Well, although I am not 100% pleased with the fit of MY tactical rovers rear bumper, I am pleased to be the very first LR3 with a LEFT side tire carrier swing arm.

Other customers have had great success with Eric and Tactical, and it would appear that any flaws in MY particular bumper are not found in most. I am not here to complain, this post is to commend Tactical for taking the time to build me what I requested.

I wanted the tire on the left for the following reasons; first off, the 'drop' in the rear glass remains free of obstructions (with the seats down, there is good visibility out the extra bit of glass); second, this will place the jerry can holder I am building on the same side as the fuel filler for the vehicle.

Things to keep in mind if you are interested in a left side tire carrier include:

* First of all, the license plate (number plate) must be relocated from behind the tire. How you mount it and provide lighting for it is your discretion.
* The light bulbs no longer functioning for license plate lights should be removed to comply with DOT lighting rules (I think).
* Having the tire on the left could interfere with a rear ladder.

concept



Finally carrying a spare after four years of not even having one




full access, even with only one hand.

 

Looks awesome. I'd much prefer the tire in that position as you did. As for fitment issues -- almost everything has that suffering for off road steel. I have heard rumors of "it just went right on" but I've never seen it. Of course, I build most of my own stuff, which helps.

Dave aka Ghan

 

I always felt the tire was on the wrong side because of the window drop. The original Disco has the drop because the tire is on the other side...

 

since you brought it up and I'm considering the Tactical bumper, why are you not 100% satisfied with the bumper fitment? What specifically is wrong with it?

 

sorry for the late reply,

I feel as though something went wrong during the assembly of my particular bumper as the front "wings" that slide in under the quarter panels are too close together. The only way to explain this clearly is through pictures.





with the bumper lined up at the top corners (by the tail light assemblies) the "spacers" were too long, and would not allow the bumper to move up under the quarter panel.






After emailing Tactical the only option without cutting up and rewelding the whole thing was to grind down the spacers.






The spacers were a certain length for a reason, now with the shortened spacers, there is a gap between the bumper and fender flare. This is why I believe that the parts were fabricated as usual, but there was something wrong during assembly.

 

I had an issue with my Tactical 4X4 bumper and Eric, his wife and son came to my home to trade it out for a new one. They have excellent customer service and I would recommend them to anyone. As we were discussing in the assembly phase in my garage, not all LR vehicles are exactly the same, as much as we would like to think that they are and occasionally 'one size fits all' is not going to work.
Good to hear you were able to adjust the bumper to work for you.

 

I hear you about not all LRs being the same. My ARB didn't fit at all, and ARB's response was basically 'uh, sorry'. Luckily with a little cutting/welding I got it to fit.

When we built my rear bumper it seemed like nothing was symmetrical from side to side. Since we literally built it on the truck everything fits fine, but I don't know how you could have just jig-built it and got it to fit multiple trucks.

I too recommend Tactical, though mostly their sliders. If I every had a reason, I'd ditch my ARB front and pick up their front instead as well, but I'm not annoyed with the ARB to that $$ point yet.

 

I guess I was fortunate with my ARB front bumper fitting well. The Warn VR12000 winch also went in with out any issues. Several friends came to help with that and each person taking on a part of the assembly. Only issue that arroz was even though we followed the directions very closely, the rubber pieces were not included in the assembly directions and I had a very difficult time with the install of them after the bumper was on the vehicle.
The new Tactical rear bumper is a perfect fit with proper distances and clearances all around, but it was installed by the folks that made it. There were a few tips that they showed us (group of friends again) that would be good to know if ever I should be involved with another install.

 

I should state my main complaint with my ARB isn't so much the fit - once I got it on it's on so I'm over that. It's the function. It sticks out WAY too far and hurts approach angles. It also has HORRIBLE winch access, making you reach down through that tiny little hole to get to the clutch release. With my less than top of the line Smittybuilt half the time I can't get enough leverage through that little hole to actually release it at all and I'm reduced to finding some t rail-side stick to try to pry the handle around with where if I could actually get my whole hand on the lever I'd be able to move it fine. All in all, I'd describe it as 'light duty' or perhaps to put it more kindly 'overlanding' as opposed to heavy duty heavy duty or rock crawling bumper.

 

Probably too late for you since you have taken off the OEM bumper (as it is for me) but I have friends that are installing 'hidden' winches in the OEM LR bumper. This does not change any distance from the vehicle or approach angles. I must confess that I do not understand how they fit or work.
Something to consider for others that want to do heavy duty off roading or rock crawling in their LR vehicles.
My goal is 'overlanding' and not serious rock crawling...gave that up after I sold the MOG...so the ARB type bumper works for me...and yes, that hole is a bit small. If I discover it causes me continued concerns I will take my plasma cutter to it and enlarge the thing.