Reviews: Smittybilt GEN2 SRC Front Bumper - 77724

First thing, Smittybilt did an amazing job packaging the bumper for shipping. The bumper came in a very large box with a lot of packing inside to protect your new bumper. The install went well. After making just a few of the holes bigger for the bolts to go through, it bolted up easy. I also installed the Smittybilt X20 10k winch with the bumper. The pair look very good together.

Thank goodness for YouTube videos because this came without instructions. Maybe it was a return at some point? We used the YouTube video (from another company) that was for the XRC, as it's really the same process as the SRC and was a better video. Removing the OEM took the longest by far. You can scavenge your fog lights and use them easily with this bumper, although you'll need an extension to plug them back in (not included). The fog light setting is for a Sport; anything else seems to need an additional bracket (included). It also has a bracket for cube lights. I have a 2021 Willys with the LED package. Putting the new bumper on was simple and quick. We had to drill out the frame rail holes on the Jeep because they had been poorly done and were preventing the new bolts from sliding in all at once. We taped the L bracket in place so it wouldn't keep sliding back into the bumper. There are a lot of parts unused at the end; they seem to be for different models. No regrets on this bumper but instructions would've been nice.

Several of the threaded studs that are for the fog light mounting had weld spatter on the threads. This was easily preventable during manufacturing as well as easily detectable if there was any Quality inspection of the product. Apparently there isn't. I had to use die to chase the threads and clean up the spatter without damaging the stud threads. Using a nut for this would likely result in thread damage. Several studs were affected. The second challenge concerned the OEM (LED) fog light installation. I shopped for a bumper that would accept the OEM LED lights and the Engineer's did a decent job of designing an interface to accept multiple options. The problem is there is no adjustment capability. It would have been nice to see a warning for this in the instructions. I didn't even consider this and didn't notice that my lights were pointed too low until weeks later. Ooops, my bad. The only adjustment option is a washer stack under the top mounting screws to raise the beam and now I will have to remove the winch to access the fog lights. There is very little clearance between the winch and the fog lights so future replacement of the fog lights requires winch removal and possibly bumper removal. I installed the winch after installing the bumper. This was not an issue. No issues with bolt alignment and no enlarging holes required. My installation was onto a 2020 JLU Rubicon. I was disappointed however, to see "Made in China" on the product label on the box. My personal preference is to support US manufacturing and this is why I did not purchase the matching rear bumper for my Jeep.