anybody have any opinions of who makes a better Swing Away rear bumper.
Calmini or shrockworks.

i just wanna make sure i get the better one.
thanx

I have never seen the Calmini in person so I can't comment on that. I own the Skid Row swing away and it has been great so far, lots of features and great carring capicity, well designed. The shrock carries less but is a awesome design with a killer powdercoat. It is pretty much up to how much you want to spend and brand loyalty, they all do their job.

As noted above they will all do the job. One of the things that I like about my Calmini unit is that it has a bottom brace that ties the center part of the bumper to where your tire used to sit. I feel that this makes it a stronger unit for pulling, tugging, towing.

Doug

Doug can we get a picture of this piece

I was unaware that the calmini unit had anything underneath it in the way of bracing.

--I've got an '06 off road, so I don't know about your '02, but from what I've seen I would have to recommend Shrockworks as tops!!! --JIMBO

They will all do the basics as in move the tire out from underneath. Of course they will lock securely with ease of function.

Here are a couple shots of the Skid Row design.

The bumper has an additional bracing behind the outsied bends. I also has an additional piece of box steel welded behing the bumper for more strength.





Regardless of which bumper you get I would get the frame stiffeners from Skid Row. 18" long that tuck inside the frame. HUGE AMOUNT OF STRENGTH ADDED.

I'm on the road right now and won't be able to take any photos. Give Calmini a call and I'm sure they can set you up.

-Doug

Here is the plate.



You have to remove the device that holds the spare tire under the truck to allow the brace to fit. Not a big deal to remove.

From what I can see, all of the rear bumpers are pretty solid.

I like Skid-Row's frame stiffeners the best, as the angle iron is full length. The ease of mounting gerry cans and so forth is nice too.

I like Shrocks' 1" thick recovery points and 1/4" thick steel, and the way the swing is tucked close to the rear hatch to reduce departure angle.

Shrock's Hi-lift and Antenna mount is nice too.

I wish ALL of them had figured out a good way to wrap the corners, not to protect the stupid plastic pieces there, but to give some roll protection/support on lay over, etc.

If I had to pick, I'd go with Shrock...and if I needed to carry gas/water cans, I'd add an A to Z set of Skinnies....as they'd fit on the Shrock. (Taller wider thinner than conventional gerries...)

well thanx for all the info on the rear bumpers its a whole lot of stuff that companies don't tell you.
one more question though for anyone that has a skid bumper.
why is there such a large gap between the bumper and the hatch. is it because in the picture the bumper is on a lifted X???



i only have a pml on my X but i really don't like the gap.

You will get that with any bumper if you use a body lift

uhhhhhhhh...the Skid Row is pre-drilled to be adjustable for the 2inch body lift, not sure about Calmini, and I know you can order it that way from Shrock.
If you're looking at the exposed sheet metal between the tail gate bottom and the top of the bumper, that's because the OEM bumper has a trim piece that covers the sheetmetal that gets exposed by the Skid Row (once again, not sure about Calmini or Shrock)

Shrock bumper and 2" body lift; no gap.

This was the first prototype Skid Row bumper made for Pikachu's truck, since then Skid Row offers them for body lifted trucks as does Shrock.

I went with the Shrockworks rear bumper over the Calmini and the Skid Row. The Shrock is about $400 cheaper than the Skid Row(both with frame stiffeners) and the Shrock has much better powder coating than the Calmini(I've heard a lot of complaints about Calmini's paint) Plus, you can't beat Shrockworks' service, Jim's a great guy.

That gap wouldn't really be that noticeable since you have a black xterra with the skid row or shrock bumper, since they come in black.

that's something that never even crossed my mind. good point.

what are skinnies?

There wouldn't be any extra gap with just a PML anyway black X or not. The gap comes from a body lift when raising the body off the frame and leaving the bumper in the same spot on the frame. You don't mess with any of that with just a suspension lift including a PML.

The people with the S-R bumper seem to have a gap under the hatch even w/o the BL, it seems its just the way it fits.

The S-R tire mount does stick way out from the hatch...to leave room for gerry cans behind it, etc.

A to Z Skinnies...I have a pic of a bud with them somewhere...brb...



ok - here:





The red one is for gas, the white one is for water.

The Skid Row tire also slides in and out. So if you dont want to carry cans slide it in and put the pin back in. If you change your mind slide it out and put em back on.

Carlton, were those pics of your truck?

Holy rustbucket, batman! You need to get some fresh paint under there!

Rust.

Its a Calmini thing, you wouldn't understand.

Ok, I can not find those gerry cans any place. "A to Z" is just too common of a name.

hey how about a link for those skinnies, those are some sweet cans.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...ion=push&navCou nt=6&parentType=index&parentId=cat20153&id=0006060

Uh, huh huh...

If they held a bit more and didn't cost an arm and a leg those would make a great floor for a Load Warrior.

you guys are worried about the gap with the Skid Row bumper? just paint that part of the body the same color as the bumper. eric at skid row can even tell you what color of painter's touch matches his powdercoating.

in my opinion skid row is the way to go. my bumper is like a swiss army knife. it's the most versatile bumper out there for the xterra. besides the tire i can put on a jerry can, co2 tank, hi lift, cb antenna and axe and shovel.

Yeah - if you need to carry all that stuff out on the back of the X, the S-R unit is top notch....and its paint doesn't flake off.



I like the tighter tuck in/departure angle advantages of the Shrock unit myself, but I don't need to carry all that extra stuff way out back there, so it works for me.

Just to clarify, our bumper does come with frame stiffeners as std equipment.

They are 1/4" thick and 24" long.

Notice how much thicker the one on the right is.

Hey TJ, so what are looking at? OEM vs aftermarket?

Yeah - the OEM that came with the Nissan Tow Package are on the left, Shrock's are on the right.

New England road salt thinks different. I did not touch up some dings in the powdercoat and now it is coming off everywhere (my fault not Skid Row's). POR 15 party this summer :rolleyes: .

Yeah - it was a reference to one of the OTHER manufacturers, the who who I otherwise like, but who is being robbed blind by their powder coater.

I've got a few quarts of that and chassis coat. It's hard to make the time to apply it since it takes a few days to cure.