Barricade Extreme HD Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier (07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK)

Video Review & Installation

I'm Ryan from ExtremeTerrain.com and this is my review and installation of the Barricade Extreme HD Bumper and Tire Carrier, fitting all 2007 to 2016 JKs. This tire carrier is available separate from the bumper and the bumper can be run as a stand-alone bumper if you don't need the tire carrier or have a tub-mounted tire carrier already. Today, I'm going to talk about the construction, the features and the installation of this bumper and tire carrier setup.There are a few different issues you can run into if you're running a large and heavy spare. Anything over, say, a 35-inch tire and wheel package especially a heavy one on your factory spare tire mount which is attached to your tailgate. You can end up with the hinges of the tailgate sagging, requiring you to pick-up on the tailgate every time you open it and close it, you can end up breaking welds in the tailgate itself, which will cause rattling and noises, and finally, the spare tire mount itself can fatigue and eventually crack, which can cause a dangerous situation. Having a bumper-mounted carrier like this will fix all those of those problems by taking the weight of that heavy and larger spare tire off of your factory location and putting it on this bumper-mounted spare tire. I really like this setup in particular because it's less expensive than some of the other ones on the market, but it is packed full of different features that I will talk about in a second.Before we get into the features of this bumper and tire carrier setup, let's talk about the construction. This thing is built solid. It's steel, it's welded and gusted through and through to give you an incredible amount of strength. This thing is going to be great for recoveries and even a 37-inch wheel tire combination that has a lot of weight to it. Speaking of recovery, this does have two D-ring mounts that are built right into it. They're welded all the way through and this package includes the D-rings with it, which is a nice feature. Some don't. You have to go out and buy those separately. The bumper also has this nice deep cutout in the center so that will allow you to put your tire as low as possible on the tire carrier, giving you maximum viewing out of your back window without having any clearance issues with the bumper itself. In the center, you have a third recovery point, in the way of a standard two-inch receiver that you can put any tow bar into for recovery purposes. And, I would also consider over here the angles of this bumper to be a feature. This bumper almost looks a little bit like a stamped steel bumper in the way that it has these angles on the end. They are simply for styling, but my opinion, it makes the bumper look pretty good.Aside from the bumper, the tire carrier has a ton of features as well. Starting over here at the pivot, the way that the tire carrier attaches onto the spindle means that you're always going to be able to service it. This is a greaseable spindle, but if you forget to grease it and it ends up having the tire carrier rust onto the spindle, you'll always be able to loosen this clamping bolts, remove the tire carrier, clean everything, grease it again and put it back together. Those sealed tire carriers over the spindles will cause you to have to cut the tire carrier off the spindle which of course will make it not usable anymore.On the other end, the latching mechanism will keep this whole set up completely rattle-free. It has a rubber isolator built right into it, and it's spring-loaded, keeping everything nice and tight. Speaking of keeping things rattle-free, right up here are one of my favorite features about this tire carrier. These are adjustable bumpers that will allow you to keep the tire carrier tied up against the factory rubber tailgate snubbers when the tire carrier is closed. That, combined with the adjustable tire mount that allows you to move your tire in and out, keeping the tire nice and tight up against the tire carrier regardless of your tire width and your back spacing means that the tire, the tire carrier and tailgate are all one solid piece, keeping it rattle-free and keeping anything from torquing around which can cause metal fatigue and noise.Finally, the tire carrier mount up here is adjustable up and down. As I mentioned, it allows you to get the tire as low as possible in the bumper, giving you maximum viewing out of your back window. Now, anytime you have a tire carrier like this, you are going to have to consider a new third brake light mount because the factory one will come off during the installation of this bumper. This bumper and tire carrier combination is completely bolt on, making the installation really, really simple.The first step is to bolt the bumper on to the Jeep after you remove your factory bumper. The factory bumper will be removed by taking a couple of bolts our of the frame rails and a couple of bolts out of the rear crossmember allowing you to pull it off. After that, if you do have a tow hook on the driver side inside of the frame rail, you also have to remove that to allow this bumper to be installed. Don't worry, the bumper has its own recovery points that are plenty strong.After that, you can slide the nut plates inside the frame rails and bolt the bumper into place. There's also a sandwich plate that goes directly behind the two-inch receiver to provide some additional strength for recovery. You'll install that as well and you can leave all of the bolts loose before you put the tire carrier on. The tire carrier comes out of the box unassembled, so you will be adding the tire mount, these adjustable stops for the factory tailgate snubbers and the latch itself. Once you have all of those parts bolted on, you can drop the tire carrier over the spindle on the bumper and then start tightening everything down. The final step is to install you tire on the tire carrier and make sure that the tire is very tight up against the tire carrier so that everything is tight up against the tailgate. The whole installation for this bumper and tire carrier will probably take you about two hours. That includes all of the removal of the factory bumper, the assembly of your tire carrier and getting everything bolted up. But the good news is, it's a very simple process. If you have a traditional set of sockets, you can get this thing installed. There's no need to take it to a shop. Although the bumper is a little bit large and bulky, so you might want to have an extra set of hands around or at least tall [SP] set of jack stands to help out.By the time you purchase this bumper and the tire carrier, they're still priced a little bit less than a lot of the top tier bumper and tire carrier combinations of the market. And because this one does have so many features, so much adjustability allows you to keep everything tight and rattle-free, I really like this set-up. Now, if you're looking to get your spare tire off of the factory spare tire location, there are tub-mounted tire carriers that are available. There are some from RedRock, TeraFlex, Rugged Ridge, Smittybilt. They all offer a tub-mounted tire carrier. A set-up like that will allow you to run with whatever bumper you'd like to. However, by the time you purchase a tub-mounted tire carrier, you're going to be right in the same ballpark as these bumper and tire carrier set-up when you consider the price. And then you get yourself an aftermarket bumper and all over a sudden, that Tubman and set-up is going to be more expensive than this set-up here.Now the benefit to a tub-mounted tire carrier setup is that you can very easily and with one hand and one motion, open the tire carrier and that tailgate because they are one piece. Where with this set-up, first you have to open the tire carrier and then the tailgates separately. But in my opinion, for the additional cost that you have to pay for tub-mounted tire carrier and a bumper if you decide you want to add one. And how much more that is over a setup like this, this makes a lot of sense. So if you are looking for a bumper-mounted tire carrier that has a lot of features, that's going to be a great recovery point and securely hold even the largest 37-inch spare tire combination, this is going to be a great option for you. This has all the adjustability and all the features built into it than you'd ever need.So, that's my review of Barricade Extreme HD Rear Bumper and Tire Carrier fitting on 2007 to 2016 JKs. That you can find right here at ExtremeTerrain.com.