Fab Fours Bumpers Black Steel Elite

Smooth Plate, Matte Black, Twelve Gauge

Fab Fours built the Elite by taking its ranch bumper and giving it the smooth plate face from the Premium line. That's the whole idea. Same guard silhouette over the grille, a completely different surface underneath it.

The Elite is cut from 12-gauge US steel. The Black Steel next to it is 14-gauge. On sheet steel the number and the thickness move in opposite directions, so the Elite is the heavier plate of the two. Worth saying plainly, because a smooth face can read as the thinner option. Taking the diamond plate off did not thin the steel. It added two gauges.

The finish is matte black powder coat, and it stays matte. No gloss, no shine, no texture. Fab Fours runs the plant in Lancaster, South Carolina, and has been part of Warn, the winch company, since 2021. Across the trucks we ship, the Elite is a heavy-duty bumper first. More go on the Ram 2500 and 3500 than every other truck combined, and the Ford Super Duty comes next. We stock more Elite part numbers for the Silverado 2500 and 3500 than for any other truck.

The Lower Guard Runs the Bottom of the Bumper

Every Elite front carries a lower guard. That is the steel panel closing off the bottom of the bumper, below the grille. It's a separate plate, and that turns out to matter, because Fab Fours sells it in versions you can swap.

The High Flow lower guard opens the panel up for airflow. The Light lower guard carries cube lights down low instead of on top. On several of the newer trucks the lower guard does one more job. It carries the bracket that relocates the adaptive cruise control module, so the cruise control keeps working with steel in front of it.

All of it bolts on, and all of it is sold separately. The part numbers change by platform, so the lower guard for a half-ton is not the one for a one-ton. Each listing names the exact parts that fit that bumper.

Sensors, Cameras, and the Winch

The Elite covers trucks from the 1990s through the current model years, and the electronics story changes completely across that span. An older truck has nothing up front to work around. A newer one has park assist sensors, a front camera, adaptive cruise, and fog lights in the bumper. Fab Fours works around them on the newer fitments, and the listing for your truck spells out which ones its bumper keeps.

Two honest boundaries are worth knowing before you shop. The optional winch tray bolts in behind the face. On a number of fitments it lands where the front sensors sit, and those sensors come out to run it. A guard also puts steel nearer the camera line than the open face does. Want the winch carried inside the bumper with the sensor cutouts left alone? That's the Matrix and the Premium. If you want the ranch guard and you'll run a strap and a hitch instead of a winch, the Elite is already set up for it. Fab Fours makes D-ring shackle mounts and a 2-inch front receiver that bolt straight onto the Elite.

Which Face Buyers Actually Pick

Fab Fours splits the Elite catalog three ways. Full Guard, Pre-Runner Guard, No Guard, and close to the same number of part numbers for each. Our orders are not split evenly at all. Close to four out of five Elite fronts we ship go out with the full grille guard, and the bare face barely sells. People buying this bumper come for the guard.

Price backs that up. The Full Guard and the Pre-Runner Guard cost exactly the same on every truck, and the No Guard saves about $140. The guard is not the expensive part of this bumper. The steel is.

Full Guard

Steel wraps up over the grille and both headlights, smooth plate all the way around, matte black. It's the most coverage the Elite offers, and it's what most Elite owners choose. On a heavy-duty truck it reads as one solid blacked-out front end rather than a bumper with a hoop bolted on.

Pre-Runner Guard

A single bar spans the grille and stops short of the headlights. Same price as the full guard, less steel out front, a lower and wider stance. It leaves more of the grille showing, which matters on a truck with a badge worth seeing.

No Guard

Just the bumper. The cleanest version of the Elite face, and the cheapest Elite front. Almost nobody orders it. That's worth saying out loud. If the smooth blacked-out face is the point for you and the hoop is not, this is the value buy among the fronts.

The Elite Rear

The rear comes one way per truck. Smooth 12-gauge plate, the same matte black, squaring off the back end to match the front. It keeps the factory receiver hitch and the wiring in their original spots. The trailer plug and the ball mount go back where they were. Every Elite rear in the catalog is sensor compatible.

Rears are a bigger share of Elite than they are of the textured Black Steel, close to a third of everything we ship in the series. Price is part of that. The Elite front costs more than the Black Steel front. The Elite rear doesn't cost more at all. It lists at $1,039.99, and that number doesn't move from one truck to the next.

Weight, Price, and What Fab Fours Covers

Weight. Elite fronts come in at 250 or 300 pounds depending on the truck, and rears at about 175. There is no light version of this bumper. Plan on a floor jack or a second set of hands, and an afternoon. The exact weight sits on every product page.

Price. Elite fronts run about $1,850 to $2,060, set by the truck and by whether you take a guard. That puts the front above the textured Black Steel, and the gap buys smooth plate and two more gauges of steel. Look at the Ford Super Duty and Ford F150 pages to see how the range lands on a one-ton against a half-ton.

Fitment. Each Elite is made for a single truck and a single run of model years, and it bolts to the frame on its own brackets. Year spans stay tight here, because a truck's front end gets redrawn and the bumper has to follow. Check your year before you order, and check your engine and trim too, since a handful of fitments rule out a package.

Warranty. Fab Fours covers the structure of the Elite for life against manufacturer defect, and covers rust from the factory finish for one year. That's the same coverage the Black Steel carries. The off-road series carry two years on rust rather than one, which is the honest difference if you park in salt every winter.

Ordering. We sell the Elite as an authorized Fab Fours dealer. Shipping is free in the lower 48. The factory warranty travels with the bumper. Unsure whether your year keeps its sensors? Unsure which lower guard your truck takes? Send us the year and the trim and we confirm it first. A wrong bumper gets sorted on our end, not yours. Pick your face. Confirm your year. Put a smooth black front end on the truck.

Frequently Asked Questions