I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com and this is my review of the Smittybilt SRC Gen2 Front
Bumper, fitting all 2007 to 2016 JKs.
Swapping out your factory front bumper for an aftermarket one is a great way to add features,
style, and protection to the front of your Jeep, and a bumper like this one will provide
all three of those.
And this bumper, in particular, will be something that's a little bit unique because it is one
of Smittybilt's newer offerings.
This bumper is designed to go all the way from the crash bar, up to the frame horns.
It gives you full-width coverage and, as I mentioned, a ton of different features.
This bumper is built from three-sixteenths-inch steel that's covered in a textured black powder
coat finish, which means it's going to hold up and resist rust and corrosion for a good
long time, and it's going to be very, very strong.
This bumper is heavy.
And along with being really well built and really solid, as I mentioned, it does have
quite a few features.
The first thing you'll notice are these tubular corners, and that's something that makes this
SRC bumper different from Smittybilt's XRC Gen2 Bumpers.
This is a little bit wider and it has a little bit more protection, as well as the additional
styling that's offered from these tubes.
Both bumpers have D-ring mounts that are solidly welded and bolt directly into the frame horns,
giving you plenty of strength for recovery points.
They have spots for your OEM fog lights to bolt right into your new bumper, which is
something I always look for in an aftermarket bumper for a JK.
You already have the fog lights, they're already wired for it, it has the switch right in the
cab.
It's really nice to be able to just bolt your factory lights right in your aftermarket bumper,
and this bumper allows you to do that.
If you do want to add some additional lighting, you have the option to do that right up on
top of this hoop.
These light mount tabs are not your traditional tabs that just have one round hole in them.
They're actually three separate oblong holes, which give you a lot of different options
for different size light bars, as well as light pods.
You're gonna have a lot more options with a setup like this than with a more traditional
light mount tab.
The bumper, of course, has a winch plate built right into it, good for up to a 12,000-pound
winch, and it does have a little bit of that lower mounting point, which gives you a bit
more of a sunken winch look.
It's a little bit sleeker and, in my opinion, I like it a little bit better.
Now, something that really sets this bumper apart from a lot of others on the market are
these plastic panels that are on the front of it.
Now, they are an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, which means they're going to
be a very strong plastic and they're not going to fade in the UV light.
However, if you do end up making contact with a rock on the plastic, they may get marred
a little bit.
Now, those are not covering up holes in the bumper.
They're solid steel behind those, so you still have plenty of strength with the bumper, so
in my opinion, those are going to be more of a styling cue than anything else, and it
is something that really makes this bumper unique.
So if you decide to install this bumper on your JK by itself or with the XRC Gen2 Rear
Bumper, this is going to look good.
Because this bumper does go all the way from the bottom of the crash bar up to your traditional
mounting points on the frame horns, the installation for this is a little bit different.
Smittybilt does ask you to drill a couple of holes in your Jeep and open up a couple
of holes that are already to make them a bit larger.
Now, this bumper does have a winch mount and it is incredibly heavy, so adding some additional
mounting points isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make the install a little more
involved and it will take a little bit more time.
Of course, the first step in the installation is to remove your factory front bumper, and
you'll do that by removing the eight nuts that hold it onto the frame rails.
Once the factory bumper is removed, you can remove the factory fog lights and bolt them
into your new bumper.
At this time, if you're going to be installing a winch on your new bumper, I would recommend
bolting it onto the winch plate.
Now, that's gonna make this already heavy bumper even heavier, and you'll definitely
need an extra set of hands to get it installed.
However, bolting the winch to the bumper ahead of time makes it a lot easier to get to the
winch mounting bolts than if you already have the bumper bolted onto the Jeep.
Now that you have the bumper prepped for installation, you can go ahead and drill out those holes.
There are four holes on each frame horn and Smittybilt asks you to open up one on either
side.
Just follow the instructions, and this is a pretty easy task.
You want to have a half-inch drill bit or a five-eighths if you want to open up that
hole a little bit more to give you a little bit of wiggle room.
Once you have that hole drilled out on either side you can put the bumper in place and loosely
bolt it up.
At that point, you can use the holes that are in the bottom of the bumper as a guide
to mark your crash bar and go ahead and drill those holes out as well.
All of the hardware you need to get this bolted to the Jeep is included, so once you have
everything in place just make sure it's all torqued down and tight, and you're good to
go.
And all the installation process should take you right around two hours because you do
have to drill a couple of holes and you won't need any specialty tools, just a good socket
set, a drill with a good sharp drill bit.
This bumper is going to be a little bit more expensive than some of the other bumpers offered
by Smittybilt and the other bumpers on the market in general.
But to be honest with you, I do think it's actually worth it for this bumper.
Now, it's incredibly well built, it does have a lot of features, even some that other bumpers
don't have.
And if you like the styling of this bumper, which is a little bit different than some
of the other offerings available, I think that this is a great option to go with.
Now, this is going to be very, very heavy, so you will have to worry about front end
sag.
Adding this much weight to the front of the Jeep can cause your front springs to sag a
bit, especially if you have factory springs.
If you already have a lift kit, those spring rates are usually a little bit higher and
will help to hold up this weight.
But because this is so heavy and especially if you're installing a winch, I wouldn't be
surprised if you would need to add some spacers or some stiffer or longer springs to level
out the Jeep.
So if you're looking for a bumper that has unique styling, is packed full of features,
and looks a little bit different than a lot of the other aftermarket bumpers on the market,
especially because of the plastic plates on the front, this is a great bumper to take
a look at.
It is going to be a little bit expensive and it is very heavy, but it is a unique bumper,
and if you like the looks, it's a good option.
That's my review of the Smittybilt SRC Gen2 Front Bumper, fitting all 2007 to 2016 JKs,
that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com.