How do people feel about the new AEV bumpers?

[Rockcrawlindude]

I just took it to a friend's body shop. They sanded, primed and single staged the factory white PW7. One major item that I did not know about till I was going to install the corner guards were the three holes for the brush guard. If I would have looked at the corner guards prior to and knew I was not going to install the brush guard down the road I would have had him fill in the holes. Most likely will take these off and have him fill and repaint. From a profile the white continues with the fender flares and looks factory. Very happy with the look.

I wondered what those bumps were. My bumper doesn’t have those but I got mine out of the first run of them

 

[Wrayzor]

All done; winch wired/spooled, extended the center park sensor wiring and installed a 36" curved light bar. I set the light bar back further than most I have seen to protect it from the trails.

 

[Wrayzor]

I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with the seal from the stock bumper getting the gap as close as possible to gone. I may remove the bumper and slot the 5 holes on each bracket vertically to allow up and down adjustments. 1" should give enough play to almost completely remove the gap. Thoughts or is the juice not worth the squeeze?

 

[Wheelz]

Then your end caps will not sit flush with the center section since the center section is tight as it is already. If you slot those brackets, the bull-bar fascia/caps will not sit flush.
But that seal does make it "cleaner"

 

[Wrayzor]

Then your end caps will not sit flush with the center section since the center section is tight as it is already. If you slot those brackets, the bull-bar fascia/caps will not sit flush.
But that seal does make it "cleaner"

They should as the whole bracket moves up and down and holds both the center section and end caps. You're not slotting one bracket and not the other.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

It never bothered me. It’s there and that’s what it does. I like a tight fit but on an off-road bumper I like a little gap. If I come down hard on the bumper less chance of me taking out the grille surround

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

Just got the email that the grille guard is now available for the bumper. I wasn’t so sure about it when I saw the green truck initially. But it sure looks good on the white truck on the website.

The price does not look good, however. $1600 for the grille guard. I have a first production run bumper that didn’t cost much more than that. Also, the first production run of bumpers doesn’t have pre-drilled holes to accept the grille guard. I may call them tomorrow about that. I’m not scared of drilling a few holes.

Not sure if I want to pull the trigger on it but I really think it looks tough.

 

[UglyViking]

I absolutely love the look of that thing, but holy guacamole! That puts it at $1,500 or so more than the expo one bumper with full guard.

It's the best looking bumper by far in my opinion, but man are you paying for it.

Still, that with the AEV flares is one bad looking truck. No lie, if they release an external carrier for their rear bumper they may force my hand. I've this far held off on deciding on all this and the spare tire is really the thing in waiting on.

 

[el_barto]

Looks good…but yeah buku-bux. Glad I bought my rear bumper when I did, it’s gone up a few hundred dollars since.

Hopefully that grille guard isn’t too wide looking on a truck without their fender flares.

 

[Darkone]

Saw this earlier today. Looks awesome but man that’s a steep price.

 

[Wheelz]

Heck..I wonder if we did a group buy..how much they'd discount..hmmmm

 

[UglyViking]

Heck..I wonder if we did a group buy..how much they'd discount..hmmmm

Honestly, unless you're an influencer with >500k active followers, I can't see them taking the time. AEV has, like everyone, struggled to even get the number of items needed to cover current sales, never mind discounting a batch purchase.

 

[el_barto]

I found the license plate light they included with the AEV rear bumper causes a lot of glare in my rear view camera (and also a to drivers behind me) so I made a bigger hood/shroud around the light with Sugru. Not perfect but seems to be an improvement.

 

[Illymost]

Just got the email that the grille guard is now available for the bumper. I wasn’t so sure about it when I saw the green truck initially. But it sure looks good on the white truck on the website.

The price does not look good, however. $1600 for the grille guard. I have a first production run bumper that didn’t cost much more than that. Also, the first production run of bumpers doesn’t have pre-drilled holes to accept the grille guard. I may call them tomorrow about that. I’m not scared of drilling a few holes.

Not sure if I want to pull the trigger on it but I really think it looks tough.

View attachment 42715View attachment 42716

I pulled the trigger. Probably won’t ship till next month because the mounting kit is not available at the moment. Absurd price honestly, but I spent the last 20 years driving my wife’s hand me downs, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Volkswagen Passat. Did have a beat up F350 for towing. Figure I’m due to blow a little cash like a moron and get what I want. Love the brush guard, mostly because of the deer out by me. I’ve hit 3 deer the last 3 years.

 

[UglyViking]

I pulled the trigger. Probably won’t ship till next month because the mounting kit is not available at the moment. Absurd price honestly, but I spent the last 20 years driving my wife’s hand me downs, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Volkswagen Passat. Did have a beat up F350 for towing. Figure I’m due to blow a little cash like a moron and get what I want. Love the brush guard, mostly because of the deer out by me. I’ve hit 3 deer the last 3 years.

I don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I'd be very surprised if that thing can take a hit from a big whitetail at speed without pulling out. I hope I'm wrong, because I dig the look of the bumper, but those bolts are pretty tiny. It may not be everyones preference, but I think I'd rather see that kit welded. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in to offer feedback. It looks like the two center mounts are still just single 9ft/lb bolts, but the side bolts are 30ft/lbs if I'm reading the instructions correctly.

 

[Wheelz]

I pulled the trigger. Probably won’t ship till next month because the mounting kit is not available at the moment. Absurd price honestly, but I spent the last 20 years driving my wife’s hand me downs, Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Volkswagen Passat. Did have a beat up F350 for towing. Figure I’m due to blow a little cash like a moron and get what I want. Love the brush guard, mostly because of the deer out by me. I’ve hit 3 deer the last 3 years.

Nice...yeah but you don't need to rationalize your purchase here..you wanted it..you bought it...like your truck. Own it! Hah.. yeah I want to pull the trigger also but I think they require a forklift or pallet jack for delivery

 

[Illymost]

I don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I'd be very surprised if that thing can take a hit from a big whitetail at speed without pulling out. I hope I'm wrong, because I dig the look of the bumper, but those bolts are pretty tiny. It may not be everyones preference, but I think I'd rather see that kit welded. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in to offer feedback. It looks like the two center mounts are still just single 9ft/lb bolts, but the side bolts are 30ft/lbs if I'm reading the instructions correctly.

Give me a year and I’ll be able to tell you whether it held up or not.

 

[Illymost]

Nice...yeah but you don't need to rationalize your purchase here..you wanted it..you bought it...like your truck. Own it! Hah.. yeah I want to pull the trigger also but I think they require a forklift or pallet jack for delivery

I hear ya, ha. It IS embarrassingly expensive though.

 

[UglyViking]

Give me a year and I’ll be able to tell you whether it held up or not.

I just want AEV to hurry up and offer a bumper mounted tire carrier like they do for the Jeeps. Their Jeep mount supports up to a 40" tire, according to their literature, and looks like it should mount right up!

I love the look of the AEV products. I don't really want the cost of annoyance of going with 40s and flares, but I really want them because… well because it looks like the toy trucks I played with as a kid. I don't want them to offer it, because then I won't go 40s and on top of saving myself a bunch of coin my wife would probably be happier.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

I don't want to be a debbie downer here, but I'd be very surprised if that thing can take a hit from a big whitetail at speed without pulling out. I hope I'm wrong, because I dig the look of the bumper, but those bolts are pretty tiny. It may not be everyones preference, but I think I'd rather see that kit welded. Maybe someone with some experience can chime in to offer feedback. It looks like the two center mounts are still just single 9ft/lb bolts, but the side bolts are 30ft/lbs if I'm reading the instructions correctly.

I agree. The low tube mounts with two Allen head bolts. sure it’s 3” tube but it ain’t exactly .120 wall DOM. Hell, they sell a support bracket kit that is needed if you want to put lights on it because it’s so flimsy. Maybe the bigger guard is stronger but the mounting points are still to thin areas of the bumper skin (IMHO)

But, it looks f’ing awesome. Even if it is just “for looks” If I had more money to blow I’d buy the full guard.