UCF Shipping Woes

Arthurius

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Mesa, Arizona
Anyone have experience with UnderCover Fab? Is it usual to get dicked around by their shipping promises? I've ordered the rear aluminum bumper and it took some time to see any progress. I reached out and talked to Matt and I'm starting to wonder if he's just been giving me a stiff one ever since.

After about a week of no word I reached out and they said it would ship early last week, then by Friday they had managed to create a shipping label. A week or so goes by so I call this morning and they claim its been shipped so it would appear the package is either lost (prior to being picked up by the carrier) or UCF is palming it. Its unfortunate because I was under the impression that they were the shipping/support 'lesser of evil' in the world of aluminum bumpers...

I'm guessing it's gonna get chocked up to the usual shipping delay excuses but I sure do wish they would have included that on their site so I could have factored it into my purchase. I purchased this bumper because it was 'In Stock' and shipping was slated to be 2-5 days. Based on info on their site, its looking like since they managed to create a label for it I can't cancel the order and If I return the item still in the shipping box I will be charged the convenience of a 15% re-stocking fee. Hooray.

Side note, any other recommendations for a solid yet somewhat light rear bumper are appreciated. I'm looking for something with a "shelf" that i can put drinks on and the like. I was looking at the Motobilt, JCR and LOD ones before deciding on UCF. Experience with any of these would be good to hear.

Feel free to lambast me for my nascent bitching below.
 
I *HATE* when a website says "its in stock" when it isn't. I've gotten to the point of calling in to double check if its time critical. I ordered a set of Next Venture bumper braces which were "in stock". They weren't, and they were in the middle of a shop tear-down and revamp so I had to wait several weeks for them to be made. In that particular instance, it wasn't a problem as I wasn't ready to install them anyway; but if I had been, I would have been more than slightly annoyed. They were certainly worth the wait, but I no longer see them on their website.

If the shipper is USPS, it could simply be that the thing wasn't scanned on pickup. I've had that happen ANY number of times...
 
I bought that same bumper from them in November and didn't have any issues. I will say though, that I've had similar shipping experiences with other items from other companies over the past 6+ months. This is the only thing I've bought from UCF, and while I have no additional history with them to go off of, I wouldn't be surprised if there truly were a mix up on the side of the shipping company. My most recent adventure was a pair of shoes that took 2 trips across the country and 2.5 weeks to get to me when they were supposed to arrive in 3 days.
 
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I have had issues with them shipping bumpers out in a timely manner as well. Its one of those things where you have to decide if the cost savings are worth the wait. I made the mistake of ordering a front bumper on a black Friday type sale..waited months for it to ship only to be told it was still in production. I told them to cancel, which they did.

I don't have any recommendations for alternatives that would ship quickly
 
Side note, any other recommendations for a solid yet somewhat light rear bumper are appreciated. I'm looking for something with a "shelf" that i can put drinks on and the like.

I've never heard/seen it put that way but since you mention it, I do miss the shelf since I put on my low profile bumper. Many of my evenings are spend sitting in the driveway watching my kids ride their bikes and I no longer have a place to put my drink. My folding chair has a cupholder but it's more of a sling that doesn't guarantee a level pitch so I can't use it until the drink is nearly half empty.
 
I've bought skid plates from them before and had no issue, but the most recent one was in December 2021.

The belly skid was a little amusing. It was 1/4" steel and weighed about 75-80 pounds. No packaging since it would have destroyed nearly anything you put it in, so they just slapped the label right on the steel. I expected the engine skid to be the same (with the hardware and struts taped to it or something) but it actually came in a box.
 
I do miss the shelf since I put on my low profile bumper.

It feels like I'm in the minority on this, but I enjoy the shelf on the back. Even though it affects departure a bit, it makes the bumper much more useful day-to-day. Whether on the trail and wanting a small shelf, or plopping your laundry basket on it while opening your rear glass. A plate bumper cant do it all!
 
I purchased the skid plates from them through a different website because they had a better price. I was waiting maybe a week and sent an e-mail to UCF asking if they received the order. I never heard back from them but I did receive an e-mail from UPS where I could track a package. It was coming from around where they are located so I expected it was from them. I have a profile set up with fedex and UPS where I receive an e-mail with tracking if something is shipped my way.
 
I *HATE* when a website says "its in stock" when it isn't.

Indeed, in a way its my own failure because I didn't call ahead. I was hoping to get it here quickly in time for this awesome AZ monsoon season were getting. Assumptions, assumptions.
 
I ordered a skid and a couple decals from them in Nov. Got the skid relatively quick, but didn’t get the decals. It took over a month to get a response from them. They said they were out but would be back in stock in February and he’d send them out. Still haven’t gotten them.

They were only a few dollars, but still it’s a few dollars I paid with.

Still haven’t gotten around to installing the skid yet either.
 
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Update here, the UCF bumper arrived and I have a fitment question. Is It normal to have to drill into the rear cross member to install the bumper?

My Jeeperman bumper/carrier i took off used 8 bolts on the face of the rear crossmember, as well as frame tie-ins adding 4 bolts. With how I have it set up now there are only 4 bolts (2 per side) that are mounting the bumper directly to the frame. (Picture below)

I did a fit check and missed this because I was focused on the 4 outer mounting holes. We have now painted the bumper so I'm stuck with it I suppose.

Any thoughts or opinions on only having 4 rear bolts on the bumper?? I also have the 4 going into the frame tie-in bracket. Can/should I drill these holes for 10 bolts as my old bumper had, or run it as is with 8 bolts? (4 on bumper & 4 on frame tie-ins)

20220702_152223.jpg
 
I had the same question with mine and spoke to UCF, who recommended drilling and adding 2 additional bolts per side if you plan to tow our use the bumper as a recovery point.

I drilled and added 2 more per side in each of the inner sections with 4 holes. I don't have a picture of which holes I used but believe I went with upper left+bottom right on the driver side and upper right+bottom left on the driver side. You can really only access behind the cross member in a couple of places, so use that as your guide for which holes you choose to drill thru.
 
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As @DaveC said, just drill two additional holes per side. Here's how I installed mine

20210312_195547.jpg
 
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Throwing this up here as another data point — take it for what it's worth.

Am under the gun a little before another trip coming up, and with that in mind, I emailed UCF Tuesday of last week (9-10 days ago) about stock and lead time for engine and trans skids. Was told, "yeah, if you order soon, I'll get them out at the end of the week." Ordered that very same day.

Weekend came and went with no info. Emailed Monday, no response, and again on tuesday no response. Called from my cell Tuesday, no answer, left a VM. Called again from my cell Wednesday afternoon, no answer. Called ten minutes later from my office phone, and got an answer (hmmm). Get told, "yeah, I'm off site, call tomorrow morning and I'll have an answer." Call again this morning, no answer. Email again, no answer. Smells like bullshit.

I'm in CA, they're in AL...shipping isn't exactly going to be speedy.

Should I not be looking to complete the work this close to a trip? Sure. But if I call and ask before I order, and you tell me it'll get done, then you should mean it. And I get it, stuff comes up, but that doesn't mean ducking calls and emails. I'm just looking for whether I need to source something else in the mean time.

Probably would have pivoted to genright, or even a custom approach if I knew this was gonna be an issue.

So, buyer beware if you have a short deadline.
 
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