By david b. on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 03:02 pm: Edit

uh...

By Jeff on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 03:46 pm: Edit

That will be pretty cool!

Now where is that penny bank of mine?

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 03:51 pm: Edit

You don't like it, David? Definately no clearance problems like with the ARB, and John does have a rep for quality. Looks good to me!

By Ron on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 04:07 pm: Edit

I like it!

Snazzy, I wonder how much one will cost me?

Ron

PS on the site it says that they will also have the option of a skid plate, brush bar, and also a "standard" bumper that is flat or something.

By Jeff on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 04:12 pm: Edit

Yeah it sounds like this one is contoured to the shape of the front of the Disco, as to allow maximum approach angle.

Look at the front wheel travel on the Rangie on his products page, nice!

By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 05:50 pm: Edit

I am a huge fan of John's stuff and plan on buying all my suspension through him, however, for the bumpers, I saw a couple of Jeep bumpers made by Mike Aedo and was blown away by them. Excellent shovel design for rock sliding and super clean ... you would think they are factory. He was doing some serious offroading and they didn't bend and just seemed to have the perfect angles. I understand he is going to start fabricating Rover bumpers ... I plan on waiting to see what he has.

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 05:54 pm: Edit

Making Jeep bumpers is a whole lot easier then doing rover bumpers. Believe me... What you see there was allot of time and thought. Your Jeeper boy own a Disco?


Kyle

By Parker Garrett (Parker) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Damn!! That looks nice. Wonder how much $$$?

By MA on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 07:20 pm: Edit

That does look nice. When I talked to John at Rovertym about it a couple of months ago, he said it would be around $700-$800.

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Curious to see what his standard bumper will look like. I think I want a bit more surface area to my bumper. One of the things I liked about my old ARB on my other truck was that I always won bumper car wars in parking lots and it was "tall" enough to mount my bottle opener.

Perhaps the most important accessory I ever mounted on a truck!

Jeff

By Eric N (Grnrvr) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 07:34 pm: Edit

I would like to see what both types look like fully decked out with skid plate and brush bar..

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:49 am: Edit

Kyle,

What is so different between making bumpers for a Jeep vs. a Rover. Not a Wrangler, but a Cherokee or Grand Cherokee?

Tom

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 08:51 am: Edit

Its really hard to make a bumper so that it turns out looking like it belongs where you put it. The Bumpers I have seen for the Jeeps looked like Jeep bumpers. Try to design the same thing around your Rover and then ya get a ,,,,well ,,,,a Jeep Rover.


Kyle

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 09:26 am: Edit

Maybe that would be a "Jover" or a "Reep"?

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 10:04 am: Edit

Yes , there ya go , if that doesnt concern you at all I think his stuff looks good. Infact , I think it might be perfect,,,,,,,,,on a Jeep.....There is one thing tho , I have noticed that damn near every bumper out there rotates into the sheet metal when winching or high lifting. I think I saw some of that guys work in Moab last April (Might not have been but looked exactly like his stuff) on a jeep and it was rotated as well. Rotated right onto the Jeeps fenders.


Kyle

By Ron on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:11 am: Edit

Thats cause no one mounts them through the top of the frame like they are supposed to. You won't rotate (4) 4 1/2"*1/2" grade eight bolts through the top of the frame. Don't get me started on this one. I have been trying to make a winch plate work on the RR for the last couple months.

Ron

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:15 am: Edit

Ron , I have solved the rotation problem all together. What you are talking about still wont do it cause you cant really tighten the bolts...they will crush the frame


Kyle

By Ron on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:21 am: Edit

Kyle,

On our disco the frame is open at the front so you can just insert "tubes" like everywhere else a bolt goes through the frame. Then you can crank them down. Unfortunately on my RR it is not, so it would mean some frame surgury and welding.

Ron

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:24 am: Edit

Yeah , you could insert some tubes after removing the others that are there. That is a pain in the ass and still not completely effective.


Kyle

By Ron on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:25 am: Edit

Why would you have to remove the others? I was thinking use both.

Ron

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 11:32 am: Edit

So you wanna take out whats there and put some new ones in behind them? Move the bag sensors? And then replace the original tubes? Also , drilling more holes in those poor frame horns wont do it any good either. I know the frame gets bragged about quite often but its not really that strong up there. Turning it into swiss cheese will only make it worse.

Kyle

By Disco Infurno on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 02:19 pm: Edit

So then can anyone tell me how the new RoverTym one is mounted?

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 02:46 pm: Edit

I belive he is using a 6 bolt system similar to ARB.

Kyle

By John on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 02:48 pm: Edit

Mounting by the 6 holes in the frame for starts. The front 4 holes in the frame need to be reamed out to 1/2" so they will accept 1/2" bolts for a snug fit. A 5/8" bolt in the rear 2 frame holes, and the skid plate frame will be bolted thru the crossmember above the drag link by means of 2 positive "stiff leg" mounts for non rotation of the bumper. In other words....solid with no rotation.

By Murray (Cdnrvr) on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 03:17 pm: Edit

Damn ... the more I see and hear about this ... the more I like!

By Ron on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 04:37 pm: Edit

So you wanna take out whats there and put some new ones in behind them?


I was thinking in front of the old ones.

ron

By nadim on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 04:54 pm: Edit

ok...ok...

John...I thought that the 4 main holes for the factory bumper were 1/2" in diameter...because, if I am not mistaken, that is the dimension of bolts I was using...since 12mm was way too loose.

Also, my preliminary custom bumper does have the 6 bolt mounting system, and darely rotates when using a hi-lift...I have come to conclude that the position of the winch and the position of the hi-lift points will affect the rotation a lot...therefore, I think that it will be smarter to work on the position of the latters as opposed to bolting on more, and reinforcing...

No offnce john...but I am not sure that Solihull intended the first crossmember to be used as a structural point for an extreme duty bumper as the one you are manufacturing...I mean, with all the strains put to it...

By shortening the distance from the winch/hi-lift points to the 6 bolts, I believe that there will be no more rotation...or so litle as not to be affected...

as for the bull-bar coupling into the hood...well, then let us push it further away from the hood...like the prerunners in a way...

any how, that is my honnest opinion...

By John on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 06:00 pm: Edit

And they are good opinions...Some frames dont accept the 1/2" bolt so it needs to be just "reamed"..just a slight metal removal in some cases. Positioning of points is always a consideration, and we do seek the shortest triangle to reduce rotation, the front points with a "smidge" rotation will look like a lot when we go to the other end of the triangle(wing ends of bumper next to fender) so why not seek zero rotation so we dont look bad on BB's.
The strains put on a cross member is minimal if we make the front mounting points effective. And offering 2 points on the crossmember spreads that minimal load, which is straight up.We also have to keep installation straightforward and minimal so everyone can assemble his bumper.
On a last note, I am doing a "mini prerunner style " with the brush guards at a 10deg angle for all the reasons you, and I, want that angle brush bar.
Honest opinions make for good product.

By nadim on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 06:10 pm: Edit

Great to hear that you have your s*** right as usual...

Nadim

By Mike B. on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 06:38 pm: Edit

Thanks John for sharing your design experience with us. It is always good to hear this kind of information in a manner that even the lay person (that's me!) can understand.

I am really interested (and eagerly awaiting) to hear what you have planned for a rear bumper.

Thanks,
Mike B.

By Cal on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 09:31 pm: Edit

John,
The bumper looks great. I look forward to seeing your other one as well. Are these going to be available for use with airbags?
Cal

By Jon E. Yermo (Jon) on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 01:56 am: Edit

Interesting conversation as I've just installed a six-bolt ARB to my 95 Disco. When discussing pre-runner trucks, keep in mind that those are not bolt-on applications - instead fully welded to a custom cage or stock frame. A simple return from most winch mounts from a higher loop on the bull bar through the grill and down to the frame would act as a reasonable brace for extreme winching situations.

My old high-school friends do nothing but build full-floating susp. desert trucks and know two or three things about these matters - while I'm merely making a guess.

I'm hoping to read more here on the matter, sp. with contributors like John in the fray. I'm hoping to fit an XD9000 to that new ARB, but don't wish to "modify" my hood the first time I try pulling myself out of the quick!

Cheers!

Erik

By John on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 03:43 pm: Edit

Road racers and extreme buggy rock crawlers should do nothing else but weld a pre runner set up directly to the frame, makes good sense...and thats all they basically are working with is a frame. A pre runner style "bolt on" bumper isnt really a bad idea for us weekend rock crawlers as this general market still as a whole needs to do backyard installation therefore nothing but a box of tools are what they work with.And we dont deal with speeds or severe rock buggy rock piles. I really had not thought of doing a pure pre runner look bumper....but hell, why not....we may see or learn something we like. I realize the leverages applied, but its only a challenge and a pile of steel. I will do one for the hell of it just to see where it goes. Sounds like fun. But the product stuff first as there is a need for that.....
P.S. Ask Diesel about his 6 bolt ARB hood mods.

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 05:13 pm: Edit

I tried a tube version of the wings for mine and it was pretty damn hideous. All that round shit just doesnt go well with the boxy ass Disco...


Kyle

By E Snyder on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 10:16 am: Edit

I just mounted an ARB bar w/ winch on my Disco and it only had 4 bolts, as far as I could tell. Is this 6 bolt mounting a custom thing (ie, drilling an additional hole through mount and frame) or am I missing something? Thanks.
PS- JBS, keep up the good work! Mike Boggs and I missed you at the ROVERS event yesterday.

By al hang on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 12:49 pm: Edit

No, it should have 6 bolts to counteract rotation while winching or pulling. If you don't have the correct setup it could rotate and hit your hood, do a search for Diesel's message.


-al