Rock-Slide Engineering rear JK bumper

I spent about 4 hours installing it and you couldn't ask anymore for the fit-perfect. There are a few things that were a little annoying like chinese bearings for the pivot and a loose fit on the seal, but all in all, I'm pleased.

Very beefy pivot with a pair of tapered roller bearings


Nice snug, even fit on body, about 1/4" clearence all around.


Swaped some of the hardware-from this


to this


Pretty clean design


It remains to be seen if it developes rattles but will certainly know by the end of the summer.

 

Looks good. So, does the carrier just open with the tailgate?
Wife's Mopar carrier doesn't rattle very bad after 3 years. It has a simple pull pin and spring latching it to a hole in the bumper. It doesn't rattle at all when there's extra weight of 2 mountain bikes on the spare tire bike rack.

 

This one just opens with the tailgate. The heim joint (double with adjuster in middle like a tie rod) adjusts the pressure on a rubber bumper that screws into one of the original right side tire mount holes.

 

.

How's this bumper holding up a few years later?

.

 

It's a very mixed bag. It did fit nice and it's plenty strong. BUT

I spent $60 replacing those cheap chinese heim joints that came with it with some real ones from McMaster-Carr. There isn't that much stress on them but the chinese ones were so poorly made they actually had slack in the bearing end. Slack= rattles. And the closure design really exacerbates that. It is almost pulling straight parallel to the tailgate when closed so it takes VERY little slack to produce those rattles. The adjustable tire mount is also problematic. There is no way to keep that from rattling short of spot welding it in place-which I did. Then the powercoat starting peeling before the two year mark was met.

Would I buy another? NO. Eventuality, I'll build one out of aluminum and part of that RSE may serve as a pattern. But certainly not the closure mechanism or the tire mounting. With all the JK bumpers now available, there has to be some better options.

 

.

Thanks for the detailed response!

I really liked the non-flashy and near OEM look of this bumper.

Looking forward to seeing you put some homemade touches (like the 3B) to this Rubicon!

.

 

I don't have that sort of attachment to the JK.