Hooke Road rear bumper

Have anymore pics???

 

When I have the money I'm going to buy a rear for sure. I would like an ARB front bumper but I can't afford one Maybe if I say for the next 5 or so years....

 

I am curious where they get their designs, looks like intellectual property theft to me. Most of the products I see on their site look a LOT like Brand A or brand B's product, only with crappy craftmanship. I would not put my money into counterfeit substandard products. These are probably ok if you just want the "look" and don't care that they won't hold up to real-world use off-road.

It has always been my experience that the less expensive product usually ends up costing 2.5 x the cost of buying the right product the first time; install garbage, remove garbage, fix what garbage did not protect, purchase new premium product (usually at a higher price because of time and inflation), install new premium product.

 

All valid concerns sir.... its pretty solid though . The swingate comes in 5 pieces and you bolt it together , I felt like problems could arise from this going down a washboard road with an 80 pound spare on the back so I had mine welded together for extra insurance...I also used nylocks on the mount bolts instead of the supplied nuts and lock washers

 

The tiregate survived a shakedown test: 50 miles on mogollon rim rd this weekend , no annoying rattles , survived the washboards ruts , held up well....

 

Don't need money. Get rear-ended. Free.
Will probably happen to you once this year whether you like it or not. Great drivers we have.

Best of luck with the impact. Can't be good for the spine, neck, and brain

 

I was looking to get one of these and emailed several of the sellers on eBay about the factory tow hitch. All of them said it wouldn’t work with the hitch, so I ended up buying a stock replacement rear bumper and painted it to match the truck. I’d rather have had the Hooke road one tbh.

 

Mine bolted right on to the factory tow hitch - no problems

 

Does the gate lock in place? That would be one security measure against stolen tailgates. And it remains separate from the hitch, so as to not reduce the tongue capacity rating?

 

The latch has a separate “lock” latch but anyone can just flip it . It would be really easy to just weld on some rings or a seperate clasp to run a padlock through so thats a great idea , I just bolted the jerry can holder on & will have my welder guy run a line on it , so might as well have him weld on something to run a padlock as well...It mounts to the factory bumper brackets so I dont think it would add to tongue weight like the wilco gate setup does....

 

I mounted one of these on my 2014. Purchased through Amazon. The hook points are for show. They are surface mount. My objective was to put steel on the back to protect the rear in Phoenix traffic. It looks good and serves its purpose.

 

been running one for over a year now no real issues other than some paint came of one of the lights.
i have used it to skid some logs out a trail to cut up for firewood.

 

I've had one for a few years now with no problems. Don't use the d ring points for recovery as I use the hitch and a pintle hook with kinetic rope for that. I also relocated the trailer receptacle to the bumper.

 

Necrothread!

Ebay motors had a 20% off sale so I ordered one of these- $277 to my door in a couple of days (it shipped out of Georgia).

Random thoughts-

• Yep, Chinese
• Yep, would get smashed if you bashed it off-roading
• Yep, looks much better than my beat up, flaking chrome factory bumper
• Yep, "recovery" points are for looks only (or tying canoe/kayak brake lines too)
• Yep, unknown spec Chinese shackles went in the trash with the packing material (surprisingly decent packing with only two slight paint rubs)
• Yep, had to modify the tag light openings slightly to mount my factory lights and had to go to Home Depot to get some hardware to mount them and the tag. A couple of minutes with a file and some touch up paint was all it took. Alternately, I could have trimmed the plastic tabs on the light housings but I didn't want to weaken the plastic since they're getting older.
• Yep, fits up tight with the tailgate down; if it gets whacked out of alignment or bent you may not be able to drop your tailgate without damaging it (something to be aware of).

Installation was straight forward other than my factory bumper bolts being a PITA to remove; I should have sprayed them with Thrust, Kroll or other penetrating lubricant first.

I checked the lights with some test leads to make sure they worked then installed them in the bumper prior to installing it on the truck. I haven't wired them up as I'm going to change to a three way switch (off/automatic when in reverse/on) but they should be as serviceable as any of the other cheap LEDs being sold and they're cheap to replace if needed.

I'm going to add some sort of traction tape to the flat surfaces since I stand on my bumper with some frequency when securing boats to the roof rack. The paint is thick and has some texture but I think it will be slicker than I'd like when wet or wearing muddy Tevas.

I like the idea of mounting the trailer plug in the bumper and will probably do that when I get around to messing with the lights.

Most important- I wouldn't trust the "recovery" points for any sort of pulling at all. It wouldn't have taken much more to make them usable, and you could still mod it if you wanted to put the time and effort into it (cut them out and install some real shackle mounts), but it's a $300 Chinese bumper. I'll just continue to use the receiver shackle mount for a rear recovery point like I did before.

Conclusion- For the price and with money being tight right now and it being a 2005 truck (more worried about the head gaskets than a Chinese bumper), it'll work fine for my needs- if you need an actual hard use bumper you wouldn't be looking at this thing to start with.