Smittybilt Stryker Front Bumper (Center Section only) 76730

Amazon says this bumper does not fit my 2020 Gladiator. The Gladiator is identical to the JL all the way to the back doors, and as you can see from the attached picture, it fit my 2020 Gladiator perfectly. The packaging was flawless and there wasn’t a scratch on anything. Everything was perfect. The instructions on the other hand were nearly worthless. I also installed a 12000 lb Smittybilt XRC Gen3 winch at the same time and it’s instructions were almost as bad. Overall, I’m happy with the quality of this bumper.

Really great looking front bumper for JL, solid packaging, & terrible instructions. Could have taken 1-2 hours less to assemble with a winch if instructions were any better. Still I consider it a great bargain, especially with Amazon’s low price & 2 day delivery!

like many others have stated, the instructions that come with bumper are horrible. with that said and after several mistakes, i love this bumper. sturdy and good looking, i had a friend help with installation. between the removal of the old one and installation of the new one it took the better part of the day. had a good day, along with a few laughs, we got it done and i am happy with the result.

Very nice bumper. I like that I can add extra lights inside of the bumper.

As the title says, made in China. I knew this going in, and I took a chance. The packaging was good, and the bumper was well protected. The finish was nice, although the powder coating seems a bit thin. It is a very great looking bumper. However, the stamping process which makes it look so cool probably requires a thinner gauge steel. I measured the bumper at 0.11 inches, or less than 1/8 inch, with the coating. The bumper, in my opinion, will only offer moderate protection before it bends. The metal seems to be very malleable or soft. The winch cradle is much heavier, and I assume that it would be adequate for all winching needs. The instructions could be much better; they don't even mention some parts or important assembly directions. There are square shaped spacer plates included, but not mentioned, apparently to space the bumper from the winch cradle so that the stock fog lamps will fit. I went with an aftermarket Xprite LED fog lamp set-up which was not as deep. This allowed me to mount the bumper without the spacers. (As a side note, those lights are awesome driving lights and plug right into the stock harness.) There are ovaI shaped spacers, also not mentioned. They space out either side of the cradle between the frame where the top bolts go. I have a 2007 JK, and it appears that there is no clear answer as to how to attach the back of the skid pan to the factory cross member on early model JKs. The instructions simply say to "bolt it on." I think I am expected to drill five holes and "bolt it on." I will find a better, less invasive solution. I recommend assembling the entire product, loosely, and after you have figured out all of the little secrets, reassemble it with Loctite and torque it down. Yes, it is another less than perfect product from China proudly displaying the name of a once high quality American manufacturer. If you want a cool looking bumper, one that your winch can sit into, one that doesn't weigh a ton, and one that doesn't break the bank, then this is probably the right one for you. If you plan to duke it out with boulders, then I suggest a heavy duty American made bumper. I hope this helps.

Excelente producto

This bumper looks awesome! It was easy to install. Smittybilt Did a great job designing it.

Great looking bumper instructions sucked but I won't knock the rating down for that...maybe made in China but built very well and what isn't made in China

Love the bumper. Looks great. Packaged well and no damage post delivery. All the bolts and screws are nicely packaged in bags numbered “screw bag 1-6”. Thats all great but in the instruction they don’t tell you which bag to use. You still have to guess and figure out which set of bolts to use for each step. Something simple that would take a lot of the guess work and trial and error out of it. Probably would have saved me 30 minutes install time. Also they include which I guess is a 1/2” bumper spacer but doesn’t show up in the directions or the reason for it. After getting the bumper installed I now realize that I don’t have enough clearance to pull the front grill. That extra 1/2” might be what I need to pull the grill without pulling the bumper. Next time I pull the grill I will put the spacers in when re-installing the bumper :(. All bolts and holes lined up perfectly. So far great quality control. Time will tell about the finish. Other than a update of installation instructions I love it and love the look. Recommended.

Expensive

Great bumper, instructions terrible, look up on utube before installing

I’ll start with the good because the bad is horrible. The good? This is a sturdy, good-looking modular bumper system that lets you configure it as either a stubby or mid-width bumper. It includes a built-in mount in the winch hoop for a 10-13” light bar. The bull bar/hoop has channels built in for running wiring out of sight, and the add-on wings also have mounts for light pods. The box arrived within the shipping window and was in good shape, with minimal transit damage. The parts were undamaged and wrapped in foam to protect them from scratches and minor dings. Any significant damage to the box would damage the parts. Now for the bad. Watch every installation video you can find for this bumper. Make lots of notes and queue the videos to review as you install the bumper. The installation manual is 6 (8?) pages in total and covers absolutely nothing. It is, at best, a widely inaccurate/incomplete parts list. The bolt and nut packages are labelled with “screw kit .” The problem is that clear labelling is not used anywhere in the manual. Detailed pictures show no usable details, and most of the manual is more like a list of suggestions on what to do. The fact that this document has remained unaltered for years is a massive failure of Smitybilt’s. A few days with a technician, a camera, and decent lighting would fix the issue. As it is, a job that should have taken, at best, two hours took five. The bumper arrived with the frame mounting points of the winch plate/bumper core bent on both sides. This was not a deal breaker, as they straightened as you bolted them to the frame horns. However, this did make clearances for a couple of the other parts troublesome and eventually meant backing out bolts and repositioning multiple times. The flag nuts for the frame tie-ins (to help keep the winch plat from torquing under load) are pictured in the manual, but the picture is for a JK, not a JL or JT. These flag nuts are designed for use in either, and as such, they have two threaded holes, but the instructions do not explain why there are two holes. You will use the bottom hole only if dropped in place on a JL or JT. Don’t try aligning the top hole with any of the holes in the frame horn. A JL or JT will need to use the large rectangular spacers between the frame mount and the bumper, or any good-sized winch will not fit at all. For reference, I installed my well-worn Openroad Pather 2s, rated from 13k, and its wiring touches the front grill, even with the spacers on. You may need to install the flag nuts loosely and then slide the spacers into place before bolting to the frame otherwise the flag nuts are out of alignment. You must remove the two stock frame braces, as the bumper includes two custom ones. Because of the shape of the back of the frame horns, they don’t fit the JL/JT precisely, but they do bolt into place. The fog light pockets have multiple mounting holes and four plastic nuts each. They are spaced to fit the JT/JL Sahara and Rubicon plastic bumper LED fogs when installed. If you are replacing a steel Rubicon bumper or plastic Sport bumper, the LED tabs on the lamps will need to be modified. Ensure you install your winch’s hause or fairlead before mounting the bumper shell, as there is very little room to get fingers or hands behind it after the bumper is mounted. Finally, while the manual mentions installing the skid plate on a JT/JT using the included ‘strap’, there are no details on how to install it to the frame horns.