So I'm pretty excited to have an incredibly lightweight yet strong front bumper. It allowed me to put a winch on the front end without sending my rubicon into a nose-dive every time I hit the brakes. The Engo E9000 winch with synthetic line is a solid setup and much lighter with the blue rope swapped in.
The Rubicon actually drove a bit better after the swap. I have the 6 speed manual transmission and whenever I left off the clutch in anything but a gentle manner, the front end would proceed to point towards the sky until the torque is fully converted to forward motion and the vehicle settled down. With the additional weight on the front end of the winch (the LOD Armor Lite Shorty added no weight vice stock), the front feels much more under control and the acceleration is more level front to back with less vertical movement on hard acceleration. That’s a plus for every day driving.
I might have lost a hair in the MPG category, but its a negligible amount that I can live with it for the added self recovery capability of the Rubicon. I’m guessing that the addition of the LOD bolt on skid plate likely minimized the loss in MPG. I'm taking a guess that it effectively served whatever purpose the stock plastic lower air dam (I refuse to name it skid plate) had on the stock jeep.
Bottom line final thoughts on install of the LOD Armor Lite Shorty Bumper, Bull Bar, skid plate, and Engo Winch: Hell yes. I’m fortunate enough to live in an area full of jeepers, seeing at least 4 or 5 on my daily commute each way and 4 more at work. I get regular compliments and inquiries which I do my best to answer. There was rumor of an “Armor Lite” Series of rear bumpers with a similar look and feel and I’d love to see one without a tire carrier (keeping with “Lite” theme) and hitch integration for bike racks, cargo racks, and the occasional light towing.
Either way, hats off to these guys for a bumper well built!
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