Front Bumper Options

Hey all, looking at buying the first couple options for "the pig", I know i want to go winch and bumper first seeing as Jeep's already can go a lot of places stock, and being able to pull myself out is a bug plus. So know I am going with warn as far as the winch goes, but for the bumper... I like the smittybilt bumpers a lot! And was sold on the xrc gen 2 to keep my original fog lights, but i see a lot of people with stingers. I live in Northern Ontario Canada, and do not do an insane amount of rock crawling, whats everyones some advice as far as stinger or no stinger and the fog light options. Money wise too stinger is cheaper then bull bar option... Thanks !!

CBoston said:

Hey all, looking at buying the first couple options for "the pig", I know i want to go winch and bumper first seeing as Jeep's already can go a lot of places stock, and being able to pull myself out is a bug plus. So know I am going with warn as far as the winch goes, but for the bumper... I like the smittybilt bumpers a lot! And was sold on the xrc gen 2 to keep my original fog lights, but i see a lot of people with stingers. I live in Northern Ontario Canada, and do not do an insane amount of rock crawling, whats everyones some advice as far as stinger or no stinger and the fog light options. Money wise too stinger is cheaper then bull bar option... Thanks !!

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Its really up to you. Personally i went with a bull bar because it is what i could afford at the time and now i am regretting it. I really want a stinger now, i just love the look.

To be honest, most people go with a stinger or bull bar primary for the look, but assuming they're properly built there is a bit of safety minded function in the design. A stinger is wedge shaped to help you in a forward roll to try to deflect your vehicle onto one side or the other rather than come crashing down on the roof (that said, if you're flipping over with enough force the stinger probably won't change much, and if it's cheaply built it might even fold in and do nothing). Bull bars, etc are designed more to provide some protection to the front end (the grille, etc), which can protect the body from hitting animals on the highway or brush in the woods.

I know there are a lot of people who like the look of that bumper, but I've heard it's a real pain to install because things don't line up properly. Smittybuilt isn't known for quality when it comes to these things anyway.

My best advice would be to look through a few of the build threads to see what other people on here have run, and what they have said about the install, quality, etc. Who knows, you might see something you end up liking more. Also, most aftermarket bumpers will fit the stock fog lights too. If mine didn't come stock with the 10A / X / HR steel bumper I'd probably look at something by Evo or Poison Spider. The only catch is they're more expensive.

A lot of the LOD bumpers keep the fogs if that's what you want. Good quality. Just one more option to add to the numerous choices! It's really tough to decide.