Highline w/ ARB Rear Bumper

[Laurie]

Has anybody tried to match up the Highline kit with the ARB wrap-around rear bumper from ARB?

Looks like I'll have to lose a couple inches off the wrap around section, or cut into the flare.

[Laurie]

Well I took out about a 4 cm by 8 cm section on the back of each flare, leaving about a 1 cm gap around.

To improve the looks somewhat I also rounded off the bottom corner.

The gap doesn't look too good but I figured it was a safe idea given the body and bumper may move in relation to each other.

Pictures will be taken after the weekend :)

[Laurie]

I've just taken a few pretty pictures of the ARB Bumper now that it's installed.

First of all - my thoughts:

It's a beautiful design. Everything has been thoroughly thought out and done for a reason, yet it's all housed in a good looking design. A great example of Form and Function being given equal importance.

Ease of use

To open - just grab the handle to unlatch it, and the gas strut takes over from there. The carrier opens by itself while you open the tailgate. This feature - I LOVE.

To close - I put one of my tailgate's rubber bumpers on the swing-out arm. This stops the tailgate getting scratched by the door, but also allows me to grab the swing-out arm and slam it shut, which at the same time pushes the tailgate closed for me.

To hold-open - there's a spring-loaded pin that can be used to lock the swing-arm at 90 degrees to the Jeep (if another car is parked close by for example, normally it'd go out to about 120 degrees) OR it can be used to hold it out while you're on an angle.

The beauty here is it's spring loaded. To release it, all you do is grab the swing-arm and push it out before pulling it in. This releases the tension and the pin springs back out of the way.



Installation

Doing this one yourself is an ambitious task! A lot of drilling, a lot of nuts and bolts, a lot of fine tuning.

The frame-tie-in brackets are pretty well thought out. Each one attaches to the frame with 4 bolts. 1 of those also goes through to the bumper. The brackets then have pilot holes for you to drill all the way through them, up into the bumper, and then bolt the two together. No use of oval holes to make things line up :)



Hinge

They call it a double shear and I'm pretty sure that refers to the fact that it's secured at the top and bottom, where as most other tire carriers only attach at the bottom. The hinge itself is also relatively tall. I'm sure these two factors go a long way to making it a solid, rattle free design.

The hinge has an adjustment bolt so you can eliminate any sag in the swing-arm.

Latch

There's about 5-6 different ways you can adjust the latch mechanism - play with this until you get it just right... slam shut and no movement while driving.

Tow points

Comes with two shackle tabs that are directly in line with the chassis and frame-tie-in bolts for maximum strength. These tabs are nice and thick like my Road Armor front bumper, not thin like the ARB front bumpers.

It comes with a tow-rated 2" hitch, with ratings for tongue weight and tow capacity for both the TJ and the Unlimited (surprising as they don't have the Unlimited in Australia)

Hitch also has safety chain attachments.

Tire Mount

You can set the studs for 5 x 4.5 or 5 x 5.5

The wheel mounting surface is in a sliding tube. Instructions say you slide the tube into place, so the tire sits flush. Pull the tire off, put the surface inwards 5-10 mm then drill and bolt the two together. This pulls the tire up tight against the carrier REGARDLESS of what size tire or what size rims you have.

Protection

Departure angle is better than my OE bumper. Full corner protection is brilliant.

http://www.oman4x4.com/albums/080502/arbclosed.jpg

http://www.oman4x4.com/albums/080502/arbswingout.jpg

In this picture you can clearly see where I cut away to give the bumper clearance, plus additional space to allow for frame / body movement.

[Laurie]

http://www.oman4x4.com/albums/se08/P4251614.jpg

http://www.oman4x4.com/albums/se08/P4251586.jpg

http://www.oman4x4.com/albums/080502/bigclimb.jpg


It certainly isn't the cheapest tire carrier on the market... but I've not seen anything that comes close in terms of ease of use, build quality and design.