Southern Style OffRoad Introduction and sale thread

I paid a shop to install it, and they were scared to cut too. I ended up having to make the cut myself. I was nervous too, but it ended up looking great. It's a very simple cut. I used a diamond blade on the Dremel. Couldn't find a rip one that they recommend.

Also, I will note that it squatted down the front about 0.5" (and I didn't even like the rake before that ) so I ended up doing OME 885 coils with 5100's set to 0, and it's absolutely perfect now. Rear sits only about 0.25" higher than the front.

 

Might I ask what winch you chose to go with? Looks great!

 

It's the Smittybilt XRC 9.5k Synthetic that I had on my old Jeep. But, Kevin recommends a wireless one and I would second that. In order to access my plug port, we had to cut the bracket behind the grille and then reinforce it. If you went with a wireless one, you wouldn't have to do that.

 

Yikes - makes it squat? Do you think your winch weighs more than the bumper?

 

I just mean that adding the 80lb of the bumper plus the 75-100lb of the winch makes the front ride a half inch lower.

 

Did you notice a difference in the ride? Or were the coils installed at the same time?

 

You're adding 150lbs to the front of the truck, 1/2" isn't really that bad.

 

No difference in the ride after the winch/bumper. I installed the coils/shocks about a week after.

The new coils and shocks did make the off road/rocky ride smoother than before though, but that's not really related to the bumper.

 

Would you say that your front shocks are bottoming out on account of the 400lbs of steel you have cantilevered off your front valence?

 

The bumper weighs about 75lbs, a synthetic line winch another 85ish pounds. That equals 160.....not 400.

 

I think the point he was trying to make is that as you move the weight further infront of the axle it acts as an exponential multiplier on the suspension. 400 is obviously just a number he made up, and im not sure how that affects the suspension as it moves out.
I don't think there was a noticeable difference in my trucks suspension but Im not running a winch.

 

Lots of folks run these without upgrading the suspension and have not said anything about bottoming out. Of course,I always suggest a suspension upgrade because race truck, but it's not necessary.

 

Yeah the weight is really not an issue at all. I only mentioned it because people on other forums asked if it lowered the front, so I was just addressing it. Strange comments about shocks bottoming out though. Not even close.

 

Love seeing the new pics of everyones new bumper! Cant wait for mine!

 

For the heck of it I stopped by a body shop near my house and showed them the instructions. They said if I taped it and brought them the bumper cover they would cut it for 50 bucks. I just ordered the rip blade on Amazon and I'm going to cut it myself. After looking at the instructions again it looks really easy and it seems like it will be more of a hassle to take it anywhere.

 

SO who else has installed theirs yet?!

 

I was going to wait until I received the bumper before writing this, but I gotta hand it to the folks at SSO. Despite the challenges they've been facing with the flooding, my bumper was actually shipped a couple weeks ago. Before I was to receive it, Kevin gave me a call warning me that there was a quality control issue with a few of the bumpers and mine was one of the victims. He suggested refusing delivery so they can make good on the issue and send me out a new one. Just received confirmation today that the revised bumper was on its way to be powder coated and should be headed my way by next week.

One of the things that really gets to me, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, is tearing apart a vehicle only to find that the product is inaccurate, non-functioning, whatever, ending up in a huge waste of time. Not having to deal with that in exchange for waiting a few more weeks is the ultimate in customer service! They owned up to the problem before I even knew there was one and promptly fixed it. Can't wait to get this thing installed!

 

Here is the bumper with an RCI skid installed. I think I'll have someone manufacture a connecting slide between the skid and the bumper so I don't get hung up on that "step. "

 

This looks great... might be my next mod.