97 Rear Bumper

[pwdcougar]

Need to finally replace the rusted through rear bumper on my 97 pickup. Looking through Ebay right now. Question:

Are the fleetside rear bumpers all the same? I found a bumper in my price range but it says that it will fit a Suburban but not a C/K Fleetside truck. Other listed (and more expensive) bumpers say they fit Suburbans Tahoes and C/K trucks.

What gives? I thought that they all had the same bumpers.

Paul

[pwdcougar]

Or to put it another way, some listings show the same bumper for 97 Suburbans and fleetside trucks and others dont. Do the suburbans have the same bumper as a pickup?

Thanks

Paul

[owned many chevys]

Lol just went thru this with one of my trucks suburban and Tahoe same pickups fleetside will not work on step bed they will bolt up to frame but curved part of a factory bumper under tailgate step is short fleet is wider if you can understand my explanation

[YankeeHauler]

Good to know, gonna be in the market for the same ('97 fleet) myself, thanks!

[pwdcougar]

Not sure I understand the whole explanation but the upshot is the Suburban/Tahoe bumper is different from the fleetside pickup bumper.

Thanks for the info!

Paul

[1badgmc]

Imagine you're stepping up onto one of these bumpers. Your foot is on the step pad. In front of your toes, at the back of the step, is a lip that curls up. It acts as sort of a filler panel for the gap below the tailgate. On a fleetside bumper, that lip goes along the majority of the back of the bumper. On a sportside bed, that lip is considerably shorter due to the narrower bed.

You could use a sportside bumper on a fleetside/SUV, but it would look really goofy with that lip being so short. You wouldn't be able to put the fleetside bumper on a sportside at all, though.

[pwdcougar]

I get that the fleetside and sportside bumpers are different because of the truck width. Is it the lip below the tailgate that is different on the Sub/Tahoe bumpers then?
A friend made the sportside/fleetside mistake with an 03. The bumper bolted right up but it looked goofy being so narrow.
Paul.

[JJR]

The bumper off the Suburban will work on your fleetside but you will need to use the brackets from your truck. The Suburban bumper brackets/mounts are different. If you look at the LMC website, you will see the same part number listed for both the Suburban and Fleetside rear bumper.

[pwdcougar]

Originally Posted by JJR

The bumper off the Suburban will work on your fleetside but you will need to use the brackets from your truck. The Suburban bumper brackets/mounts are different. If you look at the LMC website, you will see the same part number listed for both the Suburban and Fleetside rear bumper.

Thanks!

Paul

[UKNOWME]

Where was JJR on 12-28-14 at 4:19? Could've saved a lot on confusion.

[pwdcougar]

Yeah. Somehow fleet vs style got thrown into the mix.

Paul

[JJR]

Originally Posted by UKNOWME

Where was JJR on 12-28-14 at 4:19? Could've saved a lot on confusion.

Sorry guys, I have not been visiting as often as I should. I had to go through this on my 93 GMC. Got it off EBay in 2002 from the original owner who was in Mississippi. Didn't think to ask where he lived before that. Turns out it was Ohio and the winters took its toll on the rear bumper, the brake lines and the fuel lines. The rear bumper looked fine from the outside but you could pull big pieces off the backside. I ended up getting a new bumper off EBay and got the replacement mounting brackets at the local pull-a-part. Hopefully pwdcougar's brackets can be re-used.