Discovery 1 front bumper mod

Trimming a bumper on a Land Rover Discovery 1

This is a short explanation of why you should and how to modify a Discovery 1 front bumper (fender).

The front bumper on a Discovery 1 is very low.  When you’re off roading, or even just bumping up grass curbs, the bumper can catch.  This is quite annoying and can damage the bumper itself. There’s an easy ad I'd say essential mod to do to the font of the car, and its free.  The mod itself involves trimming the plastic on the bumper, this improves the approach angle.

Why improve an approach angle?

What is an approach angle?  In the graphic below (I know its horrible) I have tried to explain what the approach angle is and why the bumper gets in the way.

In the top part of the image below the bumper (the black box) sits in front of the wheel (black circle) and the angle (red lines) between the bumper and centre of the bottom of the wheel is quite low, the second part of the image shows the improved angle when the bumper is cut.

If you think in terms of the angle being a hill you can see the improved angle will allow you to tackle steeper hills without catching the bumper when approaching it, hence approach angle.

Approach angles diagram

This is a standard Discovery 1 bumper before trimming it, you can see the plastic is quite low.

Standard Discovery 1 bumper before trimming

To improve the approach angle you need to cut the bumper. I used an angle grinder I like playing with power tools :-), also if you want to do the job properly a 13mm spanner.

Now you just need to cut the bumper end’s along the lower line on the plastic, put some tape on it 1st just to keep a tidy line.  You can use a basic saw, the angle grinder went through it really easily.  You will remove probably 6-8" off the bumper.

Then you undo the six 13mm bolts at the back of the middle part of the bumper this removes the remaining plastic and it’s done.  This mod start to finish will not take more than an hour to do and when completed you end up with something like this (spot the steering guard you could not see it before).

Discovery 1 bumper trimmed showing the steering guard

You can see from the side view the approach angle is much better now.

Better approach angle

The lazy way to trim a bumper (Land Rover Discovery 1 300tdi).

Cut the plastic end with said saw, or angle grinder (wonder if you could use a chainsaw?).

Grab the rest of the plastic bumper and give it a really good pull and wiggle it, the plastic the 13mm nuts clamp down on will break, then all you need to do is cut the middle parts.  This is really quick, took me 22 minutes including getting the tool out, trying to undo one of the nuts giving up and then just yanking the thing off.

Simple and cheap mod for a Discovery 1

Other mods you can do to improve angles on a Discovery 1

Using this principle of the approach angle you can improve the angles by fitting larger tyres, suspension lift and also a body lift.  It's unlikely I will do these mods because I'm modifying my car for overland travel and not extreme off road fun.

However, there is an issue I may need to address which is the tow hook, known as a plough on a Discovery 1.  I do tow a tent therefore I need one, but it wrecks the departure angle on the car.  I'll think about this later.