the bjmoose daily driver build

Sounds like either:
-they made an excuse not to do the work
-they have no clue how to paint plastic properly

 

Great looking truck. I am checking out the Dakar and Moab for my tacoma. Why that one vs the Moab and what do you like or dislike about it?

I am not running a winch so I was going to put some nice looking mesh or something in the middle to make it look cleaner.

thanks

 

First, I've gotta ask - if you're not mounting a winch, why bother with an aftermarket bumper at all?? The only reason I finally put a front bumper on was because I was unhappy with how I'd been mounting my winch in a receiver carrier...

Anyhow - why did I pick this one?

I've seen at least one aftermarket bumper where there was no access to the manual clutch lever and the user had to use the motor to electrically (and slowly) spool out line. Serious pain in the ass, that.

But really, *most* aftermarket bumpers aren't like that - they've got big round holes in the front you can fit your hand through to access the clutch lever. (It pays to double check any specific design though)

Still, I was intrigued that the Dakar weighs about 15lbs less than the typical plate bumper (without sacrificing strength - according to CBI)

And this quote:

The downside of that access is that the bumper looks a little more like a tube bumper, and has more somewhat more gaps around the bodywork - it may end up looking a little less "polished" than some other aftermarket bumper choices.

Also, lighting technology has changed a lot just in the last four years. Even a couple years ago - you were most likely mounting round HID or quartz halogen aux driving lights, and bumpers had round cutouts and mountings with that expectation in mind.

But now, you're most likely mounting LED light bars, and this new Dakar design is set up for LED light bars not round lights.

Also - I wanted to buy from a vendor who could turn the order around quickly so I could do the install over Christmas holiday break.

 

Have a picture with it on yet?

 

Just added this one after fresh wash and wax.

Also there are a bunch of pics of just the bumper in post #17.

 

Oh nice. It's a lot better than it looks at the website. Weird design for a hybrid but still nice

 

subscribed

 

Thanks for the response! Many reasons to have one installed and dont need a winch to do so. To answer your question I want one to replace the ARB that came with it when I bought the truck. So I am looking at custom and pre made. I have lightbar and round PIAAs installed now. I would customize the Dakar and add mesh where the large holes are to not have it so "see thru".
thanks again

 

Sub'd!

 

Love the build.

Kinda what I'm going for.

DD that is very trail capable.

BAMF sliders
4.88's
Front and rear ARB
255-85/16

Just ordered front and rear pelfrey bumpers, HC rear of course

 

thanks.

 

A bunch of TW'ers went up to Mendocino Natl Forest in December, and made this video. I didn't go. The video is worth watching for its own sake, but if you skip ahead to 4:46 - you'll see the type of winch line troubles that made me think that an "open" style bumper was a better design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVCtm01w4Dg#t=303

 

So you norcal guys know we had epic rainfall on Friday and Sunday.

On Friday, I drove up to Tahoe in this storm. On Sunday, I drove back to San Jose.

Inexpensive light bars have a reputation for leaking and fogging up. But these didn't.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K958C92/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLC8F86/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

You have a build now? Awesome! Front bumper looks killer

 

I really like that truck!

 

build looking good!

 

Wheeling the lawn. But seriously, a hand wax is under appreciated by folks as a mod to make you appreciate your truck the way it is. Today I finally ran out of the Meguiar's TechWax 2.0 bottle that I bought when the truck was new and had to buy a new bottle.

 

Man BJ, I dig this truck. Made me reconsider the front bumper I ordered but too late to change it now and I am sure I'll be happy with the one I got. Once again, awesome build! Your OME install thread helped me with mine install quite a bit.

 

thanks.

 

Ever since the front bumper and winch, (along with the full set of pelfry skids I've got) the front has sagged a bit and was down to closer to two inches of lift.

The nice thing was - the ride felt good and it was nice to have some downtravel back.

So to restore the height, I got a pair of half-inch top plates from toytec (pn 25912) and dropped them in.



To avoid "broken shock spacer pain syndrome", I spaced out the bump stops with some washers. You can see the imprint on the LCA that shows that even with 885s, the bump stops come into play sometimes.



Now, after I did the passenger side, I reconnected the sway bar link end. The sway bar link end on the driver side was disconnected. Once the link end is lined up (to use as a measuring reference) you can see that the passenger side got nearly an inch (say 3/4") more droop as a result of spacing it out.



The downside is, the shock is no longer the droop length limiter - the LightRacing UCA now contacts the coil as the droop limiting factor. That's suboptimal, obviously.



Maybe someday I'll switch to Camburg balljoint UCAs. Or not.