RPM Front Bumper & Skid Plate for Traxxas Slash 4x4 (Black)
About this part
RPM's three-piece front bumper / skid plate design for the Traxxas 4x4 is simple, yet strong, effective and highly attractive. It is made with a three-piece design to give the Slash owner the option of full front-end bash-proof and crash-proof protection with the skid plate mount, skid plate and bumper installed or if they’re racing, they can remove the bumper and use the skid plate mount and skid plate as a light-weight alternative bumper / skid plate that sheds 27 grams (almost a full ounce) of weight from the front end of the truck. Once the race is over, simply reinstall the bumper and full bash protection is once again available.
The Traxxas Slash 4x4 front bumper design eliminates the bumper support ring and the 4 screws behind the stock bumper while using a thicker skid design to supply the cushioning resistance a basher-proof bumper needs. By eliminating the stock bumper support ring, absolutely no frontal impact crash energy is transferred into the upper half of the differential housing. Supplied are longer bumper mounting screws as well, so any impact energy from down low has less of a tendency to pull the mounting screws out from the bottom half of the differential housing. With an RPM impact-absorbing front bumper installed, the energy transferred from frontal impacts will be greatly reduced as well.
RPM light canister sets (RPM80982 & RPM80983) fully integrate with the Slash 4x4 front bumper and skid plate, giving the Slash 4x4 that awesome Desert Racing Truck look and open the 4x4 up to the addition of LED lights for nighttime fun! Don't forget to check out the Roof-Mounted Light Bar Set too (RPM80922, RPM80923 or RPM80925) for 6 more light canisters of night-blasting fun!
Reviews3.5 · 8 reviews
Excellent product by RPM! While the stock bumper feels a bit more stable due to the additional support of being attached to the front diff, there does not seem to be any loss of durability. This thing has taken hits that I believe SHOULD have broken the bumper and it comes out with just a scratch. I've had my truck come crashing down on this bumper from 8 feet of air onto concrete and this bumper took it like nothing. Great product! To be fair, I can't really say it's any more or less durable than the stock bumper as I've taken some serious hits with it as well and not broken anything. I bought this bumper to allow for the RPM canister lights and LED kit, which unfortunately were a disappointment for a basher. I'd give it 5 stars, but the included screws are too long! The center of the three screws interfered with my sealed differential and cut a deep groove around the whole thing, spreading strings of plastic around the housing and getting in the gears and stripping out the differential housing.
Just another great product from RPM. It did amazing soaking up the hits while not transfering the force to the diff housing.
This product is not good stick with stock. It does not use the center brace like the stock one which will cause the scres holding it on from the bottom to pull out and strip the screw holes in your diff housing and your front bulkhead. The supplied screw is to long and if you run it it will ruin the diff gear housing inside. It is just poorly designed. It is amazingly strong, but if that means ruining everything attached to it. I would go with the stocker. I now have a hybdrid using the stock bumper with center support and the extra thick rpm skid plate. This gives me the best of both worlds. I LOVE RPM PRODUCTS JUST NOT THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm sure a 5 star product, 3 stars since it didn't list what year it works for, it did not fit on my older slash from over 5 years old. watch out for kraton bumpers too, not all rpm bumpers work on the newest kratons although they are listed that way. But then again that may be a fault of distributors and not RPM. So this product i'd give 5 stars, just not the vehicle year compatibility.
WHY DIDN'T I READ THE REVIEWS FIRST!?! Then I'd have known to not use RPM's DANGEROUSLY LONG SCREWS that poked up into my diff, causing it to bind. Perhaps due to my lack of conviction, or maybe just lack of hand strength, I failed to drive the screws all the way THROUGH the [factory] bulkhead plastic, instead merely temporarily deforming it. Swapping back to the original screws (and bumper) fixed the problem. Perhaps this bumper and its prodigious screws were only meant to play nicely with the RPM bulkhead kit. Fine. That wouldn't bother me, but the bumper installation instructions MAKE NO MENTION OF IT! For shame, RPM. So is this bumper any good? Beats me. I can't use it yet.
Reviewers broadly agree the bumper is very durable, with several reporting it absorbed hard impacts, including a long drop onto concrete and a high-speed collision with a building, with only cosmetic scratches. Some note it is less stable than the stock bumper, which mounts to the front differential for extra support. The main recurring problem is the supplied mounting screws: two reviewers report they are too long, causing clearance rubbing or binding against the differential housing, and one reports stripped screw holes. Workarounds include using OEM screws or shortening the new screws. One reviewer reports poor fit on an older Slash, and another notes compatibility concerns with newer Kraton models, though they suspect a distributor listing issue. Installation was described as easy by one owner.
- + Very durable under heavy impacts
- + Absorbs hits without transferring force to diff
- + Easy installation
- + Strong; survived high-speed crash
- − Supplied mounting screws too long
- − Can rub or bind against front diff
- − Less stable than stock bumper
- − Fit issues on older Slash and some Kraton models