Smittybilt SRC Gen2 Rear Bumper (07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK)

Video Review & Installation

I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com and this is my review of the Smittybilt SRC Gen2 Rear Bumper, fitting all 2007 to 2016 JKs. If you're looking to swap out the factory rear bumper on your Jeep with one that's going to add some more features, some additional style, and some more protection, I would recommend taking a look at this bumper. This SRC bumper is going to be a little bit wider than Smittybilt's XRC Generation 2 bumper because this has some additional tubes welded on the sides and they're just going help to protect the tub by wrapping around the side of the Jeep a little bit more. These Beneration 2 bumpers are a little bit more expensive than Smittybilt's past generation bumpers, but you would expect that with something that's new and a bumper that has as many features as this one has. As far as construction goes, this bumper is built really solidly. It's three-sixteenth-inch steel, it's covered in a textured black power coat finish, and it's just really solid. It's really heavy and it seems to be very, very well built. From a features standpoint, it has spots for D-ring mounts right here that are, of course, welded all the way through and bolt directly on to the frame rails, giving you plenty of strength for any recovery. Right here in the middle, we do have a two-inch receiver that is class three rated, so it is tow rated, you can pull a small trailer with it. However, the Jeep itself isn't rated for a ton of towing capacity, so that is going to be your limiting factor. If you have a four-door you're going to be limited to 3500-pound towing capacity with 350-pound tongue weight capacity, and the two-doors are limited to 2000-pound towing with a 200-pound tongue weight capacity. So, there are some additional recovery points on the back of the Jeep for the D-rings and also the receiver hitch. Right here you have two slots for cutouts that will allow you to run reverse lights, and the reverse lights come with the bumper. That is a really nice feature. Some bumpers have cutouts for reverse lights but they don't include the lights, so that's gonna leave you shopping for a light that fits in the spot available and spending the additional money for the lights. With this setup, everything comes right in the box, you know it's gonna fit and you don't have to put out the additional money for lights separately. On top of that, this bumper does have a nice large cutout here, so if you are running a large spare tire on the factory location, you won't have to worry about the bumper contacting the tire when you open and close the tailgate. If you do want to run a tire carrier on this bumper, you can. The Smittybilt XRC Generation 2 Tire Carrier will fit on this bumper. There are two plates right on top of the bumper here. You'll remove both of them. This one here will give you access for a mounting hole so that you can put all of the brackets for the pivot point for your tire carrier and you can run the tire carrier with this bumper. As I mentioned, one of the biggest styling cues on this bumper are the wraparound tubes on the side that do provide some additional protection, but on top of that, you have these plastic panels that are on the bumper. Now, those aren't covering up holes, there's actually solid steel behind them. So really, they're more of a styling cue than anything. But those are a ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, which means they're going to be a very strong plastic, they're not going to fade in UV light with the sun, and if you do end up rubbing them on a rock, of course, they may gouge, but they shouldn't crack, they'll be very strong. So, all of these features make for a bumper that is very functional but also looks a lot different than a lot of other ones on the market. This is gonna look great with your SRC Gen2 Front Bumper from Smittybilt or any other aftermarket bumper that you want to run. The installation for most aftermarket rear bumpers on a JK is pretty straight forward, and this bumper is going to be no different. The first step is to remove your factory rear bumper, which will be done by removing the two bolts in each frame rail and the two bolts that attach the factory bumper onto the crossmember. Once that factory bumper is out of the way, you can remove your tow hook if you have one, and then go to installing your new bumper. The first step in that process is to slide the nut plates inside of the frame rails. From there you can lift the bumper into place and put a couple of bolts through it to hold it there. After that, you'll attach the sandwich plate that goes on the back side of this crossmember, right in the middle on the backside of that hitch, giving you plenty of strength for towing and to use it as a recovery point. After that, all you have to do is tighten up those bolts and you're finished. The whole process should take about two hours or less and you won't need any specialty tools, just some hand tools. Of course, if you are going to be running the included lights, you'll want to install those into the bumper before you put the bumper on the Jeep, and they really just clip in, they press in from the back side. The lights do come with a really nice wiring harness that gives you the option to attach the wiring harness into your factory reverse light harness, making it so these lights come on every time you shift the Jeep into reverse. And you also have the option to run the lights off of a switch. So if you're loading, hauling, if you just want to have some more control over the lights, you can always turn them on and off with that switch. Now, the wiring can take you a little bit more time depending on how in-depth you want to get and how clean you want to run all the wires. These Generation 2 bumpers are a little bit more expensive than the first gen bumpers from Smittybilt, but I would expect that. There's more material here, there's more time that went into the design, and it includes the reverse lights, so there's definitely a lot more included. If you have the budget for it and you're looking for a bumper that has these features, has this styling, and offers this level of protection, I would definitely recommend taking a look at this setup. If you're also looking for a bumper that has a tire carrier, by the time you purchase this bumper and the carrier, you are going to be at the top of the price range for a bumper man and tire carrier setup. But again, if you like the features this offers, and you like the styling and it's in your budget, I don't have anything bad to say about this setup.So, if you're looking to upgrade your factory rear bumper to an aftermarket one, this Smittybilt SRC Gen2 is a great bumper to take a look at. From the recovery points, to the tow rating, to the reverse lights, to just the unique styling that this bumper offers, there are a lot of good things to say about it. I personally am not a huge fan of the plastic on the front of the bumper, but it definitely sets it apart from all of the other bumpers on the market. So, if you're looking for something a little bit different, this is a good bumper to check out. So, that's my review of the Smittybilt SRC Gen2 Rear Bumper, fitting all 2007 to 2016 JKs, that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com.