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JCR vs Smittybilt XRC

8K views 37 replies 20 participants last post by  charlie4 
#1 ·
Hey all, I just found out today that my girlfriend decided to buy me a bumper for my birthday! :dance::dance:

Anyhow, she wanted to know which bumper I wanted, and basically I'm torn between two bumpers:
1- JCR Crusader Front Bumper
2- Smittybilt XRC Stinger (bought in 2 parts, the bumper, and the stinger

Also, would anyone know if those two come in stubby and mid width? I'm not sure which size I'm interested in...
If I get the JCR, I would keep it paint-free, I believe it would match the whiteness of my Sahara very well, but I also love the stinger. It's a tough choice.

Thanks ladies and gents :)
 
#2 ·
I don't have any experience with either but personally I like the looks of the JCR better, plus it has the provisions for the factory foggies (something I will be looking for when I am ready to purchase a bumper) Don't know if my vote counts for anything but thats my $0.02.

Also I like the quote from the GF sounds like something mine would tell me. Your a lucky man if she is willing to buy you a bumper for you Bday.
 
#8 ·
I'm in a similar debate, except I'm debating a JCR mid width versus a Rugged Ridge stubby tube bumper. I've thought if I went the route of the JCR I'd probably just rattle can bedline it and call it a day. I've heard of numerous issues with the Smittybuilt stuff just not being up to par due to the holes not lining up properly to mount to the frame. Those can always be drilled out though if you've got some help.

But between those two, I'd probably go the JCR route.

Good luck with what you decide.
 
#9 · (Edited)
FWIW, I know smitty has had fitment issues, but my JCR rails didn't fit and had to be replaced.

Additionally, you should be aware that there are consequences to getting an unfinished product. For example, JCR's policy is that once you put any finish whatsoever on one of their products, they will not provide you with a refund under any circumstances, even if doesn't fit or is otherwise defective. Once a finish is applied, you are limited to exchanges only, even if the problem is a manufacturing defect.

And a good finish is expensive, though a bumper might be okay to just rattlecan with rustoleum. Side steps--or anything that will see a lot of stepping on or traffic--needs a powdercoat, line-x, or something similarly sturdy.
 
#11 ·
HunterTheBeagle said:
It has the provisions for the factory foggies (something I will be looking for when I am ready to purchase a bumper) Don't know if my vote counts for anything but thats my $0.02. Also I like the quote from the GF sounds like something mine would tell me. Your a lucky man if she is willing to buy you a bumper for you Bday.
First of all, everyone's $0.02 are worth at the very least, the price of the product, considering they might make a difference. :)
That being said, I had forgotten about my foggies! I love those things...
And I most definitely consider myself a lucky man for finding her, the bumper being one of the most trivial reasons for my luck ;)

MTH said:
FWIW, I know smitty has had fitment issues, but my JCR rails didn't fit and had to be replaced. Additionally, you should be aware that there are consequences to getting an unfinished product. For example, JCR's policy is that once you put any finish whatsoever on one of their products, they will not provide you with a refund under any circumstances, even if doesn't fit or is otherwise defective. Once a finish is applied, you are limited to exchanges only, even if the problem is a manufacturing defect.
Hey MTH, I read the thread where you discussed your luck with JCR, and honestly I was completely sure I was going to get that bumper until I read it, haha. That got me thinking, would I really have the time to mount the bumper twice and dismount it once? I'm not so sure...

For the finish issue, Is it really worthit to powder coat it? If I HAVE to finish it, I guess black it is... Should I use those can thingies? Plastidip or something...
But yeah... Def going for the JCR, I still really like that stinger by smitty though! It looks vicious and smooth! But American it is :)
 
#14 · (Edited)
Hey MTH, I read the thread where you discussed your luck with JCR, and honestly I was completely sure I was going to get that bumper until I read it, haha. That got me thinking, would I really have the time to mount the bumper twice and dismount it once? I'm not so sure...

For the finish issue, Is it really worthit to powder coat it? If I HAVE to finish it, I guess black it is... Should I use those can thingies? Plastidip or something...
And for the record, I don't hate JCR or anything. Their stuff looks fantastic and the welds really are almost artfully done.

I just don't like the idea of selling it unfinished, but then also not allowing any returns once it's finished. Especially when the product takes a significant amount of effort to "test fit." At least not without making that REALLY obvious on the website. More obvious than it is now. JMHO.

I just had my JCR rails Line-Xed. (Literally just had it done . . . picked them up this morning.) They look great--but it was $330 for the Line-X. The rails themselves were $400-and-something to get delivered. So I'm at about $800 for rails. Pretty spendy given that I need to handle the finish myself and can expect no refund if there's a defect in the rails.

That said, the rustoleum rattlecan bedliner will do great on anything that doesn't see any traffic. I've had it on my lightbar and my door hinges for months and months and months now. There's little (or maybe no) fade, and when I spot a random flake or spot where the metal shows through I just hit it with some touch up. That's the cheapest way to go--a few cans of self-etching primer, some rattlecan bedliner, and you're all set.

JCR does have a pretty good section on their website for finishing their stuff. (See here.)

Honestly though, for what you're spending on a bumper, I'd want it finished right. Sure, the rattlecan will work, but for how many years? I can tell you that one or two years seems okay so far . . . but I don't know about five. And if it doesn't hold up, that means you're going to have a heck of a stripping project down the line.

So if I were getting a bumper, I'd look into Line-X or powdercoating, or one of the high-end DIY bedliner kits like Monstaliner, Raptorliner, etc. Of course, you've got to factor the cost of that as well as the time involved into the overall cost of the bumper.

With three toddlers in my household, there was just no way I was going to get the time to do a quality DIY job on my rails with Monstaliner or any similar product. I also knew I was going to be stepping on my rails every single time I got in and out of the jeep, so the finish had to be rock solid. So Line-X it was.
 
#13 ·
sneck said:
To toss another hat in the mix, check out the ACE front bumpers; they come in stubby and stingers, and come painted as well. Plus, adam is an awesome dude, and it never hurts to buy american :D
I already ruled out the ACE stingers because they are HUUUUUUUUUGEEEEE!! Haha
 
#15 ·
MTH, agree completely. I understand why some companies don't finish, but in the end it comes down to "we feel we will handle the market better if we leave expensive details like finish up to the end user". I know one of the things I will knock a product for is crappy paint/powdercoating (I'm looking at you EVO), and that same thing will really wow me if it's good (looking at you Poly/Synergy!) Shipping unpainted is pretty much a white flag of surrender, and while sure it means you get to paint it whatever color with whatever product you want, guess what. you can do that with any product and some sandpaper!

personally, I don't want to have to paint it myself; I know I do a shitty job painting, and having to get it professionally painted is more time and money and in the end, added cost
 
#16 ·
How much would powdercoating a front bumper cost? Honestly, the whole spray can is more worthit imho... Cheaper, and if it lasts 2-3 years, that's perfect! then I'll either get a new bumper, possibly a stinger, or just go all out and powdercoat it.
 
#17 ·
Marce1 said:
How much would powdercoating a front bumper cost? Honestly, the whole spray can is more worthit imho... Cheaper, and if it lasts 2-3 years, that's perfect! then I'll either get a new bumper, possibly a stinger, or just go all out and powdercoat it.
Not sure. Can't be pricier than line-x. Google "powdercoat |insert your town/city]" to find a local shop and give them a buzz.
 
#28 ·
Just remembering a couple posts I've read recently...one guy paid $50 for powder coating but said it was a "friend of a friend" deal, Another got the same for $80.

Again, that's just based on recent memory as I was looking as well.
Yep, that was me. $50 for powder coating from a 'friend of a friend'.

My fit was a little tight when I went to install. Nothing a rubber mallet couldn't fix. Mine was with the flange that bolts to the side of the passenger side frame rail. I just pounded it towards the drivers side slightly so get the front bolts aligned. Once they were aligned, I tightened those 8 and then did the flange on the side of the frame rail. It was bent out, but when I tightened the bolt, it snugged right up.

MTH - I can understand your frustration with your rails. That would have made me upset. I can understand not refunding your money. But my question would be, if you did the exchange, got new ones, you would have to go back and have them repainted/powdercoated or w/e. If they want to sell them in bare metal, which I don't mind, it doesn't make since to install them before getting them coated just to make sure they fit right. It's as if they should have a JK sitting there and when each set gets ready to ship, they should test fit them... something at least. I too would have been upset to get my bumper, get it coated, go to install, and it was so off, I couldn't have installed it. And then to exchange it for a new one and have to go through the coating and install process again.

I will say this, I do love my JCR bumper and look to get more JCR stuff in the future. Especially looking at their skids.

Also - JCR over Smittybuilt (even though I have a Smittybuilt winch:whistling:).

SS
 
#21 ·
JCR They are very well built and they fit like a glove.:thumb:

View attachment 167616

View attachment 167617
:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb: DUDE!!! It looks AMAZING! I'm sold! now I just have to wait for a JCR rep to respond to my private message... lol

By the way Charlie, how high is your lift and what tires/wheels are those? Your ride looks sick!
 
#22 ·
JCR bumper... If you decide to paint it yourself its simple to do. Get a couple cans of self etching primer and a couple cans of spray on bedliner. Clean the metal off real good then go over it with some fine sand paper. Apply your primer and let dry. When applying the bed liner, spray on small amounts at a time. It may take several coats of bedliner before you cover all the bare spots. Let each spray dry before applying the second third and so on. Use as many coats as needed to cover all. Be patient the more light coats of bedliner the better the finish texture and look.


I used duplicolor on my JCR rear bumper and it came out very good. No problems with it and looks the same after over a year.
 

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#26 ·
Painting or powder coating a bumper will cost you $50 - $125 professionally usually, which is cheaper than we would be able to do it once you add the cost and hassle of everything going out freight as opposed to UPS. We'd make so many claims UPS would drop us if we tried to ship painted products through them. Or they would require 4+" of padding around everything to protect the paint and many of our products were designed dimensionaly to fit certain shipping requirements.

Thing is, I know we lose some business with unfinished products, and I wish that we had a solution, but right now we don't, and we may never.

As always we will be happy to fix any of our mistakes on a customer coated product, either by repair or replacement; but we can't pay to have the finish fixed, because that is out of our control.
 
#27 ·
Just chiming in here. I have the Smittybilt XRC front bumper (accident replacement, had to go with the fastest, in stock item at the time). 2012 JKU and installation was a snap. Maybe I lucked out. Happy with the product so far. Was upset to find out it wasn't made in the states, but hindsight is a bastard.
 
#30 ·
MHT not sure why your so upset about something not fitting that you didn't test fit. I know for a fact that with my XJ sliders JCR said to test fit them before finishing. Its also the way you build something. Just because you made a poor decision on getting your rails line-xed before making sure they will fit is not a fault of the company.

As for finishing good primer and rattle cans are the way to go if your rig is going to see rocks or trees. I'd much rather have the ability to just touch up my armor with a can then having chunks of powder coating or bedliner fall off down the road because of rock hits.
 
#31 · (Edited)
MHT not sure why your so upset about something not fitting that you didn't test fit. I know for a fact that with my XJ sliders JCR said to test fit them before finishing. Its also the way you build something. Just because you made a poor decision on getting your rails line-xed before making sure they will fit is not a fault of the company.
First, I'm not mad . . . at least not anymore. I'm advising folks to be prepared to completely test fit if they're going to purchase an unfinished product (which in this thread and most similar threads around here means a JCR product) .

Second, I did conduct the recommended "test fit" of my rails. But that's not enough. JCR's advice on test fitting their JKU rails (which is my experience, not sure about their bumpers or your XJ rails) is as follows:

Hold the slider in place and thread in both body mount bolts loosely. . . . . The sliders may not sit perfectly flush against the body at this point, but they will upon final installation.
Guess what? I did that. And sure enough, they didn't sit perfectly flush against the body during test fitting, but it was fairly close. Seemed okay, as per the directions. But guess what else? They still didn't fit flush against the body upon final installation. Half inch gaps during the "test fit" were still basically half inch gaps upon complete installation--after finishing.

That's why, if you scroll back, you'll see my advice is always to COMPLETELY install the rails, bumper, or whatever as the "test fit." That's what I think a lot of folks don't really get, and that's what I try to contribute to threads where folks are considering JCR.

For rails on a JKU, that means drilling all 20 holes, installing all 20 nutserts, bolting everything down--the whole deal. For both rails on both sides of the jeep. Then completely uninstall both rails, then finish them, and then reinstall them again.

That's above and beyond what the directions instruct--and beyond what I think most people think of when they hear the phrase "test fit"--but it's what you should do. So folks should consider whether they have the time/inclination to do that when making their purchase.

I'd expect JCR would agree.
 
#33 · (Edited)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all Very Very much for your contributions; you have made my life 100% easier! Instead of learning through personal experience, I get to use your experiences to make the final decision! :)
I do need to use your experience/opinions one last time concerning this thread though; and that is for the following reason:
I decided to take another look at the JCR's dagger series, and noticed I like the main bumper a bit more than I like the crusader series' main bumper, due to the slightly more 'elegant' design (and I use the word very loosely, considering its ruggedness) than the robust crusader's design.
However!! The winch mounting plate is fully exposed as opposed to the half-sunk winch position of the crusader bumper, so now I'm even more torn than I was a couple days ago.

Here is the link to the Crusader bumper, and
Here is the link to the Dagger bumper

Any thoughts, opinions, pictures, and feedback are greatly appreciated!
Basically, the question is the following:
Should I go with 1- The better, less robust look of the dagger with the fully exposed winch (possibly blocking the grill)?
or 2- The more robust but less aesthetic look of the crusader, but with the half sunk winch plate?
 
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