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Yeah happy enough, haha. Fitment isn't great, but its good enough for me.
Just out of curiousity, and if you don't mind. Would you mind taking a tape measure and taking a pic of the distance between the grill and the hoop? I'll do the same on mine, I am curious what the difference is.
Hate to knock any off road company, but I understand that OR-Fab products are made in China. If they have multiple sources for this bumper (in China), maybe that would explain the differences.
Anyway, I just finished installing my notch customs flares too. Took me forever. The good news is that if you get them to fit close to where they're supposed to, you can crank down pretty good on those studs. I didn't use a torque wrench but I tightened them enough to really help the gaps (frankly mych tighter than they advised). My biggest gaps now are on the front fender where the body line is and in the rear where the body line juts out for the rockers.
mines sitting in a shed waiting for the snow to melt to be put on. I just ordered it a few weeks ago.. now I'm curious how mine is made... and odd I thought they blasted how they were US made.... lame.. I guess trhat is only for certain products of theirs... I will say if mine has nearly the amount of gap as yours I'll be really annoyed. Any chance you could gfet a good pic of the brackets where you re-drilled them? maybe it's just my screen but the side pics were too dark for me to see.
I have that same Or-Fab bumper, with the hoop. It can be purchased without.
Before we accuse Or-Fab of being lazy about fitment, we need to consider a couple of things...
1) Could the gap be a function of the fact that the bumper is made to work on both pre and post 97 XJ's?
2) Maybe it's just me, but of I were designing a bumper, especially a winch bumper, I'm not sure I'd want it to be too tight to the front grill. With any potential flex during winching, and the possibility that a little off-road bashing around and impacts may slightly shift the bumper, a little bit of gap could actually prevent damage to other parts of the XJ.
I've had mine for about a year, purchased on Amazon. My only real compliant is that I wish the ends of the bumper had a more of a return going back to the wheel arch opening. It would give it a more finished look. Or-Fab could even make this bumper more modular, like many of the JK bumpers, and allow the hoop to be bolted on later if desired, and design modular ends for either max clearance, or a more finished look by allowing different end tips to be bolted on.
In the pics you'll notice my winch relay box for my Smitty 8K with synth mounted between the bumper and hoop. I plan to later move that box under the hood, but wanted to get everything mounted up so I would know how best to route the cables and how long they should be. Once I move that box, my 15" LED light bar will be moved to that spot. With having a new house to remodel, it's one of those things that's been on the back burner.
02-21-2015, 10:24 PM
