So I bought an ARB Bumper for my 2012 DC

Well, I spent a lot of time considering this purchase and what follows is my perspective and experience with it.

I should start off by saying that I have a 2012 DC 4x4 and I have done some write-ups on the Baja Racks Roof Rack and the lighting that I installed. As with most of my projects, I was assisted by my brother in arms DAC.

So When ARB announced in 2011 that they would be releasing a deluxe bar winch bumper for the 2012 Tacoma I was very interested. I have sever friends who have ARB bumpers and they love them. I have been impressed with the quality and design of their products for several years.

However, after several e-mails to ARB, I began to consider other manufactures. To compound this problem, I am new to building an off road vehicle and was not aware that I would most likely have to upgrade the suspension. Further, after seeing the photos of the prototype bumper I was beginning to have some doubts. I read a lot of information and speculation as to the size and fit of the bumper in comparison to the 2011.

Deciding to stay with ARB I pre-ordered the bumper from 4 wheel parts on October 9th 2011. the price for the bumper was 999.99 before sales tax. I chose to get the bumper from 4 wheel parts because I would not have to pay for shipping which would have been considerable.

Anyway, more photos were released and it was disclosed that this ARB bumper would require me to cut my front bumper. I did not like the prospect of having to ruin a perfectly good bumper but I figured I would order an unfinished one from Toyota and just paint it black. I never got around to doing that and I wanted to keep my cost down on this project since the bumper was already over 1K after taxes.



The bumper finally arrived at 4 wheel parts on January 9th. I picked the bumper up on January 11th and purchased a Warn VR 8000 winch. I realize that based on the GVW of the Tacoma, I really need a 9000 lbs winch; however, I figure that I will be using the winch vary rarely and when I do, 8000 lbs should be enough.

I decided to install the bumper myself because 4 wheel parts was going to charge me 500.00. Considering that I just spent over 1,500.00 on the bumper and winch, I was not willing to through money around. Anyway, in these pictures I have not installed the lights, winch or finished with the fender liner.




Due to all the hype about how far the bumper sticks out I decided to measure the original bumper from the support behind the grill. I will make this same measurement after I have completed the installation for comparison.



So, at this point I would like to say that I have several issues with this bumper:
1. The directions
The directions cover almost everything but the pictures with them are black and white. There is one picture that I still do not know what it is. Also, it looks like they may have used 1-2 pictures from a 2011 truck rather than a 2012. After dropping over 1K for a product, I would expect the directions to be in color.

There are a lot of bolts, washers, and nuts included with the bumper. the directions has a list of these bolts but I have no idea what the difference is between some of them. It would make since to have a page in the directions that shows the bolts and their thread so that it’s not as confusing as I found it. For that matter, the directions group the bolts into 8 application groups and they were all in one plastic bag, simply bagging the correct groups separately would have saved me precious time.

The fit
The bracket mounting assembly fit almost perfect, but when you are talking about steel this thick, almost does not work out so well. The bracket mounting assembly has two angle pieces on the bottom that must flush up to the bottom of the crossmember. this was not happening. I banged on the mounting bracket and that did not work, so I used a crow bar wedged into the bottom holes and got it close enough to get the bolt through the crossmember and the bracket. I then snugged it into place with a nut driver. These bolts were suppose to be torqued to 77 Nm.; however, I had to drive them down tight so they are going no where now and are way over torqued.

The lights supplied with the bumper are the turn signal lights. There are no fog lights with the bumper and ARB wants you to buy their lights for another 300.00. I decided to do some fabrication and use the fog lights from my original bumper.



Obviously the ARB mounts would not work with the Toyota fog lights so here is what I did.
First, I removed the two plastic mounting brackets that existed on the ARB light surround.



I made a bezel out of some Kydex but I guess you could make it out of metal or some other plastic, or even fiberglass.



I then made 2 metal brackets from 18 gage steel, for the bolts I would use to mount the lights.
I cut off one of the plastic mounting clips on each fog light.
I decided on the bolts I would use and wedges them between the metal brackets and the Kydex.
I secured the Kydex and the metal brackets with rivets.
I painted everything with flat black spray paint.





I also realized that I would have to cut down the turn signals that are included with the bumper so that the fog lights fit.

I filled in the opening made from cutting down the light wall with clear silicone. I let the silicone dry for 24 hours and then cut it out so that the lens cover could be removed and still seal up.



I then installed the light surround. For the fog lights, I had to splice in about 18” of wire so that I could run the fog light wires against the inside of the bumper and connect to the fog lights. I check the aiming of the lights and everything was good to go. I have not finished wiring the turn signals yet. I zip tied the fender liners to the inside of the bumper and took the truck for a spin.

I had to get my first 5000 mile service today so I drove on to a power line cut and took some more pictures.















I will have more pictures once I install the winch this weekend and finish wiring the turn signals. I will also remove the grill and get the bumper measurement of how far it sticks out.

I also have some more issues with this bumper that I will list now.

The turn signals
The included turn signals are very cheap looking in my opinion. these things are rectangle and the openings are oval which looks good on the outside but on the inside of the bumper it looks like some crap that I would do to get by with what I have on hand. Additionally, the way that ARB wants you to wire these turn signals it so splice into the the existing turn signals. I think this another cheap approach to the issue. I am considering how I am going to wire these lights and I will let you know what I decide.

The cutting of the bumper
So a lot has been said about cutting the front bumper cover. In all honestly, I decided to go ahead and do this but it is not something that you have to do. The bumper will mount just fine with out you cutting your bumper but you will have a sizable gap. I guess you could fabricate something to fill the gap. If you do decide to cut the bumper, I actually cut mine about 3/4” linger than the directions say. It fit just fine. I cut the bumper with a jig saw and it came out nicely.

I will have more to come in a few days.

Thanks for looking.

 

Thank you for the nice write up and the pictures...

-I like how you integrated the stock fog lights, I think the 2012 fog lights are pretty effective and would want to retain them if I got an aftermarket bumper

-I head your complaints about the turn signals, which IMO are completely useless since you still have turn signals in your headlights. I would be interested to see if someone could retrofit a RI LED fixture or something similar in that area.

 

Cintocrunch,
Most bumper makers will tell you that the original fog lights can not be retained because most of them use different mounting brackets for the fog lights; however, if fabrication dose not bother you, you can make your own mounting system. I agree the Toyota fog lights are efficient and I was not willing to drop another 2-300 bucks for a set from ARB.
As for the turn signals, you are correct again. You do not really need turn signals in the bumper since the 2012 has them in the head light assembly. I see no reason why you would not be able to fit LEDs into the openings. I considered adding IR LEDs here so that I can drive with night vison but I will simply add an IR light later. I will still need to figure out how to black out all the day running lights before I take on the IR lighting. Thanks for your comments.

Ok, so I have the winch mounted and I took some more pictures since we had to pull the bumper back off.

In this picture, I show the measurement of the bumper from the support behind the grill. As you can see, it sticks our about 17” and the original bumper sticked out about 9” so the ARB adds 8” to the front of the vehicle.



This picture shows the mounting bracket, I am pointing at the angled bottom that gave me such a hard time to get flush.



I had to drill mounting holes in the bumper for the winch fairlead. After the fairlead holes were done then I had to drill out the 2 bottom winch mounting holes into the fairlead. These had to be done with the 2 side rollers off the fairlead.



Putting the rollers back on the fairlead once it was mounted was difficult due to the tight area you are working in.



Here is a picture showing the cut original bumper to give you an idea of how much of it is used to fill the gap.



In my previous post I said that I had to splice about 18” of wire into the fog light wire harness to give it enough reach to connect to the fog lights and be able to secure the wires with zip ties to the inside of the bumper. The area between the red and yellows is the added wire.



Lastly, here are two pictures of the light surround to show how I finished them out. The first picture is the light surround. The second shows where the rivets are (red arrows) and the yellow arrow show the gap that is visible. this gap is because to how the fog lights had to be mounted to ensure the proper aim.





Well thats it for now. I will be wiring the winch and blinkers on Monday and will post a few more pictures. As always, thanks for the interest.

 

Awesome job with the kydex mounts maybe Ill see you up here around bragg at some point. Nice truck!

 

Really, IR LED's? Driving with night vision? Thanks for the laugh

 

Overactor, thanks I really dont get up there much anymore but I do miss Bragg.

MWall, I am not sure what you mean by "the laugh"

 

Thanks for posting! I'm getting mine installed in a shop this week.

 

Molon Labe
Here's a way to take care of your dtrl's. I used this for mine but I didn't add the switch I just deleted mine.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/85326-dtrl-toggle-switch-mod-stealth-mode.html

 

it looks like ARB is still using the same terrible turn signal/park lights that i had in my 2006 jeep liberty ARB bumper. they SUCKED and always burnt out bulbs and would work then not work all the time. here is a link to a forum on my old jeep forum that shows a DIY to convert them to LED's.

i used waterproof LED's and hard wired everything in again. worked perfectly for 2 years before i sold the jeep to buy my tacoma

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=63301


i really like the ARB's... i just cant bring myself to cut up the factory bumper and having it stick out that far. looks unfinished to me. besides that it's an outstanding bumper... and a true beast!

 

Spruce (the best color ) thanks for the link, I will be doing this in the future.
2006KJ, thanks for the link, I guessI will be converting them to LED as well. At leas I can build an LED the way I want it to be. I have built several lights from scratch so I may make a purpose built light for this application that will fit my needs.
Again thanks for the suggestions.

 

great build thread on this!!.. love the fab work!

 

No problem, I agree on the color.

 

Man, looking good!

 

What I notice in your second pic is the bumper not lining up with front wheel well. Why can't you slide it back to fit flush, it looks 2" too far out? Time for a little more cutting.
Cheers

 

Thank you everyone for the comments.
Treddy, ouch more modification! Actually, now that you mention it. I am not sure how the bottom section of the grill mounted and I am too lazy to go pull it back off too night. I am wondering if the grill and the molding under the headlights attaches to the factory bumper. If this is the case, I am curious how other plate bumper manufacturers overcame this issue? I will look at it tomorrow and let you know.

 

Want a halo mount or two for those NVGs?

 

BuzzardsGottaEat, if you are giving them away, I am always interested in NVG BII, but if you are selling them, thanks but I am fully kitted out. If you are selling them and need some help on where to sell them, shoot me a PM and I will see what I can do.

 

Good work with the ARB. Nicely planned and fitted truck, as well.

 

Thank you everyone for the comments.
Ok, so I looked at both the molding under the head lights and the grill and they attach to the frame so the cutting of the bumper is not “technically” required but there are some issues.

The way that the ARB bumper connects to the mounting bracket is by 4 bolts for each side. When you put the bumper on the bracket it will rest on the top of the bracket and then you have to lift it about ½ inch to line up the bolt holes. So drilling new holes would not be that big of a deal; however, the biggest problem I can see is that the mounting bracket will not allow you to slide the bumper back (towards the rear of the vehicle) because the inside of the bumper rests on the mounting bracket. To allow for the bumper so be slid back you would have to cut the desired slide depth from the mounting bracket. This is the only real issue I see. You will still have a gap under the grill but you should be able to position the ARB bumper to minimize the gap. Also if you really want to bring the ARB up to just under the grill, then you would need to cut into the side fenders to allow the bumper to come up.
Well I hope that address any questions about fitting the bumper without cutting the original bumper.

So I finished the wiring of the lights and winch Monday. In this picture you can see how I spliced into the light wiring harness.



If you have had the opportunity to check out my build you would know that I went a little crazy with the roof rack lighting. This has left me no ports available on the back of the kicker terminals. So I cut out the copper loops on the ends of the winch 4 gauge wires. I bent them and sanded them so that they formed a “C” shape to wrap around the battery terminals. I then modified the kicker terminals so that the winch wiring would come from the front of the vehicle and sit under the kicker terminals.



Another picture of the working fog lights and ARB lights.



Here are the left over parts from the ARB kit, it’s a license plate mount for the bumper and two extra winch mounting bolts. Also you can see the bag of in-line splices that ARB wanted me to use.



Here are the left over parts from the Warn Winch. There is a control box mount to mount it to the top of the winch (ARB provides their own) and the 3 control wires (ARB provided), as well as two black plastic caps.



I have no idea what these caps are for and the instructions do not address them at all. If you know what they are for, please let me know.



And here a picture of the finished front end.



So my buddy DAC read through this thread and made a few suggestions. He wanted me to convey just how completely inadequate the instructions were for both Warn and ARB.

This is my #1 issue with these products. These companies really need to hire some people from the plastic model industry so that they can have instructions that can be read, understood, and complete.

This bumper and even the winch should be installed by someone with aptitude for this sort of thing.

Well, that is my take on each product. I am happy with the finished product and I hope this has been helpful to the members here on TW.

Thanks for the interest.

 

Looking good.

Thanks for all the writeup, as I'm hoping to see an ARB in the future for my truck. Are you riding on stock suspension right now? If so, how good/bad is it? I have always read that the stock suspension isn't adequate for the weight of the winch/bumper, but most of those comments are from SR5 owners and they note the Off-Road model has different front springs.

Ultimately I am not ruling out going the 885/886 route, but I'm just weighing my options for now.

It's fun that ARB is still as difficult as ever to install. I installed one on my 93 and it was awful. I don't know if it was because the truck had been bumped on one corner but I couldn't get all the boltholes on that truck to line up if my life depended on it.