I installed the front bumper in order roll it around easily and for final alignment. Again, I highly suggest a buddy to help; even though I was able to do it by myself its quite heavy and a bit of a balancing act!
There are two large mounting bolts that hold the majority of the weight/load of the rear bumper to the chassis. There are an additional two smaller bolts that support the corner of the bumper and mount to the rear quarter panels. Four total bolts, no trimming, cutting, drilling or welding required on metal components of the rig or bumper. Minor trimming is required on the trailing corners of the rear fender flares to clear the steps on the TR bumper.
I then installed the front and rear wheel spacers. They are 3/4" spacers and the link is earlier on in the build thread. Install is pretty cut and dry, I cleaned up the rotors and calipers, quick paint job, applied anti-seize to the hub lugs and the spacer lugs. The spacers are anodized and come with lug nuts. Torqued all to spec. The picture is taken at OEM normal height and you can see it pushes the wheel out to near flush to the fender flares.
Here is the final bumper and 3/4" wheel spacer install!
(and recovery point).
