A Decade of Underwhelming Bronco Vendor Bumper Photos

[DanWheeler]

I haven't posted in who knows how long, some of you may remember me - built my rig many years ago and haven't touched it since but never got around to getting a winch bumper and winch. No excuse really for how built it is to not have a winch, but I carry beer and wheel with people with winches

This is not a post about what bumper to get.... this is a post about how awful all the vendors bumper photos are and for how many years they have been awful. For almost a decade I've been looking for a good winch bumper and I check in every few years to see what's out there and I continue to be disappointed by all the vendors photos of the bumpers they sell. Toms, Graveyard, Duff, WH... every single one of these vendors have the absolute worst photos of the bumpers they are trying to sell. I can't find a single one of them that shows the bumpers at different angles, painted, installed or of a reasonable image size.

How do these guys expect to sell bumpers which such horrible thumbnails and advertising? Best I've seen is Tom's that has ONE picture of their winch bumper. Worst example is Bronco Graveyard with a TINY thumbnail zoomed in way too far. None of the vendors have any good shots of the bumpers installed on a well-built rig so you can see what it actually looks like.

Wild Horses has ONE picture of the Bailie Built bumper (head on so you have no idea what it looks like from the side) and the 2nd picture of what I can only describe as a 3rd of a bumper (and no description of where the rest of it is) that looks like it was taken in the 80s on a polaroid, printed on an inkjet in the 90s, a photo taken on a flip phone from the 2000s of the inkjet printout from the 90s, then converted to a .gif, converted back to a .jpg, printed out again and sent via fax then posted on their website.

What is up with these vendors and their bumper photos?!

 

[DirtDonk]

That’s funny right there. Now I’ll have to go back and look at all of our bumper pictures.
Might agree, or not…

When I was at the “old” Hanson Enterprise, I tried to gather and disseminate only the best pictures from customers of our installed bumpers. Preferably while being used.
So I agree with you that good, enticing and exciting pictures are always a welcome sales pitch.
But I’ll reserve any potential negative judgment until I’ve review ours again.
Jim works hard on the website, and puts whatever pictures he has up when they’re good. The problem sometimes is finding time to revisit something to add new or better photos.
Hmm, maybe we should go through some of Mitch’s videos, and see if we can cull something from there.
Or maybe we can get him to pose one of his Broncos hanging from a tree by the winch. Ala the old Sidewinder winch ad campaign of the 60s and 70s.

Of course, at Hanson we had hundreds of from-the-field photos from customers with Jeeps, but very few with Broncos, or other trucks.
One of my favorites was a front angle shot taken on the Rubicon by a professional photographer for Advance Adapters. I ended up putting it on the front cover of our instructions sheet.
My other favorite was taken in Moab by a Jeep owner, while running to help a fellow wheeler, who had just stood his TJ on its rear bumper’s tire carrier!
Couldn’t have posed it better if it had been intended.
Ended up putting that one on T-shirts!

 

[BGBronco]

I understand what you're saying and it's the same in many cases for roll cages as well. The funny part is that your profile picture is a barely visible, low-resolution picture of your front bumper!

 

[Wild horse 75]

Maybe this should be more of a call to customers to provide the retailers with pictures of the bumpers installed and being used. I get what you’re saying but retailers can’t finish and install every different variation of every bumper they sell on different vehicles and then post 16 different angles of it. I do agree though that sometimes it’s hard to make a decision on what to buy when you can’t picture it on your vehicle. Wheels are another prime example.

 

[dmoses42]

^^ I have to disagree with this. It is in the best interest of the vendors to take quality photos of the products they are selling from multiple angles so their customers don't have to ask "WTH does this thing actually look like?" I don't see why they couldn't finish and install one of each variation, take photos, then hang it on a rack in their showroom and write it off on their taxes as advertising.

 

[Wild horse 75]

I agree that it’s in their best interest but just the sheer number of variations make that very hard for a retailer to financially support. One of Tom’s bumpers has 4 different variations. So that’s 4 bumpers to finish and install on a couple different broncos. Whereas 2 or 3 customers who see the bumper in person at the store can finish them and install them on their bronco and now Tom’s could have a few pictures of each variation on different vehicles. I’m not saying it should be the customers responsibility but a company could easily ask for pictures and in exchange send a sticker pack or some small token of thanks. That would be a win win.

 

[1969]

I think most of the bronco vendors websites are not that great and are in need of overhauls.

 

[Dirtroadjunkie]

Exact reason I haven't pulled the trigger on buying one!

 

[sprdv1]

I haven't posted in who knows how long, some of you may remember me - built my rig many years ago and haven't touched it since but never got around to getting a winch bumper and winch. No excuse really for how built it is to not have a winch, but I carry beer and wheel with people with winches

This is not a post about what bumper to get.... this is a post about how awful all the vendors bumper photos are and for how many years they have been awful. For almost a decade I've been looking for a good winch bumper and I check in every few years to see what's out there and I continue to be disappointed by all the vendors photos of the bumpers they sell. Toms, Graveyard, Duff, WH... every single one of these vendors have the absolute worst photos of the bumpers they are trying to sell. I can't find a single one of them that shows the bumpers at different angles, painted, installed or of a reasonable image size.

How do these guys expect to sell bumpers which such horrible thumbnails and advertising? Best I've seen is Tom's that has ONE picture of their winch bumper. Worst example is Bronco Graveyard with a TINY thumbnail zoomed in way too far. None of the vendors have any good shots of the bumpers installed on a well-built rig so you can see what it actually looks like.

Wild Horses has ONE picture of the Bailie Built bumper (head on so you have no idea what it looks like from the side) and the 2nd picture of what I can only describe as a 3rd of a bumper (and no description of where the rest of it is) that looks like it was taken in the 80s on a polaroid, printed on an inkjet in the 90s, a photo taken on a flip phone from the 2000s of the inkjet printout from the 90s, then converted to a .gif, converted back to a .jpg, printed out again and sent via fax then posted on their website.

What is up with these vendors and their bumper photos?!

Well they're trying I suppose haha