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Pro's vs. Cons of a front bumper

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11K views 19 replies 15 participants last post by  MN Mav  
#1 ·
Hello everyone,
I'm on the fence about adding a front bumper to my X3 XRS and I thought I would ask for some opinions of you experienced riders with bumpers.

I'm doing mostly desert trail riding with some rock crawling (will go to Moab soon), will go to the dunes, and a little forest riding. I'm adding the S3 gusset and bulkhead, but still on the fence about the S3 front bumper simply because of the extra weight and it does hide some of that aggressive front end look of the X3 I like so much.

I saw an X3 in a shop the other day that did a 30' foot front end drop over a dune and the guys is lucky to walk away unhurt. He had a stock X3 with a lot of front end damage, maybe totaled, so it got me thinking to start adding more protection up front. I also had a friend of a friend who died at the dunes from a 70' drop front end landing. The steering wheel caved his chest in on that one I'm told. That poor guy was his first day of riding a new machine, not an X3.

So what are some of the pro's vs. cons of adding a front bumper to the X3?

Thanks
 
#3 ·
Sucks about the crashes but a stout front bumper on the front of a canam will just push the bumper through the radiator and create more damage. The Canam does fold up and is mostly junk after a hard crash. Putting a strong front bumper will only make it worse, not like a front end crash without a bumper will be much better.

Just make sure you have 5 POINT harnesses and you are secure in you car. These newer cars are stupid fast and require more talent than older model to drive and keep you out of trouble.
 
#7 ·
The Dune front bumper is aluminum and weighs nothing. It isn't for crashes, its to mow over the occasional bush etc without the front plastic taking the hit. Also, pretty hard to mount lights anywhere up front without a bumper. If you want some crash protection I think the S3 and maybe some other bumpers have kickers that go back to the sway bar mount. I'm guessing these are mostly made from steel though and weigh more but maybe not.
 
#10 ·
I use bumpers on my UTVs that I desert race with, but not the UTVs that I trail ride with. But, having said that, my last race UTV was a Rzr XP Turbo, and in the four races I entered with it I never needed to use the bumper to "bump" another UTV to get them to move over. With a little patience you can usually get around without the "bump". The front bumper is very handy for times when you have to hit a big bush at high speed though. You usually want to hit the bush front dead center, so the tires don't have to go over it and risk a flat tire. So the bumper takes the hit. I can't count how many bushes I've hit at 70+ mph, but I know I wouldn't have wanted the plastic grille to take that.

On this UTV (X3 XRS) I haven't for sure decided if I'm going to desert race it or not. But I probably will, so I decided to go with the Lonestar color matched front bumper. It looks like it will be good enough for what I have in mind, and I don't have to worry about the front end plastic as much.
 
#12 ·
These are all some good an interesting comments. I never thought about mowing over bushes but I haven't owned my X3 long enough for that to happen yet. I was basically just looking for more protection up front around the grill in case I do wreck into something. I do have the 4 point harness, I didn't even know they made a 5 point. Any good recommendations on that?

I didn't realize the Can Am dune bumper was made from aluminum. I will try and get some spec weights to compare.