Bumpers, Rock Rails, Skid Plates and Tire Carrier on Order

[Bronc69]

I used the Black Friday sales to order the full gambit of parts for my now in production Bronco Wildtrak (no, I don't have it yet, but fingers crossed it'll arrive about the same time as the parts).

Parts I ordered are very comprehensive. I modify every vehicle I own. I get everything done as quickly as possible and enjoy it to the fullest. Once I get all of these parts installed, I'll just have to get a winch and wheels. From there it'll be odds and ends. I might do a soft-top. I'll have to see how hard it is to take off the hard top and go from there. I'd use a hoist to store it when it's not on, so it'll be out of the way.

I did do aluminum wherever I could to save weight. The front bumper with the winch should end up weighing close to what the mod bumper weighs with the winch plate (minus the winch). Aluminum skid plates should be heavy duty and be thicker than the stocks and close to the same weight I'd imagine.

All-in-all, I'm super excited. My Wildtrak is a '23, Cactus Grey, mid and HT. That's it. I ended up switching to the WT from a BD because I wanted the HOSS 3.0 suspension. I don't believe I'm going to need anymore than that.

Any other suggestions?

JCR:
Vanguard Bumper - aluminum
Tailgate Table

RCI:
Rock Sliders - 20 degree
Skid Plate Package - aluminum
Fuel Tank Skid - aluminum
A-Arm Skid - aluminum
Ditch Light Bracket
Pinch Seam Cover

RTR:
Rear Bumper
Spare Tire Carrier
Cargo Molle
Molle Accessory Plate
Adjustable Tailgate Stop

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[2020FordRaptor]

Good luck! It'll look great!

 

[mtclimb3r]

Smart keeping weight low. I wish someone made an aluminum bumper with an integrated tire carrier. Also I would like a swing arm bumper with a 2” receiver in the arm for bike racks and cargo carriers. I do NOT want to have to open 3 different things to access the back with bikes.

 

[Bronc69]

Smart keeping weight low. I wish someone made an aluminum bumper with an integrated tire carrier. Also I would like a swing arm bumper with a 2” receiver in the arm for bike racks and cargo carriers. I do NOT want to have to open 3 different things to access the back with bikes.

I too was obsessed with the swing arm bumper!
I was all over it and saw there were essentially two options. JCR and Metaltech.

My thought was the same as you. I wanted to add another "hitch" receiver to hold my bikes (Lolo Rack). This way I'd be able to swing out the bikes and carrier at the same time.

Once I added everything up, it was quite pricey and I was in the same boat as you - do I really want to open three things just to get to my rear cargo area.
Plus, I started to realize this is adding a tremendous amount of weight.

I've never been wrong with trying to cut weight from any vehicle I've ever owned. I became OCD with losing weight on my 2006 BMW 330i that I learned to drive on track with. Ended up cutting about 180lbs. off the car and it still had a full interior without the use of light-weight bucket seats. I could have cut at least another 40lbs with those.

I believe what I've got on order will do the trick for me.

Right now, I'm toying with do I want to do a roof rack or get a utility trailer. If I go with a roof-rack and get a soft-top for the summer, I'll need a different roof rack. If I stick with the hart top full time, how long does it take to un/install the roof rack?
I can use a hoist to store the trailer in my garage, the same way I'd store the hard top. The main difference is that the trailer will be a 5'x8' trailer can actually haul 3000lbs. if I need it to. Cost is a bit more for the trailer at $2200, but it'll much more usable and easy to load things.

Lots to think about!

 

[mtclimb3r]

Another option, but a little less ideal for my needs, is the Rigd ultraswing. It's basically the lowest weight thing I have found that checks most of the boxes. I basically want the ultraswing, but integrated into the bumper. A big downside is that it lengthens the lever arm, so that weight will have a larger impact on the rear sag, which defeats the purpose a bit. Whether or not it's worse than 250 pounds of bumper plus bikes is not clear. It probably is an easy calculation actually...I'll see.

 

[mtclimb3r]

I also switched to the 2DR Wildtrak from the 2DR Badlands with the 2023 reorder for the same reasons.

I have mentioned this on other threads to mostly crickets, but the Fox and Bilsteins are position sensitive. Which means any sag will move the dampers out of the 'ideal' position for compression and rebound. Might be a bigger problem with the Fox dampers since it's has 5 positions vs the 3 on the Bilsteins. For the Wildtrack, keeping the weight as close to stock as possible I think is really important for fully utilizing the Fox shocks.

Ford mentions 'revised spring rates' on the HOSS 3.0 info page, but nobody seems to know what that means exactly. It could be that they increased the spring rates to keep the dampers in a better position at GVWR. It could also mean that they decreased the spring rate to allow the wild track suspension to move more freely over rough terrain. Hard to say.

I plan on doing basically the exact same thing as you and move every armor item to aluminum. Rock sliders are the only thing I am considering getting in steel. Most folks here in Montana seem to think sliders are more critical than skid plates since there isn't a lot of rock crawling but more 'boulder fields' where the name of the game is putting a tire on the largest rock but sometimes dropping off the other side onto a slider.

The one sticking point is that damn rear bumper. I really like the idea of the JCR bumper with the dual swingouts. Gives me the option of having another camp table to put stuff on plus maybe a ladder up to my RTT. But all said and done, that would be >250 lbs added to the rear and require me to open 3 things each time I want to access the back. This is a compounded annoyance since I have the 2DR ordered, so I can't really access the back without opening up the rear door.

Not sure if you saw the Next Venture bumpers and armor but they are light and the armor has the option to add UHMW to it which returns the ease of sliding across stuff back to the level of steel (or better). It also absorbs a bit of impact since it's technically a plastic

 

[Bronc69]

The Ultraswing is a different option. It's supposed to only weigh 65lbs according to their website, so that's not too heavy IMHO.
Moving the weight outward isn't ideal for sure. The Ultraswing weighs 65lbs., but your wheel and tire are moved outward from the rear of the vehicle and weigh over 100lbs.

I also saw the Next Venture Bumper. Doesn't seem like there's much information or many people that have it. I'm thinking they build it when they get an order. It's a nice concept for sure with it being aluminum. Weird that they don't give you the weight since that's really the whole point of using aluminum.

I went with the RTR setup for the rear of my Bronco.
The RTR bumper only weighs 81lbs. and the heavy duty rear tire carrier weighs 51lbs. So a total of 132lbs. isn't too heavy vs. stock. I imagine it'll be adding around 50lbs or so.

 

[Broncotrax]

Smart keeping weight low. I wish someone made an aluminum bumper with an integrated tire carrier. Also I would like a swing arm bumper with a 2” receiver in the arm for bike racks and cargo carriers. I do NOT want to have to open 3 different things to access the back with bikes.

Did you see the LOD Destroyer bumper? It's not aluminum but it's versatile.

 

[mtclimb3r]

The Ultraswing is a different option. It's supposed to only weigh 65lbs according to their website, so that's not too heavy IMHO.
Moving the weight outward isn't ideal for sure. The Ultraswing weighs 65lbs., but your wheel and tire are moved outward from the rear of the vehicle and weigh over 100lbs.

I also saw the Next Venture Bumper. Doesn't seem like there's much information or many people that have it. I'm thinking they build it when they get an order. It's a nice concept for sure with it being aluminum. Weird that they don't give you the weight since that's really the whole point of using aluminum.

I went with the RTR setup for the rear of my Bronco.
The RTR bumper only weighs 81lbs. and the heavy duty rear tire carrier weighs 51lbs. So a total of 132lbs. isn't too heavy vs. stock. I imagine it'll be adding around 50lbs or so.

Isn't the rear bumper of the Wildtrak plastic? Or did you opt to add the full armor?

 

[Bronc69]

Isn't the rear bumper of the Wildtrak plastic? Or did you opt to add the full armor?

I didn't think the entire thing was plastic. I would have figured there would be some sort of metal bumper underneath the plastic.
I can't check. My Bronco is currently being built, so I don't have it yet LOL!

Oh, I almost forgot. The pic of me on the horse is in Whitefish! We went there for vacation this past summer. We stayed on the mountain at Whitefish Ski Resort. It was an epic vacation for sure.

 

[Gorpolak]

Congrats on your vehicle in production. I thought about dong the same thing as you for the HOSS 3.0 but stuck with my original build. I have a '22 4dr Badlands SAS in Cactus Gray and interested in seeing how the 20 degrees sliders would look. I've been cross referencing RCI and Metal Tech together. I haven't seen what the 20 degree would look like or how far they come out but would prefer that. However, I do think the Metal Techs look better.

Metal Tech does have a steel swing out bumper coming out but there is no weight listed.

 

[da_jokker]

I had the same idea as you. Didn't buy a single thing for my Bronco until it actually started getting built. Ordered bumpers, sliders, seat covers, the skids..... Some of which took 3 months to get to me.

And yet my built Bronco is still not here (but close finally). Had I known, I could have saved several hundred dollars by waiting till Black Fridays deals.

.... just my luck!

 

[Bronc69]

I had the same idea as you. Didn't buy a single thing for my Bronco until it actually started getting built. Ordered bumpers, sliders, seat covers, the skids..... Some of which took 3 months to get to me.

And yet my built Bronco is still not here (but close finally). Had I known, I could have saved several hundred dollars by waiting till Black Fridays deals.

.... just my luck!

I knew my production was getting close and as soon as I saw the window sticker I knew the Black Friday sales would be a go for me.
Yes, I ended up saving quite a bit of money. In some cases, it ended up amounting to a little more than free shipping (once I added in tax). But, the savings are still there.

Stinks for you that you missed the sales.

What has be cautioned is my buddy who owns a Ford dealership (yes, I ordered my Bronco through him) said his Bronco was built the end of October and he's still awaiting transport!
He said his is coming convoy (truck) so it's not awaiting rail. I'd be calling Ford to see what the hold-up is. Fingers crossed, mine comes in with his and we both get them. He's a small dealership, so maybe they wanted to have a few vehicles on the truck at the same time.

 

[da_jokker]

I knew my production was getting close and as soon as I saw the window sticker I knew the Black Friday sales would be a go for me.
Yes, I ended up saving quite a bit of money. In some cases, it ended up amounting to a little more than free shipping (once I added in tax). But, the savings are still there.

Stinks for you that you missed the sales.

What has be cautioned is my buddy who owns a Ford dealership (yes, I ordered my Bronco through him) said his Bronco was built the end of October and he's still awaiting transport!
He said his is coming convoy (truck) so it's not awaiting rail. I'd be calling Ford to see what the hold-up is. Fingers crossed, mine comes in with his and we both get them. He's a small dealership, so maybe they wanted to have a few vehicles on the truck at the same time.

Based on the awaiting shipment thread, people have said that when your convoy, the truck drivers are hand picking which ones they want to take because it's better for them to take several to one dealer than a drive out of the way the only take a couple to some off the path dealer.

It's a CF for sure.

 

[Bronc69]

Based on the awaiting shipment thread, people have said that when your convoy, the truck drivers are hand picking which ones they want to take because it's better for them to take several to one dealer than a drive out of the way the only take a couple to some off the path dealer.

It's a CF for sure.

That's what I was thinking without even reading about it!
He's a small dealership in Kutztown, PA. I know he's only getting one Raptor allocation, so it was sold long ago.

His father and uncle started the dealerships a long time ago (I believe they have 17 dealerships total - various manufacturers).

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