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Expedition One Front Bumper
- Thread starter dieselscout80
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UglyViking
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This has been on my backlog for a long time, and I've started to write it a few times, but I felt that I was too angry with the resolution to be objective.
The long and short of it is that Expo One send me 2 checks, totaling $550, to cover the damage to the bumper, and gave me a 20% off coupon for purchasing another bumper from them. That wrapped early September I believe, so totaling about 3.5 months of me constantly harassing them to get this resolved. Mind you, I paid for shipping insurance and contacted them the day of to try and get this resolved. Expo One didn't answer the majority of my calls, and constantly dodged my calls and emails. I received no additional financial support for the time it would take me to deliver and collect the bumper from a local powdercoater. I also want to note that I used the lowest quote I received for fixing it, so it's not like I was trying to screw them out of cash.
Additionally, once I installed the bumper, I noted that the foglight pocket mounts were improperly installed, and the factory fogs would not fit properly in the mounts, no matter what I did. I was forced to bend the brackets in multiple ways to even get the fogs installed. Also, the mounting points for the parking sensors are absolutely horrible, requiring me to bend and customize each and every bracket, and even still they aren't perfect, but they do fit and work.
Overall, I'd say their quality control is absolutely horrible, and their customer service is worse. If I could go back and start over, I'd order a bumper from AEV, SOB Fabrication, Mercenary Offroad, or Octane before I purchased from Expedition One again. My experience matches others going as far back as 2019, so this is not a new issue for them.
Expedition One holds that none of this is their fault, it's the result of the shipper (MME I believe). I have no clue what to believe there, but I will state that even if the bumper was delivered perfectly packaged, the powdercoating still had clear factory defects, there was a bracket that was only tack welded (EO states this is not important as it's only used for building and is not a part with any stress), and the fog light pockets, parking sensors brackets, and parking sensor wire routing all leave much to be desired, or are just plain bad.
Others have received front bumpers from EO and have had great experiences, so perhaps mine is somewhat an outlier. That said, as mentioned above, others have had similar issues with poor experience, and recently I spoke with someone on FB who had to argue to get all their parts on a rear bumper because they were not included.
So, unless you're willing to risk dealing with poor after the sale support, I'd strongly look to another supplier for your bumper purchase. There are too many great options out there, with fantastic quality, QC, and CS that I don't feel it's worth the risk.
-Signed, a pretty jaded owner
P.S. One thing I will give them, is the quality of the bumpers steel and welding is pretty great. I took the truck on a pretty tricky off road line and it resulted me slamming my front right corner of the bull bar against a giant boulder. I can confidently state that without the bull bar, or with a lesser quality one, I'd be needing a new bumper, hood, front quarter panel, headlight, and likely other components. So it's done it's job, and for that I am glad.
The long and short of it is that Expo One send me 2 checks, totaling $550, to cover the damage to the bumper, and gave me a 20% off coupon for purchasing another bumper from them. That wrapped early September I believe, so totaling about 3.5 months of me constantly harassing them to get this resolved. Mind you, I paid for shipping insurance and contacted them the day of to try and get this resolved. Expo One didn't answer the majority of my calls, and constantly dodged my calls and emails. I received no additional financial support for the time it would take me to deliver and collect the bumper from a local powdercoater. I also want to note that I used the lowest quote I received for fixing it, so it's not like I was trying to screw them out of cash.
Additionally, once I installed the bumper, I noted that the foglight pocket mounts were improperly installed, and the factory fogs would not fit properly in the mounts, no matter what I did. I was forced to bend the brackets in multiple ways to even get the fogs installed. Also, the mounting points for the parking sensors are absolutely horrible, requiring me to bend and customize each and every bracket, and even still they aren't perfect, but they do fit and work.
Overall, I'd say their quality control is absolutely horrible, and their customer service is worse. If I could go back and start over, I'd order a bumper from AEV, SOB Fabrication, Mercenary Offroad, or Octane before I purchased from Expedition One again. My experience matches others going as far back as 2019, so this is not a new issue for them.
Expedition One holds that none of this is their fault, it's the result of the shipper (MME I believe). I have no clue what to believe there, but I will state that even if the bumper was delivered perfectly packaged, the powdercoating still had clear factory defects, there was a bracket that was only tack welded (EO states this is not important as it's only used for building and is not a part with any stress), and the fog light pockets, parking sensors brackets, and parking sensor wire routing all leave much to be desired, or are just plain bad.
Others have received front bumpers from EO and have had great experiences, so perhaps mine is somewhat an outlier. That said, as mentioned above, others have had similar issues with poor experience, and recently I spoke with someone on FB who had to argue to get all their parts on a rear bumper because they were not included.
So, unless you're willing to risk dealing with poor after the sale support, I'd strongly look to another supplier for your bumper purchase. There are too many great options out there, with fantastic quality, QC, and CS that I don't feel it's worth the risk.
-Signed, a pretty jaded owner
P.S. One thing I will give them, is the quality of the bumpers steel and welding is pretty great. I took the truck on a pretty tricky off road line and it resulted me slamming my front right corner of the bull bar against a giant boulder. I can confidently state that without the bull bar, or with a lesser quality one, I'd be needing a new bumper, hood, front quarter panel, headlight, and likely other components. So it's done it's job, and for that I am glad.
Metternacht
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Thanks for that. I am sorry you had to deal with that mess. but it is good information to have out there. I will definitely have to think long and hard before considering them for my truck.
ETX Ram
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Thanks for the update on this matter. Truly hate that you had to go through this very extended ordeal. Appreciate you taking the time to document and share this with us. EO will most definitely be on our list of companies that will not be getting any of our business. The look won't work well for others, but looks like we'll wind up with another Ranch Hand front end replacement when the time comes.
UglyViking
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It's a real shame because it's a great looking bumper.
One other thing I forgot to mention is that I'm not a fan of how the bumper bolts to the frame mount. Functionally there are something like 6-8 bolts for each of the two frame mounts, but they are just mounted with plate washers on the front. This leads to a tricky mount and it's can't be done solo (one person needs to tighten the nut from behind, while an unlucky soul has to hold a wrench/ratchet on the front bolt head). Getting the bumper properly aligned is tricky to say the least, and after my hit on the rock the bumper shifted, which will require me and a buddy to loosen, re-align, and tighten it back from the spring. (see last page in their install guide for example)
I'm unsure if it shifted due to the torque not being a full 90ftlbs (I didn't use a torque wrench on the first pass, but I had a 1/2 ratchet and I'm pretty confident I had it there) or if it's just a poor design. Either way, when I reposition the bumper this spring, I'll be using a digital torque wrench and paint pen for all bolts and washers (to see more clearly how much shift happens when I inevitably hit another rock).
One other thing I forgot to mention is that I'm not a fan of how the bumper bolts to the frame mount. Functionally there are something like 6-8 bolts for each of the two frame mounts, but they are just mounted with plate washers on the front. This leads to a tricky mount and it's can't be done solo (one person needs to tighten the nut from behind, while an unlucky soul has to hold a wrench/ratchet on the front bolt head). Getting the bumper properly aligned is tricky to say the least, and after my hit on the rock the bumper shifted, which will require me and a buddy to loosen, re-align, and tighten it back from the spring. (see last page in their install guide for example)
I'm unsure if it shifted due to the torque not being a full 90ftlbs (I didn't use a torque wrench on the first pass, but I had a 1/2 ratchet and I'm pretty confident I had it there) or if it's just a poor design. Either way, when I reposition the bumper this spring, I'll be using a digital torque wrench and paint pen for all bolts and washers (to see more clearly how much shift happens when I inevitably hit another rock).