tonydiv
technical advisor
Well, after waiting an astonishing 77 days, my new Tactical Armor Group front bumper has arrived and been installed.
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The bumper itself:
TAG gives you many choices when it comes to customizing your bumper, you can choose a winch style or add a 2" receiver. You can add the grill guard and light guards and choose from different driving light styles and sizes.
The construction is solid and the welds looked pretty good. If they spent another hour or so with the grinder, I would say that the joints would look great.
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I ordered mine with the gloss black paint. Perhaps a mistake, because it appears that they didn't prime the bumper before applying it. For $60 I would have expected an etching primer layed down first. I liberally coated the back side of the bumper with spray on bedliner paint to further protect it. the front and top side may be next. If I had it to do again, I would probably have it shipped bare and paint it myself. These guys are in Atlanta, they have no clue how one winter up North can destroy a cheap paint job.
At first I thought I wanted shackle mounts on mine, but later changed it to D - rings. Although they confirmed the change, the bumper was delivered with shackle mounts. Also the Pro Comp off road lights were shipped separately. I kind of suspect that they were just forgotten. They made mine with the body lift in mind, unfortunately they forgot to extend the winch plate reinforcement tabs. So they don't quite reach the frame. A small fabbed up bracket will correct this.
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My 12,500 lb winch bolted up perfectly, as did my fairlead for the synthetic winch rope. I'm not sure why there is another cut out for an additional fairlead above. Perhaps it will ba covered by the license plate.
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Installation:
Pulling off the old bumper is pretty straight forward. Mine was a bit more difficult because of the body lift bumper relocation brackets.
This thing is HEAVY. Forget about trying to have a couple of friends hold it for you. You really need an engine hoist or an overhead lift of some kind.
Installing this bumper is a one way street, because you must cut off the welded on stock bumper mounts. At first I tried grinding away part of the sides, but there wasn't enough clearance. So off they came. I also had to temporarily remove the oil filter bracket to fit the bumper. Two of the three mounting bolts go back in, but a new hole will have to be drilled and tapped on the bumper bracket to secure the oil filter mount.
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The directions say that you use 2 existing frame holes and then drill 2 more. This really isn't the case. The existing frame holes are actually slots that are much larger than the 1/2" bolts, so the fit is kind of sloppy. Also one of the existing holes doesn't go all the way through the frame, so you need to drill that one too. What I would have liked to see, was a paper template where you line it up and drill all new holes that are the proper size. I also had to cut off 1/2" of the end of the frame to allow the bumper to slide back enough to line up with those holes.
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The other problem with the mounting system is that they want you to go all the way through the frame with the supplied 4" bolts. As soon as you start to tighten it down, the frame starts to collapse. There really needs to be a spacer block or sleeve to keep that from happening. I'm just going to fab up a spacer myself.
So overall, I'm happy with it so far. The paint is questionable, the lead time excruciatingly long, but it really looks good and I finally got to put a winch on this bad boy.
[/IMG]
The bumper itself:
TAG gives you many choices when it comes to customizing your bumper, you can choose a winch style or add a 2" receiver. You can add the grill guard and light guards and choose from different driving light styles and sizes.
The construction is solid and the welds looked pretty good. If they spent another hour or so with the grinder, I would say that the joints would look great.
I ordered mine with the gloss black paint. Perhaps a mistake, because it appears that they didn't prime the bumper before applying it. For $60 I would have expected an etching primer layed down first. I liberally coated the back side of the bumper with spray on bedliner paint to further protect it. the front and top side may be next. If I had it to do again, I would probably have it shipped bare and paint it myself. These guys are in Atlanta, they have no clue how one winter up North can destroy a cheap paint job.
At first I thought I wanted shackle mounts on mine, but later changed it to D - rings. Although they confirmed the change, the bumper was delivered with shackle mounts. Also the Pro Comp off road lights were shipped separately. I kind of suspect that they were just forgotten. They made mine with the body lift in mind, unfortunately they forgot to extend the winch plate reinforcement tabs. So they don't quite reach the frame. A small fabbed up bracket will correct this.
My 12,500 lb winch bolted up perfectly, as did my fairlead for the synthetic winch rope. I'm not sure why there is another cut out for an additional fairlead above. Perhaps it will ba covered by the license plate.
Installation:
Pulling off the old bumper is pretty straight forward. Mine was a bit more difficult because of the body lift bumper relocation brackets.
This thing is HEAVY. Forget about trying to have a couple of friends hold it for you. You really need an engine hoist or an overhead lift of some kind.
Installing this bumper is a one way street, because you must cut off the welded on stock bumper mounts. At first I tried grinding away part of the sides, but there wasn't enough clearance. So off they came. I also had to temporarily remove the oil filter bracket to fit the bumper. Two of the three mounting bolts go back in, but a new hole will have to be drilled and tapped on the bumper bracket to secure the oil filter mount.
The directions say that you use 2 existing frame holes and then drill 2 more. This really isn't the case. The existing frame holes are actually slots that are much larger than the 1/2" bolts, so the fit is kind of sloppy. Also one of the existing holes doesn't go all the way through the frame, so you need to drill that one too. What I would have liked to see, was a paper template where you line it up and drill all new holes that are the proper size. I also had to cut off 1/2" of the end of the frame to allow the bumper to slide back enough to line up with those holes.
The other problem with the mounting system is that they want you to go all the way through the frame with the supplied 4" bolts. As soon as you start to tighten it down, the frame starts to collapse. There really needs to be a spacer block or sleeve to keep that from happening. I'm just going to fab up a spacer myself.
So overall, I'm happy with it so far. The paint is questionable, the lead time excruciatingly long, but it really looks good and I finally got to put a winch on this bad boy.
