Army_Monkey

Bumper opening sticking into fairlead opening




Roller fairlead mounted on offset holes up top




Level shot of bumper




Looking from grill opening down towards ground




Remote-mounted solenoid




From ground looking up to show cooler line clearance




Side shot showing how far it sticks out and fender line versus bumper cut




Near ground level shot showing lack of upward clearance on winch line


Thought I would share my experiences with my N-Fab RSP winch bumper (part number F094RSPW) on my '13. Particularly with a winch actually mounted. First off, I'd like to say that N-Fab's customer service was quite impressive, I spoke to a real person on the first try when I was having issues, he brought in a production guy to discuss things, and followed up with me after the fact. Pretty rare for such a large company IMO.
On to the bumper: fit is top-notch, I have about 3/4" of clearance between the bumper and upper valance on the sides, and could have made it less, but chose to leave that gap just in case of a light tap. The bumper weighs maybe a little more than the factory one, but not a lot, and I could move it around on my own fairly easily (I'm only 140 pounds). The factory valance and hood release bolted on perfectly level, and actually fits better than the factory bumper did (it made my valance sag in the middle). I love the little touch of how the bumper actually comes up 1 inch short of the fender opening, rather than flush, makes me think I'll have room to spare if I go flared fenders.
The finish seemed great at first, but after a couple of weeks, I think the powdercoating is a little thin, because I already have surface rust near the welds on the bottom (I live in Hawaii, everything rusts in 5 minutes it seems like). N-Fab has a 5-year finish warranty, so I'm addressing the issue with them, just something to watch out for, because you can't see it if you don't climb down to look.
Installation was a piece of cake, it took me an hour to take off the factory bumper and get this one on with one other person. Putting the winch on only took another hour and a half, and a lot of that was clocking the motor. The winch is a Smittybilt XRC 12K with synthetic line, and you can see it fit perfectly, clearing the trans cooler lines with maybe 1/2" to spare. You do have to remote mount the solenoid, but I prefer it where it is anyway.
Now, on to my issue, the only one I've had. Due to the design of the bumper, you MUST mount the fairlead for the winch using the winch mounting bolts. With the hawse fairlead that comes with nearly all synthetic winchline, you end up with the steel bumper sticking half an inch into the fairlead opening. On a downward pull, that causes the line to rub on the steel bumper instead of the aluminum fairlead, which is a huge issue. So I went to 4 Wheel Parts and did some fairlead shopping, and after looking at a couple, the only one that would work at all was the Smittybilt roller fairlead, which has two sets of mounting holes instead of just one set centered. This let me adjust the fairlead enough to keep the line off the bumper opening. The but is that I had to mount the fairlead on the top two bolts, not the bottom because the fairlead itself hit the skidplate, and this means I can't pull upward without the line now rubbing on the aluminum skidplate, which has a nice, sharp edge on it. Kind of frustrating, but the winch IS usable, which was my goal. I talked to N-Fab about my issues, and they are considering adjusting the production to compensate for my problems, so that may change in the future.

M Jon R

I like the bumper. Any idea of what the actual weight is?

Army_Monkey

All I can give you is a guess of around 65 pounds. My winch weighs 67 pounds and it felt heavier than the bumper despite being smaller and easier to maneuver.
If I can remember I'll weigh it next month when I get back to my truck and take the bumper to get Line-X'd.