2025 Rear Bumper Retrofit Research

[Trist0n]

Howdy all, similar to my swing out tie down thread this is consolidating some initial research on potentially retrofitting the 2025 rear bumper onto the first gen sports

Particularly, I’m excited about the fact that it has steel plating and that it has real rear recovery points. My badlands now has the front hooks obviously so I’m happy there, but using a tow point adapter for the rear isn’t nearly as clean as the built in hooks

this is the 2021 rear bumper for comparison

This is the 2025 “HEAVY Duty” rear bumper.

Off the bat it’s excellent to see that everything should bolt up the same. There don’t appear to have been any changes to the subframe it all bolts to (17906). The large orange bracket is different, but everything else (including the screw holes in the top of the bumper) appear the be the same. At the very least technically it should bolt right up!

Now, this doesn’t show how the actual tow points are structurally attached. I haven’t been able to find a bumper part that actually shows the tow points. This makes sense, given that only non-SAS or black diamond ones appear to be getting delivered, so we wouldn’t see that part yet. My running theory is that the tow bar is the key. See below:

As we know, tow package is now standard on 25’s, so they’ve all got them. It’s actually the same part as the first gen. There is only one 25 tow bar on the parts page at the moment, and it specifically calls out “less rear tow hooks”. My thinking is that the tow points are a part of a new tow bar assembly, and protrudes through the rear bumper when optioned.

This would make sense, given that if you DONT have the rear hooks then the rear tow hitch with an adapter is rated for recovery.

Would love to hear some others thoughts on this!

 

[Cheito]

Interesting. I hope this is the same for the front bumper as well!

 

[Trist0n]

Interesting. I hope this is the same for the front bumper as well!

it should be similar; I actually like the first gen front bumper so I haven’t planned on it, but from a quick scrub the headlight part remains the same, and a lot of the mountings look very similar. The headlight was what I was most worried about for the front

 

[Mwittke5857]

Looks like a LOT of parts (and $$) to do the swap. As I've always said, given enough time and $$, anything is possible. I'll be waiting a few years till a few get totaled, and perhaps look into getting parts out of a salvage yard (which is typically 50 cents on a dollar). Easier swap by the looks of it, no welding as would be required for retrofitting front hooks to earlier non BL rigs, just bolt-ons

 

[Trist0n]

Looks like a LOT of parts (and $$) to do the swap. As I've always said, given enough time and $$, anything is possible. I'll be waiting a few years till a few get totaled, and perhaps look into getting parts out of a salvage yard (which is typically 50 cents on a dollar). Easier swap by the looks of it, no welding as would be required for retrofitting front hooks to earlier non BL rigs, just bolt-ons

It’s really just the rear bumper cover, the orange bracket in the diagram, and potentially the tow bar. Everything else looks like the same. The rear at least is potentially simple

The FRONT is a lot of parts, since both the upper and lower parts of the bumper changed. On the first gen’s as well, the front tow hooks can technically be put in place, but they’re missing a welded support bracket that gives them their load rating. Won’t know about the 2nd gen until someone actually takes a look

 

[Trist0n]

FINALLY got a shot of a 2025 with the rear bumper off; it does indeed look like the rear tow hooks are bolted to the tow bar, which is in turn bolted to the frame (they’re probably actually the same bolts sandwiching the entire thing to the frame).

This tracks given that the rear crash bar has always been boron steel bolted to the frame or the tow bar sits in place of the crash bar and is recovery rated.

Two options here; swap the entire rear bumper, or just swap the tow bar and modify the existing bumper to fit the fascia for the tow hooks. Either way I’m fully confident this is an easy swap to get some rear built in hardpoints

Sponsored