After market bumper experience

[opps]

I purchased a 2019 Ford Ranger XLT Off Road addition and 2 day later was rear-ended. Minor collision, but rear bumper and hitch damage. Thought it would a good idea to replace it with an after market bumper, (ADD Stealth Fighter) liking the appearance and being all heavy metal. I purchased it from "BumperOnly" who had good reviews, good price, military discount, and a 100% bolt on and fitment guarantee. It was delivered for installation 7 weeks later for installation. After delays and various attempts the body shop was not able to install, due to various fitment issues and not being 100% bolt. I had a Ford factory hitch and bumper installed and took the "fitment/bolt on" issues up with the manufacturer "ADD" and seller "BumperOnly" who didn't believe my issues and said if returned there would be a 20% restocking fee + shipping. They suggested I use an after market installer that they had used in the past. The new installer agreed to do the work and after some difficulty (modifying the wiring harness, having to change the back-up sensor orientation, which was not recommended by Ford or the ADD installation instructions, and a residual rub of the tailgate and the top of the bumper). The installation that ordinarily takes 2 hours took over 4 hours. I had to return the following week because one of the back-up sensors had become disconnected and they were never able to re-install the lock for the spare tire drop down due to fitment issues. Pictures of fitment problems problem available if anyone is interested. In general, an overall poor experience and don't recommend anyone doing this.

Sponsored

 

[opps]

Would love to see the pictures as I am picking this bumper up tomorrow since they are local.

I do not have any rear sensors so that should not be an issue,but not being able to put the lock cover back on will absolutely be an issue.

Would love to see the pictures as I am picking this bumper up tomorrow since they are local.

I do not have any rear sensors so that should not be an issue,but not being able to put the lock cover back on will absolutely be an issue.

This is the picture of sensors and the lock cover openings with the outside sensor up against the metal support forcing the sensor connection to be oriented 180 degree from it's usual orientation and the need to extend the wiring harness. The locking cover opening from the factory has a smaller diameter and deeper notch that activates the locking mechanism and hold it in place. The ADD bumper is made of much thicker material requiring some modifications to adjust for the existing plastic housing. I really like the bumper but not 100% bolt-on with fitment issues. ADD and BumperOnly were hard to reason with despite the obvious problems.

 

[treimche]

I can echo all of your fitment issues with this rear bumper as I just finished installing it a few days ago. I was going to post a thread about it too. This is definitely NOT a bolt on affair, and it took me a really long time to get it to fit nicely. I haven't taken any good pics of the final install yet but I do have some of the install process.

 

[treimche]

Share away if you would,might get to mine this weekend,or early next week.
‘So any heads up,and or tips tricks along the way would be a plus to help the project along.

‘’Debating on taking the tailgate off to give a little more room topside while adjusting fit etc.

You shouldn't need to remove the tailgate at all if you don't want to, although it would take away one more obstacle when test fitting the bumper. Just beware that you want to be VERY careful lowering the tailgate when checking the clearance between the bottom of it and the top lip of the ADD bumper.

 

[port43]

Not cool! Those are a bit too expensive to have so many issues.

 

[The Donald]

I will probably update the bumper some day. Does anybody have any experience with the ARB Summit rear bumper? Just wondering if it is any more "bolt-on".

 

[HenryMac]

This is the picture of sensors and the lock cover openings with the outside sensor up against the metal support forcing the sensor connection to be oriented 180 degree from it's usual orientation and the need to extend the wiring harness. The locking cover opening from the factory has a smaller diameter and deeper notch that activates the locking mechanism and hold it in place. The ADD bumper is made of much thicker material requiring some modifications to adjust for the existing plastic housing. I really like the bumper but not 100% bolt-on with fitment issues. ADD and BumperOnly were hard to reason with despite the obvious problems.

And..... those welds look cold.. very little penetration of the filler metal into the base metal.

 

[treimche]

Here is my experience with the Addictive Desert Designs Stealth Fighter rear bumper for the 2019+ Ranger (I'm sure I'll forget something):

1. The biggest issue is that the top of the bumper does not sit far enough forward or down, so when you lower the tailgate, the bottom of the tailgate will contact the top edge of the bumper, and can definitely cause paint damage to both.

How did I alleviate this? First I loosened the 6 large bolts that hold the trailer hitch assembly to the frame and slide the whole thing as far forward as I could, which gave me maybe 1/8" extra clearance. That definitely wasn't enough so then I drilled out the 4 mounting holes for the top part of the bumper in order to be able to slide the bumper further forward. You can see in the pic how I was then able to slide the U clips further forward. After that, something was still forcing the bumper rearward when tightening down the 4 top mounting bolts. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the rearward part of the surface the bumper mounting points were on needed to be shaved off. I ground off the sharp corner and took off some material from the rearward part of those mounting points, check the pics to see how much metal I removed. That wasn't quite enough, so I had to add some washers between the under side of the bumper and the bumper mount for the rear holes only, which tilted the rear of the bumper up a little bit, and tilted the front downward. This made for some clearance between the bottom of the tailgate and top of the rear bumper lip when lowering the tailgate. (I hate those stupid POS U clips, they always get bent apart so they slide all over, but in this case you want them to be able to slide forward as much as possible) (I placed a washer (not pictured) on top of the 2 rearward U clips)

2. ADD specifically states a bunch of times that you must keep the same position and orientation of the backup sensors that are in the OEM bumper (obviously not applicable if you don't have them). This is impossible because of how they designed some of the bracing in the ADD bumper. The 2 outer sensors have to be rotated 180 degrees in order to fit. When you rotate each sensor, you also have to trim some of the plastic from the grommet because of the differences in width of the connector side of the sensor and the opposite side (sorry no pics of this).

3. The passenger's side backup sensor wiring has to be modified in order to reach the outermost sensor again due to how it has to be turned 180 degrees and how their bracing is in the way.

I did not have to cut and extend any wires, I simply slit open the wire loom and re-taped it all up nicely using Tesa tape and more loom in order to give the harness a little extra length between the 2 passenger side sensors. See the pics as its hard to explain.

4. The bumper is made of thicker steel than the OEM bumper so none of the backup sensor mounting grommets would fit properly. They are designed for the thinner OEM bumper metal and plastic, plus some of their locating indents are in the wrong spots.

I had to carefully trim little bits off of the retaining clips that hold the grommets into the metal bumper otherwise the sensors wouldn't slide back into them. Again, difficult to explain so check out the pic of the white sensor grommet and compare.

5. The lock for the spare tire access hole does not fit the ADD bumper because they made the hole way too big, and the hole also doesn't have the slots in it like the OEM bumper opening. You can just eliminate the lock if you want, but then someone can easily steal your spare wheel/tire.

In order to keep the lock, I carefully cut the plastic slotted portion off of the back side of the OEM bumper plastic, trimmed it down to about the correct thickness needed, and JB welded it to the back side of the ADD bumper. No it is not totally secure, but it should at least deter a thief from trying to steal the spare.

I don't know if there are differences between a Lariat/XLT/etc, but my Ranger is a Lariat with the OEM tow package, and this is what I had to do to get this bumper to fit nicely. The ADD instructions show a Ranger without the tow package, so maybe that's one of the differences they never paid attention to?

Here is one pic showing the license plate mounting area of the OEM bumper after grinding the welds off.

Finally a (almost) completed pic, I will get more once I can take some decent pics outside when this hellhole isn't so cold. Note that I don't have the spare tire lock in place or the 4 caps that snap in to cover up the mounting bolts (the painter forgot to paint them)

I will try to answer any questions the best I can, but just be prepared if you purchase a rear bumper from ADD, and plan for 3-4x more time than their estimated 2 hour install time.

 

[HoosierT]

Man that seems like garbage design and a lack of accountability. My Warn front bumper went on like a dream. Looks like I’ll go with the same for the rear. ADD does make cool looking stuff but I suspect that’s about all they have going for them.

 

[HenryMac]

Man that seems like garbage design and a lack of accountability. My Warn front bumper went on like a dream. Looks like I’ll go with the same for the rear. ADD does make cool looking stuff but I suspect that’s about all they have going for them.

Cool is the rule but sometimes bad is bad..

 

[treimche]

Thanks for the write up,and heads up!
I learned a long time ago that in order to change one thing,often,many others need a little rework......

I guess for the most part though,with laser measuring etc. things as far as figment have become better,yet still not perfect.

I will see how mine goes since I too have the factory tow hitch,but do not have any rear sensors.

If it pisses me off too bad,since they are local,I guess I can chuck it through their front window ?

I would LOVE to watch them perform this same install in their estimated 2 hours.

 

[opps]

Ok,first off,Troy thanks for the pictures and heads up for the tail gate closeness.

Installed my ADD bumper,and overall,it took me just at 2 1/2 hours to install.

My biggest issue was the lip at the rear of the bumper will absolutely contact the tailgate when you lower it if you do not do something to correct it.
What I did was hold my dead blow against the lip,and hit it with my 5 pound hammer to fold it towards the bed of the truck,so it wasn’t standing straight up.

Everything else went smoothly,and fitment was act really good.
‘That lip on the top of the bumper should have been not been bent at a right angle,or they should have made that bend further back.

Overall,happy with the fit and look.Much more sturdy than the factory rear bumper.That is some flimsy stuff for sure..

Pics,outboard bumper ears..

Center piece,plate holder,and ADD bumper

A few of it installed

You did not install backup sensors nor a lock for the spare tire drop down if you were to add the time to extend and reroute the factory wiring harness, change the orientation of the outside sensors (not recommended by ADD installation instructions nor the the Ford), and not reinstalling the lock for the spare tire drop down then 2 1/2 hours sound reasonable. I had a commercial after market installer that had a history of installing ADD bumper and recommended by ADD and BumperOnly and the install took close to 5 hours and the lock for the drop down was never installed and I had to return to reconnect one of the sensors.

 

[HenryMac]

Ok,first off,Troy thanks for the pictures and heads up for the tail gate closeness.

Installed my ADD bumper,and overall,it took me just at 2 1/2 hours to install.

My biggest issue was the lip at the rear of the bumper will absolutely contact the tailgate when you lower it if you do not do something to correct it.
What I did was hold my dead blow against the lip,and hit it with my 5 pound hammer to fold it towards the bed of the truck,so it wasn’t standing straight up.

Everything else went smoothly,and fitment was act really good.
‘That lip on the top of the bumper should have been not been bent at a right angle,or they should have made that bend further back.

Overall,happy with the fit and look.Much more sturdy than the factory rear bumper.That is some flimsy stuff for sure..

Pics,outboard bumper ears..

Center piece,plate holder,and ADD bumper

A few of it installed

That's a great looking bumper with all those compound curves.

@opps @treimche @y2krtaf Have you folks called ADD and told them of the issue?

 

[treimche]

Could have cared less about the lock/hole cover for the spare,as I’ve put a cable lock on the spare like every other truck I’ve owned.Maybe I’ll put a Wilkie button over the hole just because..
If mine had the sensors,I could see adding about another 30 minutes to the job.

To me,the biggest issue was the flange that needed folded back for tailgate clearance. Changing the angle solved that easily enough though.

Looks good! Bending the lip of the bumper forward crossed my mind also, but since I had my bumper painted prior to install, I didn't dare try bending it in fear of the paint cracking. Lucky for you, there were no backup sensors to deal with too.

 

[Fawnbuster]

I purchased a 2019 Ford Ranger XLT Off Road addition and 2 day later was rear-ended. Minor collision, but rear bumper and hitch damage. Thought it would a good idea to replace it with an after market bumper, (ADD Stealth Fighter) liking the appearance and being all heavy metal. I purchased it from "BumperOnly" who had good reviews, good price, military discount, and a 100% bolt on and fitment guarantee. It was delivered for installation 7 weeks later for installation. After delays and various attempts the body shop was not able to install, due to various fitment issues and not being 100% bolt. I had a Ford factory hitch and bumper installed and took the "fitment/bolt on" issues up with the manufacturer "ADD" and seller "BumperOnly" who didn't believe my issues and said if returned there would be a 20% restocking fee + shipping. They suggested I use an aaftermarketinstaller that they had used in the past. The new installer agreed to do the work and after some difficulty (modifying the wiring harness, having to change the back-up sensor orientation, which was not recommended by Ford or the ADD installation instructions, and a residual rub of the tailgate and the top of the bumper). The installation that ordinarily takes 2 hours took over 4 hours. I had to return the following week because one of the back-up sensors had become disconnected and they were never able to re-install the lock for the spare tire drop down due to fitment issues. Pictures of fitment problems problem available if anyone is interested. In general, an overall poor experience and don't recommend anyone doing this.

I have zero experience with the company you are talking about. But seeing how you got rear-ended, is there even a minute chance that some of the fitment is due to minor bends or minute out of adjustments on oem parts due to the ripple effect of the crash? Including the rear sensor, is the mounting tab tweaked?

Sponsored