Zacfrac
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Zachary
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2019
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 85
- Reaction score
- 67
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 Gladiator LE
- Occupation
- Consultant
- Thread starter
- #1
I guess I’m looking for a bit of a reality check here. I picked up a LE from a local dealer because A.) it was there and B.) I wanted enough of the features that paying for the couple I wouldn’t have picked wasn’t a deal breaker.
The steel bumper looks fine to me, but as I’m getting things pieces together for putting a winch in there, it’s starting to look like just buying aftermarket would be a better option.
Things to buy would be:
Winch plate
Bull bar/deer pusher
D-ring mounts
I’m not a fan of how bars mount to it, just bolting to the top doesn’t seem like the most sturdy point. Not a total deal breaker, I really only want it there for some extra branch/deer protection for the grill. I do a lot of dawn/dusk driving in forested areas/game lands for my job.
I’m also not a fan of using hooks for recovery. They tend to be tricky to inspect for stress, things slip off them, and I don’t want to put myself or others at extra risk messing with them. Every mount for D-rings I can find also requires cutting the OEM bumper to some degree, which sort of sucks.
So in the end I’m looking at putting ~600bucks and an angle grinder into this thing to make it to where I’m happy with it. Is it even worth it? Honestly asking, if I can justify keeping it I probably will, it just doesn’t seem to be worth it with what I’ve figured out so far.
The steel bumper looks fine to me, but as I’m getting things pieces together for putting a winch in there, it’s starting to look like just buying aftermarket would be a better option.
Things to buy would be:
Winch plate
Bull bar/deer pusher
D-ring mounts
I’m not a fan of how bars mount to it, just bolting to the top doesn’t seem like the most sturdy point. Not a total deal breaker, I really only want it there for some extra branch/deer protection for the grill. I do a lot of dawn/dusk driving in forested areas/game lands for my job.
I’m also not a fan of using hooks for recovery. They tend to be tricky to inspect for stress, things slip off them, and I don’t want to put myself or others at extra risk messing with them. Every mount for D-rings I can find also requires cutting the OEM bumper to some degree, which sort of sucks.
So in the end I’m looking at putting ~600bucks and an angle grinder into this thing to make it to where I’m happy with it. Is it even worth it? Honestly asking, if I can justify keeping it I probably will, it just doesn’t seem to be worth it with what I’ve figured out so far.
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