Show me your bumpers after 100K miles
- Thread starter sargeek
- Start date
Root Moose
Expedition Leader
My ARB spent about 60,000 miles on the road year round. From 10 feet it still looks good. The bottom underside and some of the welds are starting to show rust. The plates where the bumper is bolted to the frame are all flaking off. The black has faded also.
I'm in the salt belt so it's just the way things are. It can't be avoided. That said, I think a properly prepped and painted bumper would hold up better than powder coat. Powder coat is not tough enough for vehicles that are used IMO (versus show queens).
I'd buy the bumper again (plan to when I turn my attention to the MJ). I wish I could buy it uncoated in plain steel and deal with it myself though. I'd either get it professionally painted body colour or get some bumper black spray cans from CTC and touch up as needed. Depends on how the truck will get used.
I'm in the salt belt so it's just the way things are. It can't be avoided. That said, I think a properly prepped and painted bumper would hold up better than powder coat. Powder coat is not tough enough for vehicles that are used IMO (versus show queens).
I'd buy the bumper again (plan to when I turn my attention to the MJ). I wish I could buy it uncoated in plain steel and deal with it myself though. I'd either get it professionally painted body colour or get some bumper black spray cans from CTC and touch up as needed. Depends on how the truck will get used.
I buy all my bumpers bare. I have Trailready front and rear on my Ram 2500 and after 230 000KM they still look great. Most manufacturers do a commercial blast and are light on the powder coat. The powdercoater we use does a white metal blast which means all the mill slag is removed, then a zinc primer is applied for rust resistance and 2 coats of powder on top of that. The cost for that operation is about $250 per bumper vs the $90 price break when you buy a bare bumper. Not cheaper but definitely better. We powder coat over $1M in product every year with very good results.
4xdog
Explorer
I've had an ARB on the front of my 1988 XJ Cherokee since around 1996, and a Kaymar rear bar since around 1999. Probably over 150,000 miles on them -- around 300,000 one tends to lose track.
I've been satisfied with how both have held up. The ARB is a bit faded, as noted earlier. The powder coat was broken where it was mounted, and there has been some corrosion (which I've stayed on top of with POR-15). At one point a tiny bit of corrosion started on the antenna tab on the top tube, and ARB sent me a touch up kit of matching paint, which worked well.
The Kaymar has no corrosion, but I used POR-15 pre-installation on it's backside and it seems to have a zinc-based primer under the black coating (which I'm not sure is powder coat).
ARB used to offer (in Australia) commercial bullbars that were galvanized, not powder coated, if my memory isn't wrong. I think my old home-market ARB catalogs may show these.
I think with careful installation and a little bit of care, you'll get a LOT of years out of one of these.
Don
I've been satisfied with how both have held up. The ARB is a bit faded, as noted earlier. The powder coat was broken where it was mounted, and there has been some corrosion (which I've stayed on top of with POR-15). At one point a tiny bit of corrosion started on the antenna tab on the top tube, and ARB sent me a touch up kit of matching paint, which worked well.
The Kaymar has no corrosion, but I used POR-15 pre-installation on it's backside and it seems to have a zinc-based primer under the black coating (which I'm not sure is powder coat).
ARB used to offer (in Australia) commercial bullbars that were galvanized, not powder coated, if my memory isn't wrong. I think my old home-market ARB catalogs may show these.
I think with careful installation and a little bit of care, you'll get a LOT of years out of one of these.
Don