Zeus
Full Access Member
I’d like to preface this by saying that bashing Rogue is not a primary goal of this write up – although I experienced multiple problems, the director of sales was pretty responsive. There appears to be a communications disconnect between the sales and engineering teams at Rogue. My main goal here is to better inform all the people looking for a bumper, especially those considering the Rebel.
So, I started by ordering a Rebel bumper – I ordered it without side skins (those mesh or dimple panels), and to support a Rigid 40” RDS in the center and be tabbed for Rigid D2 lights on the sides where the skins were supposed to be.
When it arrived, I immediately noticed that, although it did not have skins on it, it did have the welded on frames to which the skins normally rivet (pic below). Also, there were no tabs welded on for the D2 lights.
After digging through the box, I found a couple of bolt on brackets that appeared to be in lieu of welded on tabs (pic below). Looked like a great idea as I could position the brackets where I wanted, until I realized an issue with them, but more on that later.
After talking with Rogue and hearing that there was a mix up with the order, they offered to build a new bumper sans skin frames and pay return shipping on the one I received, or, send me the skins. I didn’t want the skins. It was going to be 2-3 weeks before I received the new bumper. So, I asked them to cover the cost of refinishing the bumper after I cut the skin frames off and grind down the welds. This way would be cheaper for them and quicker for me. They agreed and refunded enough to cover that.
I did a mockup of the D2 lights with the included brackets and realized that the brackets were only for use on the lower tube as the bracket is part half pipe, sized for that tube (lower tube is 1.5” and upper tube is 2”). Rogue did it this way because screw heads would interfere with the truck’s valence if the bracket was bolted to the top tube.
The problem with using the bracket as intended, aside from Rogue forgetting to include the screws for it, is since the tube angles upward toward the fender, the surface you mount the lights on is then angled upwards toward the fender, rotating the lights along the long axis of the truck. It’s probably not visible behind the mesh skins, but I didn’t want to cut the light output by putting them behind mesh. The D2 driving lights also have a horizontal strip pattern that would be tilted when tilting the lights.
So, I ended up cutting the half pipe off the brackets, cutting a radius on there, then welding them onto the upper tubes. I also cut off the skin frames and ground down the welds.
I did a test fit up on the truck, but found another hurdle in the process. It turns out that you can’t get the Rebel bumper onto the truck without modifying the truck frame (the Rebel is supposed to be bolt on, unlike the Renegade where you cut the horns off). You have to cut a little more than one square inch out of the front of the frame (red circle in picture below) to allow clearance for the tube on the bumper where the skid mounts. If the cut’s not made, the box on the bumper will not clear the end of the frame (green circles in picture) because the tube impacts the spot where I cut before the box clears the frame.
I’m not sure how they didn’t find this issue during development – it would have completely prevented installing the bumper on a stock truck. Perhaps they tried it on a truck that already had a modified frame or just didn’t do a fit up with a prototype. It could also be a case where the development guys knew about the issue but it wasn’t communicated to the sales guys or something. It sounded like Rogue will make it clear to new customers that this will be necessary after I told them about it.
I got the bumper sprayed. I went with Line-x instead of powder coat. The skid plate comes with Line-x from Rogue even when you order a black powder coated bumper, so I figured it would look best to match it.
I mounted the bumper on the truck. The belly plate (not front skid) has welded-on nuts for the front holes that mate to the bumper frame. The rear holes are empty, intending for you to reuse the bolts and clip nuts that come with the truck. However, the welded-on nuts on the front of the plate aren’t that same size…. and they didn’t include the bolts for those with the bumper. I told Rogue and they shipped the hardware.
I went to mount the RDS light, and bam… another problem. The brackets that come with the RDS are not usable here, and Rogue hadn’t included new brackets with the bumper, despite me stating I’d be using that light when ordering. I told Rogue and they “expedited” them to me. After receiving the brackets a day short of a week later (so not really expedited), I discovered that they don’t work either. They weren’t long enough and the light would bottom out on the bumper before the brackets would (the light is deeper than the brackets).
I sent the info to Rogue. A couple days later, they told me that they confirmed it does not work and that they’d have to make new brackets. It seems they had never installed a Rigid RDS onto one of these bumpers before and assumed the same brackets for their radius 40” light would work. Rather than wait for some time to get brackets that still might not work, I made some 5/16” spacers from bar stock I had laying around and got the light mounted.
Below is the end result. Although it looks ok, I wish it was easier and quicker to get here – the whole process has been over a month, and I still don’t have the correct light brackets (although my spacers work fine). If I knew before ordering what I know now, I would have gone another route. Actually, I’m a little ashamed of the “ROGUE” on the front skid now. I might have to cut that out or make a new skid without it.
On the plus side, I am very happy with the Rigid lights (not bought from Rogue).
So, I started by ordering a Rebel bumper – I ordered it without side skins (those mesh or dimple panels), and to support a Rigid 40” RDS in the center and be tabbed for Rigid D2 lights on the sides where the skins were supposed to be.
When it arrived, I immediately noticed that, although it did not have skins on it, it did have the welded on frames to which the skins normally rivet (pic below). Also, there were no tabs welded on for the D2 lights.
After digging through the box, I found a couple of bolt on brackets that appeared to be in lieu of welded on tabs (pic below). Looked like a great idea as I could position the brackets where I wanted, until I realized an issue with them, but more on that later.
After talking with Rogue and hearing that there was a mix up with the order, they offered to build a new bumper sans skin frames and pay return shipping on the one I received, or, send me the skins. I didn’t want the skins. It was going to be 2-3 weeks before I received the new bumper. So, I asked them to cover the cost of refinishing the bumper after I cut the skin frames off and grind down the welds. This way would be cheaper for them and quicker for me. They agreed and refunded enough to cover that.
I did a mockup of the D2 lights with the included brackets and realized that the brackets were only for use on the lower tube as the bracket is part half pipe, sized for that tube (lower tube is 1.5” and upper tube is 2”). Rogue did it this way because screw heads would interfere with the truck’s valence if the bracket was bolted to the top tube.
The problem with using the bracket as intended, aside from Rogue forgetting to include the screws for it, is since the tube angles upward toward the fender, the surface you mount the lights on is then angled upwards toward the fender, rotating the lights along the long axis of the truck. It’s probably not visible behind the mesh skins, but I didn’t want to cut the light output by putting them behind mesh. The D2 driving lights also have a horizontal strip pattern that would be tilted when tilting the lights.
So, I ended up cutting the half pipe off the brackets, cutting a radius on there, then welding them onto the upper tubes. I also cut off the skin frames and ground down the welds.
I did a test fit up on the truck, but found another hurdle in the process. It turns out that you can’t get the Rebel bumper onto the truck without modifying the truck frame (the Rebel is supposed to be bolt on, unlike the Renegade where you cut the horns off). You have to cut a little more than one square inch out of the front of the frame (red circle in picture below) to allow clearance for the tube on the bumper where the skid mounts. If the cut’s not made, the box on the bumper will not clear the end of the frame (green circles in picture) because the tube impacts the spot where I cut before the box clears the frame.
I’m not sure how they didn’t find this issue during development – it would have completely prevented installing the bumper on a stock truck. Perhaps they tried it on a truck that already had a modified frame or just didn’t do a fit up with a prototype. It could also be a case where the development guys knew about the issue but it wasn’t communicated to the sales guys or something. It sounded like Rogue will make it clear to new customers that this will be necessary after I told them about it.
I got the bumper sprayed. I went with Line-x instead of powder coat. The skid plate comes with Line-x from Rogue even when you order a black powder coated bumper, so I figured it would look best to match it.
I mounted the bumper on the truck. The belly plate (not front skid) has welded-on nuts for the front holes that mate to the bumper frame. The rear holes are empty, intending for you to reuse the bolts and clip nuts that come with the truck. However, the welded-on nuts on the front of the plate aren’t that same size…. and they didn’t include the bolts for those with the bumper. I told Rogue and they shipped the hardware.
I went to mount the RDS light, and bam… another problem. The brackets that come with the RDS are not usable here, and Rogue hadn’t included new brackets with the bumper, despite me stating I’d be using that light when ordering. I told Rogue and they “expedited” them to me. After receiving the brackets a day short of a week later (so not really expedited), I discovered that they don’t work either. They weren’t long enough and the light would bottom out on the bumper before the brackets would (the light is deeper than the brackets).
I sent the info to Rogue. A couple days later, they told me that they confirmed it does not work and that they’d have to make new brackets. It seems they had never installed a Rigid RDS onto one of these bumpers before and assumed the same brackets for their radius 40” light would work. Rather than wait for some time to get brackets that still might not work, I made some 5/16” spacers from bar stock I had laying around and got the light mounted.
Below is the end result. Although it looks ok, I wish it was easier and quicker to get here – the whole process has been over a month, and I still don’t have the correct light brackets (although my spacers work fine). If I knew before ordering what I know now, I would have gone another route. Actually, I’m a little ashamed of the “ROGUE” on the front skid now. I might have to cut that out or make a new skid without it.
On the plus side, I am very happy with the Rigid lights (not bought from Rogue).
