Question for those with an offroad bumper

No doubt...i hear ya. I suppose some of it is that the idea of it is planted in my head..the bumper, that is. But see, this is why i posted....get some proper feedback. Appreciate it fellas.

 

I've seen people run plate bumpers with no lift the life of their vehicles. A set of good tires is a lot better than a lift, your truck in stock form is pretty capable.

 

I got a bumper before I lifted it. Not long before though. I think you're better off with a lift personally. Offroading is about 2 things and 2 things only: Traction and clearance.

 

I think the aluminum armor is more of a fad. I saw a whole lot of it popping up for a while and now it seems to have died off.

Honestly though, after rereading the initial post. If you think you're not going to wheel anything rough then you might be fine with aluminum. BUT I'm almost certain that aluminum is going to cost you a much larger chunk of mulah. I'm not too familiar with 2nd Gen Taco's but I know on the 1st gens there isn't much room in the front to play around with. Bump into something and in goes the fan into the radiator lol. So on our old 96 we had at least a brush guard just to give it a little extra protection even for daily driving.

Or you could just go with a type of tube bumper, still fairly heavy but not as heavy as plate. I don't think you're going to die if you don't upgrade the suspension, but it just won't be very happy.

 

I was pretty much in the same situation as you. I wanted the aluminum for weight reduction and also for rust resistance. At the end i went with steel for the "better safe than sorry" measure. Aluminum is strong, but at the end of the day if it bends or something goes wrong, the whole thing is toast. Where with steel, it can be reworked and fixed.

As for suspension, because im going with OME and not adjustable coilovers, i have to wait for my bumper to install in order not to get too much lift. Im going with Relentless fab so this is going to take a while but works on in the long run.

Good luck with your descision