don't forget to consider the tax on your suspension with all that heavy equipment, no matter which brand you go for.

also... why does everyone say Hi-Country's products aren't "finished" looking? the ones in the picture look great, do they just not make the ones for sale as pretty?

 

apcollin - Going to Hi Country tomorrow to investigate that very question. I'll post what I find. I'll try to get some pictures if I can also.

 

I have the Equipe. Some people hate it. I like it. I like RTE/Equipe the best. Have never seen a Hicountry in person so can't comment. Arbs' ehh. For how much they cost I would rather get a RTE. ARB only if you can get an awesome deal on one.

 

ap-collin - Yeah.. I have recently installed the HD OME setup so I should be good.

AK Rover - Let me know what you find out.... (do you know if they do installation as well?)

 

I emailed Hi Country last week and they do offer installation. $75/hour shop rate. Rear bumper and tire carrier take 2.5 hours to install and front bumper take 1.5 hours according to their salesperson. Obviously installation includes removal of original bumpers.

 

i say get a rovertym bumper and slickrock fabrication rock sliders. i just put on a rovertym a-bar bumper and it makes my old arb bumper look like tin.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...a/IMG00269.jpg

 

What did you use to black out your hood? Did you go with paint or the giant "Sticker"?

 

Made the drive out to Evergreen this morning. Got out there about 10 am and there was no one around. Door was locked and no lights on. Needless to say I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone but there was a D2 there with front and rear bumpers and sliders. Unfortunately I could not find my camera this morning so I also wasn't able to get pictures.

My opinions:

Front bumper looks like a clone of the Rovertym front. Adds better approach angles and a place to mount a winch. Welds seems clean and solid but paint looks cheap. Looks like they just spray it with a hammered finish paint. Appears to be applied thick to stand up to abuse though. Don't know if that is the standard finish on all their bumpers or just that particular one. The vehicle I saw the bumper on had obviously had some kind of impact on the passenger side and pushed the entire bumper to the driver side about 1/2 inch but was not bent anywhere. Overall seems pretty solid and would be a good solid bumper for an off-road toy. If the paint finish is a determining factor then I would stay away from Hi Country. I also don't care for the fact that there is no place in the bumper for the factory marker light.

Sliders are solid and provide a little bit of a step if you have tiny feet. The vehicle I saw had obviously seen a lot of off-roading and the sliders didn't seem damaged other than a little paint damage.

Rear bumper looked very solid and wraps around the side of the vehicle all the way to the rear of the wheel wells and acts as a slider for the rear end. Definitely heavy duty and has the same paint finish as the front bumper and sliders. The worse part of the rear bumper is that the factory indicator lights look like an after thought in the bumper. The opening isn't cut to match the shape of the light quite right so little gaps show around the edges of the lights. I'd recommend having the recovery points added and skip the indicator lights in the bumper.

Overall, as I have said before, I think that they are good solid bumpers and sliders. The paint finish is the only area that I see a short coming in quality if you stay away from the indicator lights in the rear bumper.

Interesting side note about my scouting trip. Heading up I-70, up Floyd Hill (about 6 miles of 6% grade), I had to down shift the Rover into 3rd gear to keep the transmission from hunting for the right gear. Coming back into town, coming down Floyd Hill the Rover pretty much coasted except for the occasional downshift to slow the truck on some of the curves. When I got to the bottom I noticed that my temperature gauge, which never went above middle on the way up, had dropped outside the area considered normal operating temperature. Once I was back on C470 heading toward Highlands Ranch it came back up to normal and didn't move again.

 

that's really annoying that they werent there since their website lists hours...

Thanks for posting your info from the reconnaissance mission... I think I am inclined to give the local guys a shot... plus with front and rear bumpers and sliders, the shipping alone will save me some (although it might be canceled out with sales tax.) And a front and rear bumper as well as sliders is about $800 more from rovertym (plus shipping difference)....

 

ROFL are you smoking crack, or what?