Ali Mansour
Brand Manager, 4WD & Sport Utility
It is hard to top the out-of-the-box trail capabilities of the ’07 to current Jeep Wrangler JK. Both the two-door and four-door Unlimited models have excellent multilink suspensions, solid front and rear axles, and easy-to-remove exterior panels, so your daily driver can hit the hard trails over the weekend and not look like a beater during the week. But with all that the JK gives, there is still a little take in the factory mold. We’re not talking about the sometimes leaky tops, but rather the ultrawide and fast-fading plastic factory front bumper.
Sure, the JK is like most other new vehicles in that is has to adhere to strict safety guidelines. But a 5-mph absorption bumper isn’t going to be much use when you smash it into an obstacle off-road. Fortunately there is no shortage of aftermarket bumper options for the Jeep Wrangler JK. Finding the right bumper for your JK often boils down to style, budget, and wheeling preference. We’re big fans of affordable, simple, and high-clearance designs, so we decided to get our hands on Rough Country Suspension’s new Stubby winch series front bumper.
With the stock bumper removed the winch tray gets bolted loosely in place. By taking advantage of the JK’s wide framerail spacing, Rough Country is able to keep the winch mount low. This not only offers a cleaner look but prevents the winch from blocking the grille.
Rough Country is well known for affordable suspension systems and has recently expanded into the world of body protection and winches. To test-fit one of RC’s new bumpers, we grabbed the keys to our buddy’s ’07 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and took to our home garage for the install. Using an assortment of common household tools, we had the flimsy old bumper pulled off and the new Rough Country Stubby bumper and winch installed in just a couple of hours.
An extra pair of hands is helpful when sliding on the bumper. One of the features we liked about the bumper was that we were able to reuse the factory foglights. You’ll need to unclip the factory light harness to allow for a little slack in the line, but no new wires will need to be run.
PhotosView Slideshow
