Reviews: Smittybilt XRC Fender Armor

After a very long wait, these were available. Already had the fronts on and just looked awkward w/o the rears!

These will make your Jeep look awesome. The big drawback is installation. If you plan to do it yourself...take the week off. I had 4 wheel parts install both front and rear and the labor costs more than the parts. But WOW is it worth it.

The rear are even better than the front. It is the best, most noticeable upgrade I have done to my Jeep. If you plan to install them yourself know that you have to drop the rear bumper and remove the lights...a big mess. I had 4 wheel parts do both front and rear and the labor was more than the parts but SO WORTH IT.

Very well built I bought front and rear. Take your time installing and you will be happy with the finished product. I don't need to worry about the occasional bump of the trees now or the side scraping on angle in a dry wash now! (Sorry little tire on for the winter in the pics)

I put the XRC Front Armor on my JK because I wanted something with some unique styling and that you don't see every day. The install is definitely a 3 or 4 out of 5 on the difficulty scale. You have to do some minor cutting and drilling but it's not bad at all if you follow the instuctions. It really narrows up the front of the JK's which are a very wide platform Jeep. The all steel construction allows me not to worry about trees or rocks damaging the Jeep. Overall an awesome product and I can't wait to install the rear ones!

You can't beat the look of these fenders. They are super beefy and offer a ton of protection. I had some body damage from some trees and rocks and these covered it up and will make sure it DOESN'T happen again. The install involves some drilling and using nutserts which can be a pain to install. I recommend getting an actual nutsert tool to make installing them quicker and easier.

The front fenders were pretty extreme to install. However, the rear were super easy and didnt take a whole lot of time. Now, when installing the front everything comes off, the old fenders, cowel (break spot weld), wipers all the way off, etc.... the instructions that come with them are meh... very basic ... but they do have a smittybilt number u can call if u get stuck. Overall the look is amazing. U will have to paint a little on the pieces that dont get covered up by the new fender. If u have cladding on u will have to remove the front piece and the back piece u can swap out for the shorter piece that sits at the back fender. Nonetheless, worth every second!

Love these went on very nice, my only grip is the instruction are not very helpfull and make sure you get the mut insert tool its a must...

It is exactly what you order. This is the best price you will find, even lower than eBay and Amazon. They look amazing, fit great, and add needed strength to your jeep.

Just installed these tonight and they look so badass!!!!!

Somewhat tricky to align and should also purchase the insert tool,

these fender look awesome, probably the best looking on the market. these fenders are also a pain to install, i did the front ones myseld and just decided to get the back ones intalled by a shop. they arent hard to install they are just very time consuming.

I had these installed as a replacement after a deer accident. I truely like the look it gives my 2008 - 4 door! I do agree with the one review that stated about the need for easy on easy off flares, this is my everyday driver. Although the trail aspect of these fenders is Awsome, it is impossible to keep my jeep clean even after a small rain shower on the highway. Another thing to consider is the addition of a side marker/blinker light for on-road use.

I agree,your jeep will not stay clean but the fenders make it look a lot tougher.the front fenders are very easy to install the rear fenders are a little more difficult,but after having 2 jeeps and installing them twice it's not that bad,and also allows for bigger tires

Heavy duty, quality built, these things are like steel bumpers for your sides. Not 5 stars because engineering could be better. Not the easiest things to install. Instructions are garbage and you need to buy a nut rivet tool.

I've installed a couple of the XRC body armor kits (full kits, front, rear, rockers) and in both instances the rear panels have been distorted and required some bending to get them to fit properly. I have seen another jeep with a very rusty set of the same armor (chunks flaking off) which makes me wonder whether the paint/coating includes a suitable rust protection layer. I have so far only had surface rust on my kits (and I have been vigilant with a can of rust-o-leum at the ready).

These fenders look great but are not without blemishes. The install instructions are horrible. Which makes an average joe installer with some experience fumbling around all day. Doesn’t tell you which screw or nut are for what. Doesn’t talk about drilling and cutting a bracket on the fenders. And didn’t have mounts for the angel eye led lights. At least my set didnt have anything to mount them. They’re smaller than the housing. Still wondering what to do with them. So far they’re zip tied. Have my led angel eye fender light hooked up to the running lights. Have not hooked up the fog lamp part of it yet. Might just run it to a switch. You really need to know what you’re doing to put these fenders on your Jeep. I’ve done radio, alarms, back up cam, dash cams, auto starts, and etc and I was still struggling with this set up. You will need to do drilling and cutting which it doesn’t really state when you purchase these fenders. I am happy with my purchase bc they look great on a Jeep. I just wish the above mentioned were better handled by smittybilt. This xrc gen 2 fenders really deserve a thorough how to video.

A little better tolerencing and instructions would make these a 4 star. Very tuff and they look pretty good too. Nutcert installation is critical! Make sure theyre crushed all the way. I used the nutcert tool and the included diy tool as a back check.

There are several areas to consider when looking at these upgrades:Style and Construction- Obviously this style does not suit everyone. I happen to really like both the form and the function. As for construction, they are made of 3/16" steel which is much much thicker than the OEM fenders. I was actually surprised out how thin the original fenders were. That said, these will add weight to your rig since they are much more beefy. One thing I did not anticipate was how much the new wheel well clearance dwarfs my tires. I am running 35" tires and they look almost stock now due to scale of the fender.Legality- check [@] and your local laws to see what is or isn't allowed with regards to tire coverage and fenders. There is almost no coverage on the front and just a few inches on the rears.Commitment- Consider these permanent upgrades since you will be doing some decent modifications to accommodate installation. For instance, you will be eliminating your front OEM quarter panel all together and cutting off your front fender bracket (if you purchase the fronts) and drilling several holes in the rear quarter panel (for the rears). I suggest contacting Smittybilt for the installation instructions before making your decision so you have an idea of everything that is in store. They e-mailed me the instructions before my purchase which was very helpful in making my decision.Time- You will need a LOT of time to install these. It took 2 full days for me to put on the fronts (by myself) and 2 full days to put on the rears (with help). I consider my skill level to be bolt-off and bolt-on so I figure someone more skilled with help could move faster, but it is still time consuming.Help Needed- I was able to to do the fronts by myself and they bolted on with no issues. A helper would have saved time though. For the rears a helper is a must as these are not simply bolt on. You will be doing a lot of fitting, marking and drilling. These corner guards are cumbersome and awkwardly shaped so you will need someone there to help hold as you line up for marking, drilling holes, installing nutserts etc.Fit (Rears)- The installation of the rear corner guards was quite a bit different as they are bolted directly on the the tub using holes you drill. Again make sure you have help and take your time to ensure you have everything lined up when making your marks for drilling. The instructions call for C-clamps to help hold the fender once in place (to help in marking drill holes) but we had trouble finding good places where we could use the C-clamps. We ended having one of us hold the fender as we made our drill marks. Once the holes are drilled you then install "nutcerts" (aka rivet nuts). My suggestion is to try and pick up a rivet nut tool on the cheap if possible. I had no experience with these before, but basically they work like a rivet, but then you are able to screw a bolt into it. A rudimentary tool is supplied but we ended up breaking both of them due to amount of toque we were putting on them to get the rivet nuts installed. Later we found WD40 made the process much much easier. If you run into trouble you are best to use the term "rivet nut" and not nutcert in your google search...as with the fronts, the inner liner can be a PITA.Instruction Quality- We found the instructions to be straight forward for the installation process, but did lack some details when it came to initial tear-down.Tools needed:- Both Standard and Metric wrenches and sockets (10mm and 13mm get used a LOT)- Torx set covering both small and larger sizes- Allen wrench set- dremmel with cutting wheel- handled pry bar (for pulling the plastic inner fender clips)- Rustoleum truckbed liner (optional for spraying some of the newly exposed areas of the wheel wells when completed)- mallet (to help with stubborn plastic inner fender clips)- grease pen or marking tool for marking drill holes- Electric drill since you are drilling into metal and drill bits (3/8 and 1/2 are used for sure)Overall impression- I am very pleased with my purchase. The construction quality is impressive as well as the fit. The time needed to install was a little more than I anticipated, but again we're talking about full fender replacement and bolt on corner guards so not totally unreasonable. As someone who is limited in my skillset and resources, I found these to be an excellent way for someone like me to gain a heavy modified look/function without having to seriously modify my jeep. The most annoying part of the install was working the inner fenders and installing the nutserts (rivet nuts). Beyond that our install was pretty much uneventful.One suggestion I have for the manufacturer is to look into creating some type of easy bolt on flare to help with tire coverage when not on the trail. There's 16 exposed bolts on each corner and it seems like this could be something easy to fab up for those who want the best of both worlds.