China knockoff of the Mopar steel front JT bumper...is it any good?

[ShadowsPapa]

I can’t even call it a knock off. That would suggest it was recreated to look like the original. This bumper effectively is the original. Just went out one door instead of another.

Kind of like how my Taurus PT92AF is effectively a Beretta 92FS (except the Taurus is way more on the up and up than these bumpers).

Please don't laugh - I had to look that one up. And aha - the reason they are so the same isn't that far off from why some of the stuff from China is a copy......... except like you said, Taurus bought and paid for the stuff to copy, uh, I mean, make.........

"The Taurus PT-92 and PT-99 9mm pistols were the result of Taurus purchasing a Beretta factory located in Brazil in 1974. This included including everything that factory owned: drawings, tools, machinery, and work force."

They didn't have to copy, it was all handed with them after the ink dried.

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[WILL1E]

My career revolves around designing consumer products which, more often than not, are injection molded plastic parts. I also run a model shop which does alot of CNC machining, 3D printing, etc. So I deal with alot of domestic and international tooling suppliers for projects. I would say 80% of the time when we go to make a tool for molding, i can't even buy the raw material domestically for what China will make the entire tool for...material + machining + finishing all for less than my cost on a chunk of steel. And to make matters worse, they work 6 days a week and will respond to my emails 24hrs a day.

I'm all about 'merica but you can't ignore the cost savings and time commitment they offer...not to mention the piece cost savings once that tool starts spitting out parts.

Anyways, back to the bumper topic

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My thoughts on the bumper after having owned it since early 2020, and having had it on 2 JTs now (2020 and the current 2022)
The finish was ok - but just "ok" - for the first year. Then it did start to look less deep black.
After 2 years, some fasteners started to rust, and there was rust inside the bumper where the bumper attached to the mounting brackets (the parts that actually bolt to the frame) on the bottom of the inside of the bumper. That of course is where any water, dirt or salts accumulate.
After 2 years, the finish was fading.

The fasteners are typical of import fasteners. The plating was thin and likely would never survive the salt spray tests that industry insists that fasteners pass these days. In my case, I stripped the original black zinc plating and did fresh black zinc myself.
A person can get around the fastener finish by having them all plated, or maybe powder coated, or buying better fasteners from McMaster Carr or similar source.

The plastic insert in the "wings" or ends are attached with POM rivets on the factory bumper.
They are attached with screws and nuts on these bumpers. Because the heads of the screws face the wrath of the front tires - all of the grit, sand, water, salt, whatever, gets thrown forward by the tires up against those screws - they were the very first things that rusted.
When I put mine onto my 2022, I used POM rivets to attach those plastic inserts. Man, that was not only a ton easier than screws and nuts on that closed area, but the POM rivets will last forever.

The fit is not bad. Where the wings or extensions fit the main bumper body could be better, and the inner/back parts of the extensions don't fit the outer shell of the extensions perfectly, but doing some tweaking here and there helped (do that before any refinishing)

As far as the finish, when I took mine apart to take it off the 2020 I was trading in, I took it all apart as far as it could be taken apart thinking originally to re-plate the screws and such, but I decided what the heck and took it to a local shop to have it power coated. It was too big to fit the main body in my own oven so I did not do it myself.
When I arrived at the powder coating shop the head guy came out and knew immediately what it was and said "Jeep bumper, disassembled, textured black" on the work order. I thought to myself - this place has seen some Jeep bumpers before!

Once powder coated, I'd say its finish is just as good as any MOPAR bumper, and who knows, could be better. I re-plated the screws in black zinc, I replaced the nuts with stainless steel clip nuts where I could (I had it already mounted before I decided to do that so I didn't take it all back off in order to remove the nuts and put the clip nuts in place instead)
If I were to do it again, I'd use all clip nuts like the factory.

As far as fit to the truck, if you install it a piece at a time, it goes on super-easy, great fit, no issues with installation.

I did use the plastic plugs (From Amazon) to fill the sensor holes these come with, and since the fog light bezels were so cheap at the time ($16 each?) I ordered MOPAR bezels when I first installed it so mine don't have those sensor holes in the bezels.

Cost? Just under $500 for the bumper.
Powder coating was $246 with Iowa sales tax.
Bezels were about $32 for the pair.
The plastic plugs for the sensor holes were probably 10 bucks.
The stainless clip nuts were cheap - a box of them, I can't recall the cost but I bet it wasn't over $12.
I did the plating of the screws myself while doing plating and restorations for other people in my shop so it really didn't cost me more than my time and effort.
If you skipped the powder coating and did the cleaning and prep and painting yourself, you'd cut a big chunk out.
But adding it all up, and the fact I spread it out over 2+ years time (to me that's worth something - I bought it over time in a way) I'm still money ahead and have a bumper with a good quality finish now.
Call it about $800 for the bumper, finish, etc. - paid for over more than 2 years time, still cheaper than other bumpers and I didn't have to kill our household budget all at one time.

Value - it's all personal, your own wants, needs, and financial circumstances.
Would I do it again? Most likely. Although these days I'm thinking aluminum!
But at this time, I have pretty much the same thing as a MOPAR steel front bumper with a great powder coat finish that will last a very long time.

There is no right or wrong- it's a personal choice based on your circumstances, use and needs.

 

[fourfa]

This is the content I’m here for. Thanks for the detailed report

 

[WILL1E]

Guess what arrived today!!!!

 

[Rusty PW]

Please don't laugh - I had to look that one up. And aha - the reason they are so the same isn't that far off from why some of the stuff from China is a copy......... except like you said, Taurus bought and paid for the stuff to copy, uh, I mean, make.........

"The Taurus PT-92 and PT-99 9mm pistols were the result of Taurus purchasing a Beretta factory located in Brazil in 1974. This included including everything that factory owned: drawings, tools, machinery, and work force."

They didn't have to copy, it was all handed with them after the ink dried.

A little history here.

The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-auto pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. The US military replaced the .45 ACP M1911 pistol in 1985 with the Beretta 92FS, designated as the M9. The first batches of 92FS were made in Italy, followed by being made in the US per military contract. I have one of the 92FS's that were made in Italy.

In 1974, a large contract for the Beretta 92 was issued by the Brazilian army, for which Beretta set up a factory in São Paulo, Brazil. This factory was later sold to the Brazilian gunmaker Taurus (Forjas Taurus S/A) in 1980, after the contract had expired. Shortly thereafter, Taurus closed down the factory and transferred the original Beretta machinery to its factory in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, using it to make its own pistol, which was a copy of the original Beretta 92 design, no longer being produced in Brazil. They did this without the need for a license and they also did not have to pay royalties, as the designs and patents had since expired

 

[WILL1E]

Trying to install the bumper right now and I can’t figure out where the heck these shackle brackets go???

 

[Barnaby’sdad]

A little history here.

The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-auto pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. The US military replaced the .45 ACP M1911 pistol in 1985 with the Beretta 92FS, designated as the M9. The first batches of 92FS were made in Italy, followed by being made in the US per military contract. I have one of the 92FS's that were made in Italy.

In 1974, a large contract for the Beretta 92 was issued by the Brazilian army, for which Beretta set up a factory in São Paulo, Brazil. This factory was later sold to the Brazilian gunmaker Taurus (Forjas Taurus S/A) in 1980, after the contract had expired. Shortly thereafter, Taurus closed down the factory and transferred the original Beretta machinery to its factory in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, using it to make its own pistol, which was a copy of the original Beretta 92 design, no longer being produced in Brazil. They did this without the need for a license and they also did not have to pay royalties, as the designs and patents had since expired

? The very first firearm I ever purchased was a 92FS. I lived in the barracks at the time and had to deposit it at the base armory after every range trip. The armory peeps commented on it every time I picked it up and dropped it off. To say that their M9’s were in poor shape compared to that one would be an understatement.

I cleaned it following every range trip prior to dropping it off. Picking it up one time, it had clearly been fired by someone else and not cleaned, so I’m guessing someone checked it out to do a side by side comparison with their duty gun.

Got an M9A3 (TN production gun) at the moment. Very nice setup. Got to run it with a can a while back, which was cool.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Trying to install the bumper right now and I can’t figure out where the heck these shackle brackets go???

Those go on the outside of the frame rails and hang down as tow points. They interfere with a skid plate unless you notch the plate. I left them off mine. In fact, even if I had installed those, I would have had to remove them again to install the brackets for my snow plow mount.
If you hold one up to the outside of the frame with them oriented as in your picture, you'll find the top two holes line up perfect with holes in the frame. They'd then hang down below the bumper a bit for a place to attach to with a shackle for example.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

? The very first firearm I ever purchased was a 92FS. I lived in the barracks at the time and had to deposit it at the base armory after every range trip. The armory peeps commented on it every time I picked it up and dropped it off. To say that their M9’s were in poor shape compared to that one would be an understatement.

I cleaned it following every range trip prior to dropping it off. Picking it up one time, it had clearly been fired by someone else and not cleaned, so I’m guessing someone checked it out to do a side by side comparison with their duty gun.

Got an M9A3 (TN production gun) at the moment. Very nice setup. Got to run it with a can a while back, which was cool.

Ah, yet another veteran - thank you for your service and hard work.

 

[Hipbilly]

SO I'm heavily considering one of these, and I have a suspicion that needs confirmed; these aren't finished, are they? Just a black primer?
Seeing comments about powder coating somewhat confirms that, I may go with bed liner.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

SO I'm heavily considering one of these, and I have a suspicion that needs confirmed; these aren't finished, are they? Just a black primer?
Seeing comments about powder coating somewhat confirms that, I may go with bed liner.

No, they ARE finished, it's just that the finish isn't that great. It's thin and sort of gets less black after a few months or a couple of years. It's a textured finish, and looks really nice at first. Mine actually looked great for the first few months and then as I began to compare pictures of it, I realized - it's not as "black" as when I first installed it.
In some spots the finish really isn't bad - for a discount price bumper. And a lot of guys could easily paint it and get by for a fair amount of time.
When I was ready to have mine refinished with new power coating, I knocked down a couple of high spots on the bumper and did a touch of hammer work, and minor filing, minor grinding and the finish acted just like powder coating - just not a high quality powder coating.
It's definitely not primer or ordinary paint. Not how it acted when I worked to strip it and improve a couple of spots. Acetone didn't touch it either - indicating powder. Where I cut for winch clearance (because I didn't know about the spacers a member sells!) I filed and sanded and wiped down with acetone before spraying black textured paint on the edges, and the acetone didn't touch the finish.

 

[WILL1E]

Got mine installed this weekend, in stubby mode. Overall i'm pretty happy with it. As others have mentioned, zero instructions, hence my shackle mount question above. The hardware does feel a bit soft and I wish i would have ordered some better stuff from McMaster or Grainger ahead of the install. Everything fit ok, prolly the least quality fit was the plastic inserts/covers that go over the fog lights (I reused my factory LED fogs). They didn't snap in all that great and I suspect i'll need to come up with a Plan B at some point for those.

My steel rubicon skid plate had zero chance of fitting. Since my cutting wheel was up at the cabin and I didn't feel like buying another one, i need to borrow one from the shop at work and get that back on. It looks like i'm going to have to shave a fair amount off in 4 different spots. I had every bolt loose during assembly and I'm not how anyone could install that skid without some cutting...trust me, i tried!!

Mine came with plugs for the sensor holes, but they are absolutely junk. So i'll prolly order some rubber ones from McMaster or something.

 

[Minty JL]

I installed my knock off Bumper 2 weeks ago. I transferred the orange Mojave tow hooks over and trimmed my Mojave skid plate to work.

For the price point, its hard to beat.

 

[WILL1E]

@Minty JL where did you trim your skid? If you can markup that front view photo that would be great.

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