In my last article I covered the Smittybilt XCR8 winch and Viking synthetic Combo Line for my JK Rubicon Unlimited. This has been a great combination and has served me well. The winch is adequately strong and the line is an excellent safety addition, not to mention being lighter and safer to handle. But even with all those great attributes, the winch’s pulling power can’t do much without a solid attachment point. A good and strong bumper was definitely needed.

When I started looking at bumpers I was happy to discover that there are a lot of choices available out there. Without even looking hard I was able to find 34 different bumpers available for the JK owner. I am sure that many more choices exist if you are willing to look.

With so many choices available I definitely needed to narrow my search criteria. Only two things were mandatory. I wanted a stubby style bumper and the bumper had to make provisions for the OEM fog lights. The initial cull down was easy. My wife tells me my search was akin to Goldilocks and the Three Bears: This one is too wide, this one is too simple and this one is just plain butt ugly! In all seriousness though, with those two requirements, the field was narrowed considerably.

With just a few choices remaining, my final decision boiled down to looks, function, and price. I didn’t want something that just looked the part. That is useless in my eyes and as I see it, a total waste of money. Without question whatever I chose had to be strong enough to handle trail abuse. Finally, it couldn’t cost the Jeep equivalent of the Taj Mahal. When I finally found the bumper that met all the above, I knew I had my winner. Enter the Rock Hard 4x4 Parts Shorty winch bumper.

Two versions of the Rock Hard Shorty are available. One is where the winch is recessed into the bumper and has no provisions for the OEM fog lights. The second, and the one I chose, allows you to mount a winch on top of the bumper in front of the grill and includes mounting points for the OEM fog lights.

One of the things that Jeep incorporated into the JK Rubicon models is an electronic swaybar disconnect. The motor that controls the disconnect function is tucked up behind the bumper and is protected by a rather thin bar that is incorporated into the JK’s frame. The replacement cost of a damaged swaybar disconnect motor is steep, as in four figures to the left of the decimal place steep! Obviously this is not a part that you want to be bashing into the rocks. Unfortunately the bar that Jeep incorporates into the frame to protect the swaybar motor just doesn’t look like it’s going to help you a whole lot.

The OEM frame rails do very little to protect the swaybar disconnect motor.	The Rock Hard Shorty bumper comes in two versions and we picked the one with recessed fog light mounts.

Rock Hard has solved this problem. They designed the Shorty bumper to taper backwards, allowing for maximum approach angle possible without altering your Jeep’s frame. A flat section at the bottom of the bumper protects the swaybar disconnect motor and also gives you a good smooth surface to slide over rocks with until your wheels reach the obstacle.

Made of 1/4” steel there’s no question that the Rock Hard Shorty Bumper is stout. It weighs in at roughly 100 pounds and by all indications is strong enough to handle most anything you can throw at it. It has certainly handled everything I’ve thrown at it without any complaint at all. The bumper has a hoop that protects your winch from any potential damage and two mounts for D-Rings. The mounts are 5/8” x 2-1/2” and have holes to accept a 7/8” pin.

The OEM fog lights mount inside the bumper on the back of recessed tubes. Rock Hard says this is to protect the fog lights from any damage. I’m not sure if the lights need to be recessed that much, but I’ve noticed essentially no reduction in light output.

Weighing in at just over 100 lbs the bumper definitely takes two people or a jack to mount. It comes predrilled for most popular winches and our Smittybilt winch fit just fine.	Made of 1/4-inch plate, the Rock Hard Shorty bumper is very beefy and can tak a bashing. The tapered design also maximizes ground clearance.

I mentioned above that Rock Hard offers two versions of the Shorty bumper. If you choose the recessed winch version and do not have a winch to mount in it you’ll be left with a pretty substantial hole in the top of your bumper until you get a winch to fill that hole. With the top mount version of the Shorty you don’t have this problem.

The top mount Shorty is pre-drilled with standard winch mount holes and Rock Hard supplies two angle brackets to support the fairlead. If you choose not to mount a winch right away the bumper can be run without the brackets for a clean look.

The bumper came with mounting hardware but no instructions. Supplied were bolts, flat washers, lock washers, spacers, and lock nuts, along with screws to mount the fog lights. When I looked at the frame mounts and bumper it appeared that the spacers were not necessary. With a bit of head scratching wondering in what order to place the hardware I finally called Rock Hard to verify.

It turns out that the spacers are needed to allow room for the winch to mount. The bumper could probably be mounted without them, but if you did, your winch and grill would be occupying the same space at the same time and unless you can manipulate quantum physics better than I can that typically doesn’t work out well. 

Mounting the Shorty isn’t all that hard. It is heavy so have a floor jack and/or a friend to help you lift it into place. As for the hardware sequence, according to Rock Hard 4x4 you should install your hardware in this order: bolt, flat washer, bumper, spacer, frame, lock washer then lock nut. Working around the swaybar motor makes things a bit tough, but it’s nothing that can’t be handled with some minor contortion. If you’re so inclined a little “colorful” language may help to help motivate those pesky nuts and bolts into submission.

The Roc Dog license plate frame allows for easy mounting of the front license plate over a roller or hawse fairlead.

Rock Hard didn’t provide any provision for mounting a front license plate. Unfortunately the state where I live requires one. I thought about how I was going to mount a plate and didn’t like my options all that much. I figured that I could drill holes in the steel and mount it that way, or maybe I could zip tie it on. Neither option was all that appealing to me. Then I stumbled across the Roc Dog Fabrications fairlead license plate mounting frame.

The Roc Dog Fab holder consists of a steel mounting plate, hardware, and two urethane inserts that slide into your roller or hawse fairlead. I ordered the hawse type holder as that’s the type of fairlead I have. Once I had received and assembled the holder I discovered something I hadn’t expected. The Crush Proof thimble on my Viking Combo line prevented the holder from seating fully in the hawse.

I solved this by getting some spacers and rubber bumpers from my local hardware store. The spacers extended the urethane inserts just enough to allow the thimble to sit behind the holder/plate combination, and the rubber bumpers are long enough to keep the holder snug and tight against the fairlead.

The Roc Dog fab mount fits over the front fairlead but the Crush Proof thimble on our Viking line prevented the holder from fully seating in the hawse. A quick trip to the hardware store for some spacers solved the problem.	Roc Dog includes a tether to keep the front plate from being lost but we simply pull the entire plate off at the trailhead and then replace it once we are off the trail.

Roc Dog Fab includes a tether to keep the plate from being removed and being lost. I used this for a while but ultimately found it to be more trouble than it was worth. Now I simply pull the plate and holder assembly off once I reach the trailhead and stow it in back until it’s time to drive home. All in all I’m pretty impressed with Roc Dog’s plate holder. Even with a trip to the hardware store it’s a pretty clean solution to a pesky problem.

Life with the Rock Hard Shorty has been good. I have zero buyers remorse with this bumper. I’ve been very impressed with the quality and workmanship. There’s been no problem with the powder coating and despite numerous hits on rocks it looks no worse for wear other than the typical scrapes.

The only shortcoming I can find with this bumper would be the fairlead brackets. I’ve used my winch for numerous pulls and never had a problem. Then one day I got myself in a bit of a predicament. The trail was off camber and had a slippery mix of mud and rock. I was strapping another Jeep behind me that had broken on the trail. At one point as I was pulling the second Jeep I slid sideways on the trail to a point where any movement of the wheels just sent me into rocks and trees. We used my winch to get me out of there, but the pull required that the winch line be about 60 degrees off to the right of my JK’s centerline. After the run I found that the fairlead brackets had been bent back about 15-20 degrees from vertical, and that they had been bent off to the right as well.

Overall we are very pleased with the Rock Hard Shorty bumper and would definitely recommend it.	Our only issue with the bumper came when we bent the fairlead brackets on a hard angled pull. According to Rock Hard we are the first to ever bend the brackets.

Later I contacted Rock Hard about the brackets. The folks at Rock Hard were very concerned that they had bent at all. They asked that I send the brackets back to them so that they could see how they had failed. They promptly sent me a replacement pair of brackets. According to Rock Hard this failure is the first and only failure that they are aware of. If for some reason I twist this pair of brackets the folks at Rock Hard said that they would redesign the brackets so that the possibility of any future failures would be eliminated.   

So, would I recommend the Rock Hard Shorty Bumper to a friend? Without a doubt. Even with the fairlead bracket issue there is no question that Rock Hard 4x4 produces quality. This is the second Rock Hard 4x4 product that I’ve installed on my Jeep and I remain thoroughly impressed. There’s little doubt in my mind that I’ll take a strong look at Rock Hard 4x4 for future upgrades to my JK.