My VX on Superbumper.com's Facebook page...

[don moore]

ive got a wider on on my VX ..pic in my gallery.it save it ones ..it bent the crome bumper a little but saved the rear

[VX KAT]

ive got a wider on on my VX ..pic in my gallery.it save it ones ..it bent the crome bumper a little but saved the rear

Looks like yours is the "GoRhino" step bumper. I've got to admit, I like the look of the GoRhino bumper much better.

The big difference between the GoRhino (and others like it) and the Superbumper is the giant rubber donuts you can see that go around the outside of the stinger, as well as 4 big solid rubber plugs inside the stinger that you can't see. The inner rubber plugs compress up against the hitch pin in an impact accident, to further absorb it's energy.

The whole design is intended to absorb around 20 mph hit without transmitting any forces to the frame and up to the occupants….and thus no whiplash….and secondarily, to possibly prevent any physical damage to the back of the vehicle.
While I definitely like that it can prevent some physical damge to my VX, I like it even more for that 20mph or so protection …..to ME.
(and no I don't work for the company )

[don moore]

its a gorino....but did save the drivers side ..got a small scratch on the gorino.. it could have been worse. super should make a wider one

[VX KAT]

its a gorino....but did save the drivers side ..got a small scratch on the gorino.. it could have been worse. super should make a wider one

I was thinking about that too…I wish they did too. But I bet they can't get the same protection at the outer extremes of the bumper if they made it wider since the protection only really comes from the vertical part of stinger. Don't think they can get the energy from the outer edges channeled into the center good enough.

[tom4bren]

Actually Jeff only advertises the protection at 5 mph, not 20. I'm not sure what those numbers mean though. Maybe up to 5 mph the bumper will absorb all of the impact without damage to either the SuperBumper or the vehicle & up to 20 mph the SuperBumper is sacrificial but the vehicle sustains little or no damage.

Going wider on the SuperBumper is probably a no-go because the further away from center the impact is, then the more torque applied to the receiver bar (what KAT refers to as the 'stinger'). Basically the stinger would bend rather than slide into the receiver.

Below is a pic that Jeff used to have on his website showing the result of a solid hit on the bumper. IIRC pic was submitted by a customer after an accident (not me though).

[VX KAT]

Actually Jeff only advertises the protection at 5 mph, not 20. I'm not sure what those numbers mean though. Maybe up to 5 mph the bumper will absorb all of the impact without damage to either the SuperBumper or the vehicle & up to 20 mph the SuperBumper is sacrificial but the vehicle sustains little or no damage.

Going wider on the SuperBumper is probably a no-go because the further away from center the impact is, then the more torque applied to the receiver bar (what KAT refers to as the 'stinger'). Basically the stinger would bend rather than slide into the receiver.

Below is a pic that Jeff used to have on his website showing the result of a solid hit on the bumper. IIRC pic was submitted by a customer after an accident (not me though).

I wonder if he changed it on the website to 5??? Lawsuit maybe? I know it used to say 20. and thank you mr. enginerd, I couldn't get the words right to describe the reason a wider one won't work….

I was always interested to read his info on how the energy and impact are sent forward via the frame, and that's when occupants get more force and possible whiplash.

In that customer pic, notice the 2nd large rubber donut isn't on….hopefully it was on when the accident occured, cuz it's an important part of the system.

[tom4bren]

I wonder if he changed it on the website to 5??? Lawsuit maybe? I know it used to say 20. (I believe you - kinda surprised me when I saw 5 mph today) and thank you mr. enginerd, I couldn't get the words right to describe the reason a wider one won't work…. Yer welcome ... it's what I do!

I was always interested to read his info on how the energy and impact are sent forward via the frame, and that's when occupants get more force and possible whiplash.

In that customer pic, notice the 2nd large rubber donut isn't on….hopefully it was on when the accident occured, cuz it's an important part of the system.

The importance of the second donut is strictly dependent upon the receiver, not the SpareBumper (SB). Maybe that owner had a really funky receiver that had a lot of space between the outter edge & the hitch pin. When I upgraded my receiver to the new design, I had to dig out those spare mini-donuts that Jeff supplied with the SB. Luckly I hung on to them because the upgraded hitch moved the hitch pin outward about 3/8 inch ... can't remember who the PITA was that made me make that change???