RedRock Stubby Winch Front Bumper Review

I’ve wanted a narrower front bumper for my Jeep JK for a while and recently pulled the trigger on the Stubby Winch Front Bumper from RedRock. Here I provided my initial impression of the bumper abnd explain why I chose it and how the installation went.

I’ll update this review after I’ve used the bumper for a time, but thought I’d share my initial hands-on impressions and experience installing it.

The gist: RedRock’s Stubby Front Bumper is solid choice for the price, easy to install, and comes with an integrated winch plate. It’s made of steel, so not as light as an aluminum bumper (which would be much more expensive), and you’ll may need to do some simple wire splicing to connect the fog lights to the wiring harness.

Pros

• Durable construction

• Low profile 

• Integrated winch plate

• Easy winch installation

• Includes recovery points

• Easy install

• Reasonably priced

Cons

• The fog light wiring harness doesn’t match JK connectors

• It doesn’t come with a fairlead

• Instructions for electric hookup lack detail

RedRock Stubby Bumper Features

RedRock makes versions of the stubby front bumper with and without a stinger. I chose a model without a stinger, but the bumper is otherwise the same, as far as I can tell. The name for the bumper on the Extreme Terrain website is RedRock Stubby Winch Front Bumper with LED Fog Lights.

There are at least a couple of general advantages to the RedRock stubby bumper (and similar bumpers) that appealed to me. The narrower bumper provides better clearance for the front tires when climbing up and down obstacles.

And stubby bumpers are typically lighter than full-width bumpers made of similar materials. They also look cool, in my opinion.

The RedRock bumper was easy to bolt onto the jeep, connecting to existing frame holes with four bolts on each side. As with any fully metal aftermarket bumper, you add weight compared to the stock JK bumper (which weighs about 27 pounds without the recovery hooks).

This RedRock stubby bumper with the fog lights weighs in at 91 pounds, but with that, you get a winch plate rated at 12,000 pounds and two D-ring recovery points rated to 9,500 pounds. I rarely need to use it, but a winch is a very useful piece of recovery gear when you do need it. And the D-rings points come in handy for many off-road recovery situations.

The winch plate is recessed, which allows the winch to sit inside the bumper. I own a cheap Harbor Freight winch that was easy to install with the provided bolts and holes in the winch plate.

A series of holes along the bottom front of the bumper allows you to get a wrench into the bumper (relatively) easily for bolting on the winch. The winch doesn’t come with a fair lead, so you’ll need to purchase one separately if you planning to install a winch.

My only frustration with the bumper was the wiring harness for the fog lights. The quick disconnects didn’t match those on my Jeep Wrangler, which is a 2015 Unlimited Rubicon.

I’m not sure if it has to do with the year of my Jeep, and haven’t had a chance to talk with the RedRock folks yet to figure it out.

I didn’t feel like going through the process of sending the bumper back to get one with the correct connectors, so I decided to go ahead and just cut off the quick disconnects and splice the wired directly, because

I’ll update this review once I’ve had a chance to talk with someone at RedRock about it. If you are interested in this bumper, I’d give RedRock a call to find out whether the wire connectors will match up with your rig.

Even with the electrical hiccup, I still think it’s a good bumper for the price. Someday, I’d like to get an aluminum bumper, just to lighten the overall weight being carried. But a similar aluminum bumper is a least twice the cost, so this one will do just fine for the time being.

Other posts on Jeep equipment you might find helpful:

How to Install a Light Bar on a Jeep Wrangler

Raxiom Light Bar Review

Jeep Wrangler Overlanding Build Guide