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Iron Cross Automotive Stubby Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier; Matte Black (18-23 Jeep Wrangler JL)

Item J122629-JL
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    Hey, guys. Today, I'm here with the Iron Cross Stubby Rear Bumper with tire carrier, fitting all 2018 and newer JL Wranglers. If you're in search for a tire carrier and rear bumper combo that's gonna add a lot of functionality and off-road style to the back of your Wrangler, this option by Iron Cross is gonna be a good choice to take a look at. The bumper itself is gonna provide a lot of heavy duty protection and it's gonna incorporate some very functional features including recovery points, and even some angled up ends for better departure angles while you're out on the trail. That makes it perfect for the Jeep owner who's concerned about their performance while they're out on the trail, and wants a little bit of extra insurance with those recovery points just in case they get into a sticky situation.Complimenting that rear bumper is the heavy duty tire carrier that's able to hold up to a 37 inch tire. So when it comes to upgrading to larger wheels and tires, you definitely wanna take a look at some heavy duty or aftermarket carrier options, considering your stock carrier and the stock tailgate really can't hold up to all that extra weight. This will be able to eliminate all that extra wear and tear on your tailgate by mounting this on the bumper and also being very user friendly at the same time. That single action feature is gonna make it perfect for somebody who doesn't want all of that extra fuss when opening up their tire carrier. So all you have to do when accessing your cargo area is open up your tailgate and the carrier, and the tire will follow. Not to mention, this is going to, overall, give you a very off-road and aggressive look to the back end of your Wrangler, especially with that black texture powder coat finish, and it's gonna match with any other heavy duty accessories that you already have on your JL.As far as pricing goes, this is gonna be roughly $900, putting this in the middle of the price range when it comes to tire carrier and rear bumper combos. When we take a look at tire carriers all across the board, the less expensive options are usually gonna be more simplistically designed. So they may not incorporate all the extra bells and whistles that you see here, including the compact design, the angled up ends or the single action feature. They may be for dual action which essentially means that you have to open up the carrier first and then open up your tailgate to access your cargo area. On the other side of that, more expensive choices are usually just gonna have some extra bells and whistles. They may accommodate for the factory backup camera or even the factory third brake light which you can find solutions for this rear bumper and tire carrier, but those are usually included in the more expensive choices. Not to mention, they're usually gonna have some more accessory mounting points and even some accessory lighting. In my personal opinion I think if you are not necessarily concerned about all those extra bells and whistles, you're looking for something that looks good and is very functional at the same time, then this option my Iron Cross is gonna be a good choice to take a look at.Install is gonna be a two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter, taking you about two hours to get the job done with some pretty basic hand tools. So speaking of the install, let's jump into that now. The tools that I used for my install were an electric and pneumatic impact, a trim removal tool, panel removal tool, a grease gun, a hammer, a 38 and 36 millimeter socket, a deadblow, a 5 inch and 3 inch extension, a 16 millimeter shallow socket, an 8 millimeter Allen socket, 8 millimeter and 13 millimeter deep socket, a 9/16 and 7/16 inch deep socket, an 18 millimeter and 21 millimeter impact socket, a 19 millimeter deep socket, a 19 millimeter swivel socket, the T40 Torx and ratchet from the JL toolkit, a stud puller, a flathead screwdriver, a quarter-inch drive ratchet, a 19 millimeter and 16 millimeter wrench, as well as a 9/16 inch and 7/6 inch wrench.So our first step is to remove the cover on our backup camera. I'm gonna use the JL toolkit T40 Torx and ratchet, but you can use any T40 Torx. We just have to unlock it by spinning that little dial and then pulling back. Now, we can take off our spare tire. Now, this is gonna depend on the lug nuts that you have, I'm using a 6 spline lug key and a 21 millimeter socket and my impact wrench. If you have the standard JL lug nuts you'll be using a 22 millimeter deep socket.We're gonna start by removing our bumper first. So we're gonna take off the two trim pieces in the inner wheel well. You're gonna need an 8 millimeter socket as well as a quarter-inch drive ratchet, and we can head underneath the Jeep. On the inner wheel well trim piece, you're gonna have three screws, they're gonna be 8 millimeter screws, we can start removing them with an 8 millimeter socket. Now you may be able to squeeze an impact wrench in here to remove the inner two, but because of the tire here, you will need to use a ratchet for the outside bolt. After that last screw is removed, we can remove the whole trim piece and repeat that process on the other side.What we can do now is remove the two bolts that are holding these two brackets together, one is connected to the bumper and one is connected to our frame here. These are gonna be two 16 millimeter bolts, so I'm gonna use a 16 millimeter socket. Keep in mind your tire is right here, so you may not be able to fit your impact wrench in, you can either use a hand ratchet or a ratcheting wrench. I'm gonna be using a 16 millimeter ratcheting wrench. Then we can remove this inner bracket all together, the one that's connected to the frame. There should be two 16 millimeter bolts here, we are missing one, so I'm gonna use a 16 millimeter socket and my impact wrench to remove this frame bracket. So while we're on the driver side, what I'm gonna do is remove the wiring harness for our license plate light. I'm just removing the clip here from the body of the Jeep with a trim removal tool, then we can disconnect it by pressing down on that little tab there and pulling back.So after we've unplugged the license plate light on the driver side we have two more bolts that are connected to a secondary bracket on our frame here. So I'm gonna use a 16 millimeter ratcheting wrench to access those two nuts on the studs that are connected to our bumper. The top one is a little bit hard to access, however, they do very easily come off. So after everything on the bumper is disconnected, what we can do is fully remove it.Before we move on to our tire carrier, we do have to remove the secondary brackets on our frame as well as our tow hook. The hardware will depend on your Wrangler, but you will either need a 21 millimeter socket or an 18 millimeter socket, or both. So I'm gonna be using an 18 millimeter socket on this side to remove these bolts here, there's gonna be two on the side, we are missing one, and then there's gonna be two underneath. And that last bolt, just make sure you have a handle on the tow hook here because it will drop. Then after those are removed we can go to the other side and do the same thing.Now, we can start removing our tire carrier, but first we have to open up our tailgate and disconnect the wiring harness for our third brake light as well as our backup camera. So once you open this up, you are gonna have a panel here. You can either try to pry your fingers behind it and pull back, or you might need a panel removal tool to help you out. It's gonna be held in by a series of clips. So once that back panel is removed, what we can do is disconnect this white wiring harness and then the one below it. We can close this up and remove our carrier.So now that we disconnected the wiring harness, we can pull back on this grommet and pull the wires through our tailgate just so we make sure that we're not damaging them when we actually remove our spare tire carrier. Then we can grab a 13 millimeter socket and an impact wrench or ratchet and remove the 8 bolts that are holding in the actual carrier. Now, in the last one, the carrier will separate from the tailgate, so make sure you have a hand on it and we can fully remove it.Before we hop into our install, I wanted to stop down and tell you guys a little bit more about the benefits that you're gonna get out of this new combo by Iron Cross, especially in comparison to your stock components. Now, right off the bat, this is gonna be a lot stronger of a combination, this tire carrier and the bumper are gonna be made of a heavy duty steel material, so this is gonna be able to hold a lot of weight and the bumper is gonna do a really good job at protecting the back end of your Wrangler, especially if you're out on the trail and you do take a hit or even while you're out on the street. Now, starting with the bumper, this is going to be a similar length to your factory setup. However, on either end you are getting more of an angle upwards which is gonna help out with your departure angles while you're on the trail in comparison to your factory plastics that is more or less a straight cut. Now, this is also going to have a large cutout for a larger wheel and tire especially with your tire carrier here, and you're getting two mounts on either side for recovery points. Now, we will have to bolt up the D-ring plates in just a second, but that's gonna be perfect as a recovery point if you get into a sticky situation on the trail.Speaking of recovery points, this is going to accommodate for your factory tow hitch or even an aftermarket one considering that there is a pretty large cutout on the bottom here, and you are gonna have a spot for your license plate on the bumper itself and not an extra bracket like some other options. Not to mention you are getting the Iron Cross cutout logo on the back for some extra styling as well as the heavy duty black powder coat finish, that's gonna provide an off-road, look but also protect that steel underneath.Now, moving over to our tire carrier, this is going to do a really good job at holding all that extra weight that your factory carrier really can't stand up to. So with the factory carrier, it's perfect for stock applications, however, once you add a larger wheel and tire it is going to be a lot heavier and the plastic carrier really can't support that weight along with your tailgate. When moving over to a system like this, this is gonna take all that weight and move it from your tailgate onto a bumper mounted system, which is gonna be a lot more sturdy and structurally sound considering that it's mounted up to the frame. Now, with all that weight being on the frame, it's gonna take all of that extra stress off your tailgate, so it's gonna preserve the tailgate's life over time. Not to mention this is also a single action tire carrier. So essentially, what that means is to access your cargo area, all you have to do is open up your tailgate considering that this will be attached to your tailgate. Some other options are strictly bumper mounted, you'll have to open up the tire carrier and then open up the tailgate, but with this it makes it simple and all one motion making it very user friendly and very easy to use in general. I would like to mention that this is not gonna carry over the third brake light as well as the factory backup camera, however, there are solutions out there in order to accommodate for that. So enough about these two side by side, let's go ahead and put together our new spare tire carrier and bumper.Our first step to our install is installing our brackets. Now, these are going to attach to our frame and there's also gonna be a mounting point for our D-ring mount. So there is going to be a factory mounting location for the inside, they are gonna be side specific, and we're going to install this with the factory hardware. So I'm gonna snug this up, I'm not gonna tighten it down completely, we wanna make sure that we have a little bit of adjustability when it comes to mounting up our bumper. All right, we wanna make sure that stays in place, then we can repeat that process on the other side. So you should have two bolts on the side of your frame rail, on the other side of our Wrangler we only have one, but for this side, we're gonna mount up both.Before we mount up our bumper, we do want to install our license plate first. Now, you will have to outsource for some hardware, but it's pretty standard hardware. So what I'm gonna do is just grab our license plate, put it up into place. And then I just have a standard bolt, two flat washers, and a lock washer here, and I'm gonna secure it down with that. I'm just gonna tighten it up with a 7/16 inch wrench and socket. Now we're ready to mount up our bumper. Now, with the help of a friend, we can go ahead and mount this up. Now, we can just place the bumper down on top, put a bolt in to hold it there and then we can go ahead and mount up our shackles.So with the bumper held in place on one side, what we're gonna do is start to mount up our shackles. So this shackle is gonna be placed on top of the bumper which is gonna go through the bumper as well as this bracket on the back. Now, on the back, you're gonna attach a flat washer, lock washer, and the provided nut, and we're not gonna tighten anything down just yet. We wanna make sure that everything's attached and then we can go back and tighten it down. Now that we have one side attached, we can repeat that process on the other side. Now, we can tighten up our D-ring shackles and our bumper brackets while lifting up on the bumper using an 8 millimeter Allen socket as well as a 19 millimeter wrench for the back. So now that the bumper is in place, we can just tighten down the rest of the bolts. For this corner here, you may need a small extension. I'm just using a 3 inch.Before we mount up our tire carrier, we do have to prep it first, you are gonna get two bearings, a large bearing as well as a small bearing, and a couple of races as well as some washers. Those need to be installed in our tire carrier and we have to pack the bearings with grease. Now, you're gonna use some standard wheel grease for this, you wanna make sure that they are packed very well and you also will have a grease fitting on the spindle to maintenance it after you have actually greased the bearings. So we're gonna go ahead and grease the bearings now and then we will install the rest in our tire carrier and put it on our bumper.So what I like to do is just pump out a pretty decent amount or a generous amount of grease onto my hand, then we can grab one of our bearings. I'm gonna start with the smaller bearing and just go around and press it into the bearing. Now, we wanna make sure that this is pressed all the way through, that the rollers are completely coated. This is going to essentially preserve the lifespan of your carrier. Go ahead and do it for the top as well. Now, you really wanna make sure that you're working the grease into the rollers. What I like to do is when there is a decent amount of grease in there, spin it, make sure that you're fully coating the bearings. Great, and when the bearing is fully packed, what we can do is set it aside and do the other one.So what we can do now is put our larger race into place. Once the race is in we can grab our larger roller bearing and place that down in, then what we can do is put our seal down at the bottom. I'm just gonna take a mallet and lightly tap it into place.So after test fitting our carrier it looks like our taillight is in the way, so what we're gonna do is go inside our cab area or cargo area and pull out our taillight so we can fit on our carrier and then we can re-install our taillight after. So what we need to do once we're inside our cargo area is remove this little trim piece, I'm gonna use a pry tool in order to pry that out. Once you take off that trim piece, it's gonna expose a bolt that's holding in our taillight. I'm gonna use the T40 Torx and the socket out of the JL toolkit again, and we're gonna go ahead and remove that bolt. Now, it's a plastic bolt, so be careful. We can remove that and go ahead and remove our taillight.So what we can do now is just pull back on our taillight, we can slide this wiring harness off of the taillight itself. These can be a little bit tricky. I usually use a flathead screwdriver to push this down and then we can kind of pull back on the harness at the same time. So I'm just gonna press down on here, pull back, and we can set our taillight aside and attach our spare tire carrier. With the taillight out of the way we can slide this on to the spindle. So what I just did was tap the bearing in place with a 36 millimeter socket, it's not uncommon to have to tap the bearing in, it's just gonna ensure that there's no play in the actual tire carrier. So once it is set in place, we can add the flat washer and the castle nut. What we can do now is install our flat washer and then our castle nut. After the castle nut is threaded on, we can tighten it down with a 38 millimeter socket. You can usually find that in an axle socket set.Last but not least, for the tire carrier spindle we can put in the cap. Once your plastic cap is in place and flush with the tire carrier, we can put on our taillight and then move to attaching the carrier to our tailgate. Then we can reinstall our bolt, you wanna make sure not to tighten it too much, it is spring loaded and it also is plastic, so it'll hold it in place with that spring. You just wanna make sure that you're not over tightening it. So I'm going to use the T40 Torx, tighten that up. Then we can put our tab back on and then we can move on to our tailgate.What we can do now is attach our plate that will essentially attach our tailgate to our carrier. So I'm going to use our factory bolts on three of the holes, these two outside holes and the most outside hole on the driver side. Then once those are in place, what we can do is grab our flat washer and our rubber bump stop. So once this is here, this is going to make sure that the carrier is sitting flush with the rubber bump stop and this is gonna absorb any vibration that's gonna happen through the carrier when you are driving or bouncing around on the trail. There is a provided bolt, gonna put that through, thread that into the tailgate as well. Now, we can tighten these bolts up with the 13 millimeter socket that we used to remove them, making sure that the plate is even. You don't wanna over tighten this because you don't want the bolt to go through the rubber. What we can do next is attach our mount. This is going to be the mount that's gonna hold our carrier. We're gonna use the smaller flange bolts. After we have our mount in place what we can do is tighten this up with 9/16 inch socket and wrench.What we can do now is prep our mount for install. So we are provided with two sets of studs, one for a JL and one for a JK considering that this higher carrier is also compatible for the JK model. We're gonna be using the JL studs and the 5 by 5 bolt pattern, making sure that this is oriented the correct way. You want this U shape facing up because this is gonna be placed over our bracket once we get to the tire carrier. So the bolt pattern that we're gonna do is the 5 by 5, so it's gonna be these two upper ones, and the one in the middle down here. So what I'm going to do is flip this over, and there's a couple of ways that we can install these studs. You can either hit it in with a hammer, which I'll show you in a second, or you can pull it through it with a lug nut, which I will also show you. The other way that you can pull a stud through is with a stud puller, specifically for a lug nut. Now, these are very easily accessible. You can find them online or in your local auto parts store. Essentially, how this works is you're gonna put the stud through the back just like we did with the other one, you're gonna put this over. This is gonna act as a bearing and spin with the lug nut, so you're not putting a ton of stress on the lug nut and essentially ruining the lug nut.So what I'm gonna do is just thread this on. Once it starts to spin with the lug nut, we can tighten down the lug nut like we would anything else. I'm gonna use a 21 millimeter socket and the 6 spline lug nut key. We can repeat that for the bottom one. Now, we're ready to install this on our tire carrier. So now what we can do is attach our mount to our spare tire carrier. I'm gonna start with the bolt on the side. You're gonna have two flat washers, a lock washer, and a nut. Same for the other side and the top here. Now, before you tighten it down, what I would recommend to do at this point is measure your offset or your backspacing for your wheel, make sure that it is going to fit here because you do have some adjustability with this, I am just going to set it at the farthest point out. So essentially, what you're gonna do in order to measure is measure from the hub or where this is going to mount on the surface of the wheel back towards the tire. So you wanna make sure that the tire is not gonna interfere with the carrier. Now that that's in place, we can go ahead and tighten that down.Now, we can tighten down the carrier. I'm gonna use a 5 inch extension and a swivel socket to tighten down the top bolt just because we have our two side bolts in the way here in the middle. So I'm gonna use a 19 millimeter wrench to hold this top nut still and then tighten it up from the bottom. Once that's in place, we can tighten up the side bolts using a 19 millimeter socket as well. Now, we're ready to connect our carrier to our tailgate. What we can do now is attach our Heim joint, I unthreaded it completely, one of the joints is reverse thread. So I'm going to take our provided bolt, send that on through, thread the nut onto the other side. I am gonna leave it loose until we attach the other side of the carrier.What we can do now is attach the other side of the Heim joint and then we can adjust it to where it sits flush up against our rubber bump stop. So essentially, what we're gonna do is just loosen the middle bolt, which is essentially gonna tighten up those Heim joints. You're gonna have jam nuts on there, so be mindful of that. So what we can do now is tighten down the jam nuts and the bolts. What we can do is take a 19 millimeter socket and wrench, tighten that up. And then we wanna make sure that we have full adjustability. So it looks like our bump stop is hitting our carrier. So what I'm gonna do is just loosen up the joint, make sure that this is able to completely open. That's where the tailgate maxes out. So now we can close it up and we can tighten down the jam nuts to where that's sitting right now. So I'm using a 19 millimeter wrench, and I'm just going to tighten those jam nuts into place.So that's gonna wrap it up for my review and install. Make sure you like and subscribe. And for more videos and products like this, always keep it right here at extremeterrain.com.

    Product Information

    Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation

    Features & Specs

    • Standard Width Rear Bumper
    • Excellent Build Quality
    • Matte Black Powder Coat Finish
    • Includes Heavy-Duty Tire Carrier
    • Features D-Lug Plates for Shackles
    • Bolt-On Installation
    • Five-Year Limited Warranty for Finish
    • Fits All 2018-2023 Wrangler JLs

    Description

    Premium Rear Bumper. Upgrade your Wrangler now and take your off-road machine a level higher by investing in this Iron Cross Stubby Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier. Constructed from premium materials and featuring heavy-duty D-Lug plates for shackles, this Rear Bumper comes equipped for the toughest trails out there.

    Swing Out Tire Carrier. This Iron Cross Swing Out Tire Carrier features a smooth operating handle that easily swings in and out for convenience. What’s more, the tire carrier itself is constructed out of heavy-duty steel, ensuring it can carry the heaviest of tires.

    Easy Bolt-On Installation. The Iron Cross Stubby Rear Bumper is designed to be easily installed with its bolt-on feature. What’s more, this Rear Bumper is designed to use your factory mounting points, removing any need to weld or cut anything.

    Premium Build Quality. Iron Cross understands what it takes to make products that will meet your demands, and this shows in the Iron Cross Stubby Rear Bumper. Expertly crafted out of premium materials and featuring a textured black matte finish, you can be sure that this Rear Bumper will last for years to come.

    Five-Year Warranty for Powder Coat Finish. To ensure satisfaction, Iron Cross bundled this Rear Bumper’s powder coat finish with a 5-year warranty that covers defects and similar problems. If you wish, you may check the manufacturer’s site to see further details.

    Application. The Iron Cross Stubby Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier is designed for use on all 2018-2023 Wrangler JL models.

    Freight Notes. Freight items can only be shipped within the continental 48 states, no expedited methods. What is freight shipping? Your Answers are Right Here!.

    Fitment:

    Iron Cross Automotive GP-2202

    CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov

    Installation & What's in the Box

    Installation Info

    What's in the Box

    • (1) Rear Bumper
    • Installation Hardware
    4.5

    Customer Reviews (11)

      Questions & Answers

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