Lod Rear Bumper & Tire Carrier installed

BillArnett

New member
Yesterday I finished up installing my LoD Jeep JL shorty rear bumper & tire carrier with the optional license plate holder, camera relocation kit and parking sensor relocation kit. All in all, it’s a very nice product: nice looking and very sturdy. But the installation did not go smoothly. There are a number of omissions and ambiguities in the instructions. So here are a few notes that may be of use. Read all the instructions and these notes and make sure you understand what is happening before starting the job.

Some of the photos show a JK; it’s different but it doesn’t matter. The diagram to remove the stock bumper shows the steel one; the plastic one is different. Removing the parking sensor wiring harness from the plastic bumper is a PITA. Remove a zillion screws to separate the main parts of the bumper then remove the sensors and harness with a zillion “christmas tree” fasteners; carefully cut off the fasteners.

If your LoD bumper is powder coated you may find that some of the captive nuts have gunk in them. Use a bolt to clean them out. Do this before you try to install the parking sensors or it will be very difficult to get the screws started.

Don’t forget to remove the stack trailer hitch electrical connector and to disconnect its wire. The instructions say to reinstall it on the LoD bumper after the bumper is on the Jeep but it would probably be easier to do first, the nuts would be easier to reach.

There’s a piece of rubber trim included with the license plate relocation kit but no instructions about what to do with it. It’s important! It goes on the rough edge of the license plate holder to protect the paint on the corner of the Jeep.

If you’re installing the license plate lights, wire them up before installing the bumper. :)

If you’re installing fog lights run their wires before installing the bumper.

The bumper is a very tight fit onto the frame rails. It’s very easy to get it stuck if it isn’t exactly parallel with the frame. Using a jack to hold it is a good idea. I did it by hand and it wasn’t fun.

When assembling the big tire carrier bearing the instructions are ambiguous about which way to install the bottom seal. It goes with the open end toward the inside, toward the bearing; the flat closed side goes on the outside.

When installing the top bearing it may not go all the way down easily unless the arm is perfectly parallel. But if it’s almost right you can use the big washer and nut to squeeze it into place. But be gentle!

The “alignment guide” has to line up with the latch plate. Use the third hole up from the bottom. It’s critical to get it just the right height or the tail gate won’t close smoothly. Several iterations moving it just a millimeter or so each time may be necessary.

Measure you wheel/tire to determine which position to install the actual tire carrier (the part with the lug studs). You want the distance between the mounting face and the main part of the tire carrier to be just a little less than the distance from the outside of your tire to the mounting flange.

I put a big washer on the quicklatch to make it easier to operate:


The instructions for the camera relocation kit fail to mention that you have to remove the big plastic trim piece on the back inside quarter (the one that holds the subwoofer if you have one). This is a PITA. Instead, I drilled at 5/8” hole just forward of where the tailgate stopper arm goes thru. This gives access to the same space behind the tail light. Fishing the camera cable thru wasn’t too hard. Make sure you have the small white connector on the inside of the tailgate and the larger pink one on the outside near the camera. Fish the white end up from the outside.

When securing the camera wiring to the arm be sure to avoid the spot where the lower bump stop hits. Make sure to leave enough slack near the pivot so that it doesn’t bind throughout the tailgate’s range of motion.

The kit comes with 10ft of braided cable sheath but there’s no instructions about it and it’s impossible to get it over the connector. I used a piece of split tubing instead.

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It's not really as hard as it sounds. And the good news is that after it's all done my tailgate closes just as smoothly as it did stock, nothing rattles going over bumps and I don't have to worry about that big tire messing up my tailgate. :)
 

LoD Offroad

Advertiser
Supporter
Thanks for the feedback BillArnett! We've already started a review of the Destroyer Tire Carrier Instructions and plan to address some "ambiguous" areas you mentioned. We agree, removing the rear bumper and the interior trim in the passenger rear corner can be a pain! Your Jeep looks awesome with those Coopers! :rock:
 

haddixj

New member
Does the tailgate open and swing the tire with it or do you have to dis-engage the tire carrier first then open the tail gate?
 

BillArnett

New member
Does the tailgate open and swing the tire with it or do you have to dis-engage the tire carrier first then open the tail gate?

It works either way. The tailgate and the carrier are connected by the jackscrew that’s shown in the last picture in the OP. Normally they both open together but if you want you can release the jackscrew and operate them separately. Nice idea. But it rattles a little bit when they’re opened together. Not a big deal; much more important is that there are no rattles when it’s closed. (Hmmm, maybe I could adjust it to eliminate that rattle; I’ll check on that tomorrow...)
 

tx_ovrlnd

New member
By far my favorite bumper/tire carrier combo for the JL. I only have two gripes: low hanging trailer plug location that can hopefully be turned 90 degrees backwards and tucked up out of the way with little work, and the license plate not being located on the swingarm or somewhere else further away from the edge of the corner. Thanks for showing some more angles of the setup in your pictures, it looks great on your Jeep!
 

BillArnett

New member
By far my favorite bumper/tire carrier combo for the JL. I only have two gripes: low hanging trailer plug location that can hopefully be turned 90 degrees backwards and tucked up out of the way with little work, and the license plate not being located on the swingarm or somewhere else further away from the edge of the corner. Thanks for showing some more angles of the setup in your pictures, it looks great on your Jeep!

For the most part, I agree on both points. But the license plate holder is pretty robust; I don't think it will be as much of a problem as the stock one was on the JK. It's all metal and angled on the front side so it will take a pretty big hit to cause any real damage. I do expect it to get scratched up from encounters with brush, though. And I don't care :) As for the trailer plug, it too is pretty robust and though it may be the lowest thing on the bumper it's still pretty high. I'm sure it would be possible to relocate it farther up. Or you could just unplug it, remove the steel part and tuck the wires up out of the way.
 

mer43

New member
May I ask, how many attachment bolts did they use?

Four, on the sides of the frame, or six or more bolts, similar to the stock bumper?
 

BillArnett

New member
May I ask, how many attachment bolts did they use?

Four, on the sides of the frame, or six or more bolts, similar to the stock bumper?

The LoD bumper is fastened to the frame rails with 4 bolts on each side plus 4 more on the cross member in the center. It is not going anywhere!
 

WranglerAz

New member
I am installing this same product. For the license plate relocation, the JLUR has two wires after the stock bumper is removed, one all black wire and one striped, white and (i think) black.

The LOD license plate LED lights have red and black wires, I assume red would be power.

How did you wire them up? I don't want to do it wrong.
 

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