By ARB Zenith Front Bumper for the 2021+ Ford Bronco
In this article, we’re taking a close-up look at the ARB Zenith Front Bumper for the new 2021+ Ford Bronco. A while back, we made a video about all the bumpers that we saw at SEMA 2021 and this was one of the bumpers that really caught our eye. We thought this thing looked really cool and now that we’ve had a chance to be up close and install it we’ve not been disappointed. This thing is absolutely packed with features and comes in well under $2,000 so we can’t wait to share more about this with you. We made an installation guide video as well and we’ll put a link to that down below. Let’s dive in.
VIDEO: ARB ZENITH FRONT BUMPER FOR THE 2021+ BRONCO
Build Quality
This thing is built to be tough, the main body of the bumper is made out of three to five gauge steel depending on the different sections of the bumper. The lower the number on the gauge the thicker the steel so that is some seriously heavy-duty stuff and ready for some real off-road punishment. They have also coated it in their integrate black powder coat finish which is going to really stand up to the punishment you’re going to see on the trail. In addition to that, they’ve really built in a ton of frame reinforcements and I can’t really detail all of that here but if you watch our installation video you’ll see just how much frame reinforcement is there and how the integrated recovery points are built right into the frame to maximize the strength and durability. On that note, it weighs about 130 pounds so it’s not a huge increase in weight but it is definitely a significant piece of equipment.
Design
Since this is a non-winch compatible bumper it is super low profile. It does stick out forward from the grill but only five inches at its deepest point making it extremely slim looking and very clean Thes nice angular cuts they’ve put into the design continue over into the corners of the bumper giving you lots of ground clearance and making room for oversized 37-inch tires.
OEM Compatibility
They’ve put winglets into the corner as well which gives it an even more clean design and protects all the interior components and stops mud and debris from getting thrown up into the back of the bumper — it’s just a really clean-looking design. This thing is completely compatible with every tech feature you might find on the new Bronco the forward-facing camera is completely compatible and unobstructed and the parking sensors transfer right over into the pre-cut holes. If you didn’t have parking sensors they provide plugs so that that looks nice and clean. Your adaptive cruise control transfers over as well and even the stock fog lights transfer directly over into beautiful press-formed bezels that really give a nice clean look, and if you don’t have those fog lights on your factory Bronco they sell a separate ARB fog light kit that can transfer over here as well.
Recovery Features
This Zenith bumper also features two integrated ARB recovery points which are frame mounted and provide an 8-Ton level rating — that’s almost double what you’re going to find for most off-road shackles meaning you’re gonna have more than enough strength to get pulled out of any dangerous situation you might find yourself in with your Bronco. In addition, the powder-coated red look really just adds more flavor and color to the overall design.
It also features a 3mm steel center plate which is like a gunmetal gray color and would complement their full skid plate system they sell separately which protects all the underbody components but would really melt nicely in from a design standpoint. That center plate also features two integrated jack points so if you do have to do any sort of on-trail or roadside repairs with an off-road jack you’ve got the jack points, and if you damage the bumper while you’re doing that you can just replace that center plate system. They really thought through the design of this whole thing really nicely while making it look spectacular.
The Integrated Light Bar
ARB is also doing something that none of the other bumper manufacturers have done and that is they are including a 37” single-row LED light bar. All the other bumpers that we’ve seen in the industry have a spot to mount lights, but you have to purchase them separately again just driving up the cost. Including this 37” light bar, which by the way produces about 9,000 lumens roughly which is not the brightest light bar you can get out there but that is awesome that it’s included, makes it again just more spectacular value built into this bumper. 9,000 lumens is going to be a pretty big bump over your high beams and it is more of a spot lens so it’s throwing the light way far up the trail. If you’re looking for more lighting than that there are more than enough places to mount lighting on this Bronco starting with the A-pillar mounts that we really like because they’re so easy to install we recommend checking out the Baja Designs A-pillar lights we’ll put a link to that right below.
Value for Money
All told we think this is a fantastic value out of this ARB Zenith Bumper with all these features and this great design and it comes in well under $2,000 at the time of making this video. It is available in two different part numbers since it’s made in a narrow version which is meant to line up with the non-Sasquatch versions of the Bronco, and it’s made in a wide version for the Sasquatch versions of the Bronco. You could definitely put the narrow on the Sasquatch version and have it just be a little bit narrower than the fender flares, but we wouldn’t recommend putting the wide bumper on the non-Sasquatch Bronco unless you’re planning to put wide fender flares which would definitely work out as well.
Now, this bumper is a pretty involved install, there are a lot of components, a lot of different parts, they engineered the heck out of this thing so we’ve made a detailed step-by-step how-to installation guide video and we’ll put a link to that down below. Thanks for reading!
