I believe it is an original, but I do not know how to tell. I bought it from @outono when he switched to the other slimline bumper.

 

This is the resurrected SG bumper which is why it fits both the D1 and D2. The original SG bumpers were specific to each model.

This particular bumper is one of the first they made with the new owners and it’s solid. I have an OG Safari Gard on my D1 and you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Later versions dropped in quality and ultimately they abandoned building more.

Below is the alleged history of SG as written by the new owner…

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I have researched this company for over a year and talked to numerous people about it, most of which don’t want to be involved or named. Take it for what you will. Honestly, about 70% of these people said something very close to or exactly this, “I don’t want to be a part of anything involving Casey Gray.” There are literal mountains of virtual evidence proving exactly how dishonest and criminal Casey Gray is, so there will not be any defamation here. You can find the information readily available online and form your own opinion from that. Here we delve into the history of Safari Gard (SG).

“Safari Guard” was registered on 12/30/98 in Temecula, CA by Greg Jevne. The name was amended to Safari Gard, Inc on 04/15/99. It was operated by Greg and Matt Jevne (brothers), Brandi Albright, and Mary Chadd until 2006 with the last corporate filing being 1/3/06. Products were primarily being distributed by Sterling Autosport in Murrietta, CA and West Coast Rovers (WCR) in Lake Forest, CA. In 2006-2007, with an international market expansion pending, Greg Jevne was injured in a rock crawling accident leaving him unable to complete fabrication work. The company, legally, went defunct. Enter Casey Gray. Casey purchased all the parts that were in stock. Greg gave Casey the welding jigs for SG with the agreement to find someone to use them to make more SG parts. As the SG parts were sold, a percentage of the income was to be used to purchase Safari Gard. Casey was to hire a lawyer to draft a purchase agreement for the business. No legal agreement was ever made/signed/notarized/filed and no money ever exchanged hands to purchase the business.

Between 2006-2008, Casey Gray hired Rodney Watkins, CPA to complete numerous corporate filings in multiple states under names to include: Grey Consulting Group, International Holding(s), Stronger Safer Smarter, S3 Inc, etc. Grey Consulting listed his one-year old son as his CFO and then girlfriend as the secretary. On 10/1/08, International Holdings listed David C Perfito of Rocco’s Oceanside Auto Service/American Reman in San Diego, CA as his business partner. They rented an industrial unit at 42110 Remington Ave, Temecula, CA 92590. In December 2008, various posts were made on different Land Rover forums insinuating a return of Safari Gard to market. On 1/12/09, Casey posted a “National Press Release” announcing the official return to market on all the major forums. David remained a silent partner, while Casey hired a few people to build/sell/ship the parts (one named Wyatt, last name unknown), while outsourcing the majority of fabrication because Casey didn’t fabricate the parts himself. Casey befriends Kep Wadiak who then touts SG products online and goes on numerous wheeling trips with him in early 2009. It is common belief, though unproven from witness accounts, that Kep helped make SG parts for Casey.

An unverifiable account of history by Casey puts him as out of the country and severely injured in late 2009. Scott Lewis of Sterling Autosport is now doing nearly all fabrication and shipping for SG. Eddie of WCR placed an order of ~ $25k with Casey directly to only receive about $2k in product, East Coast Rovers suffers around the same damage, and several retail customers placed orders never receive them. Kep Wadiak starts Tactical Rovers in 2010 and Casey reappears publicly at his shop threatening to sue him for copying SG products. The friendship ends and Casey resumes business with SG though sporadic through about 2011 according to posts on social media. East Coast Rovers (ECR) had the SG Defender front bumper shipped to Safety Devices in UK and copied with minor modifications and Casey threatened to sue them as well. Neither company was sued. Forums posts and witness accounts put the last verifiable sale of product in late 2009 to early 2010. Sporadic posts were made on Facebook up until 2016 and Instagram as recent as 2018, though almost none of them advertising business.

Now, for over 10 years people have been seeking out the old SG products and there have been several copies and variations of them made. I’ve always wanted them and had spoken to a few people about making my own. Then I had a few people that wanted me to make them stuff as well. I tracked down and purchased every SG part I could find and shopped them around several fabricators for reproduction costs. I figured if I was going to go this route, I should try and make it official. I spent 2 weeks tracking down Casey Gray and finally got a hold of him through his Facebook page for his run for Congress. On February 11, 2020 I spoke on the phone with Casey. He said he had $100k in inventory in warehouses in TX and CA and would be opening up for business after his congressional run. He declined to sell me any of it that day. I offered to buy the company or lease the name rights from him, he declined. He said he had sat at a table with ARB and walked away from a multi-million dollar deal with them, so he wasn’t interested in selling or leasing. He then went on to cuss me out, threaten to sue me, and made some very bold claims about a few other companies. Oddly enough, as we ended the conversation, he said that we might be able to work together in the future on some stuff.

The next day I followed up with the companies he made those claims about suing out of business and selling his products. I then spoke directly with Greg Jevne, the man who started Safari Gard in the 90’s. We had a nice long chat and I think Greg might be one of the nicest people I have ever spoken to. I discovered that Casey Gray did not and has not ever legally owned anything at all regarding Safari Gard. After consulting an attorney, it was verified that no patent, copyright, or trademark had ever been filed for Safari Gard, any product of Safari Gard, or nothing at all filed by Casey Gray or Greg Jevne. After discovering that there was no legal claim to Safari Gard or it’s products, on February 13, 2020, I incorporated Safari Gard LLC in Florida and applied for a federal trademark with the USPTO. Since then, I have made small modifications and improvements to all SG products in the process of CAD design so I can patent and protect them. The trademark has been published in the official gazette and I have also hired out new artwork creation, not reusing any of the original Safari Gard stuff. The brand is something that I believe is worth reviving and I’m going far out of my way to make my products available to the community. I have the resources and the ability to make this successful, so I am.

 

If you've been on FB with the new guy you'd have to agree he's difficult at best. Customer service in my experience was crap as well as his general attitude. I'm actually glad to see some of his products not being made anymore from a quality and price stand point. Powdercoating shouldn't be an issue at those price points esp when you have RTE and tactical rovers doing good and honest work.

 

Difficult at best is putting it nicely

RTE has real problems now. I would not give Simon anymore money. Took me over a year to get my money back after having already waited a year for a simple bumper. Told me he could only pay me back if new orders came in. Makes you wonder if the people that purchased after me ever got their product…

 

He was super backed up on bumpers for sure, had a buddy that it took over a year for. He got me an adjustable panhard bar basically overnight though a few months back so I have no complaints. I know he had some major issues with getting powdercoating sorted after a vendor closed or had quality issues for large items like bumpers. Small business is brutal but yea taking money and not having it to give back immediately is not a great look for sure.

 

It's good to know all this. The bumper I have, new or original SG, is a really well-made bumper with high quality powder coating. I really need to install it. Maybe weekend after next....

 

well, shoot. looks like options for a rear bumper with swing away are getting smaller. who is actually left that fabs these up and is reliable? i really need to replace the piece of **** rear steel bumper i currently have on that doesn't fit correctly.

 

I like my basic low-profile Dark Crow Designs rear bumper but Chris can build one that has rear tire swing-away as well.

 

thanks. I forgot about Dark Crow. i'll check them out.

 

Tracing my intermittent misfires in #1 and #8, I made a new harness at the injectors and decided to just open it up and confirm. I think pins on plug for #1 backed out and look deformed a bit and all the way at the firewall I discovered the main harness grommet through the firewall to computer was missing and just a lot of tape and the #8 wire is cracked. I wonder if it was occasionally grounding out on firewall. I'm going to run my own harness with new fresh wire and new ground. I found the common ground and it's just a crimp on 10 grounds to make it into 1, so I feel better doing the same with the new harness.