body armor 4x4 tacoma bumper

Also, one bad review. Much like our pal in this thread, the issue is with him, not the product:
By patrick thornton - See all my reviews
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$609 Body Armor TC-2961 - Black - Steel Rear Bumper for 2005-2013 Toyota Tacoma

Body Armor TC-2961 Black Large Rear Bumper for Toyota Tacoma (Automotive)
this product sucked says it will fit a 2001 toyota tacoma but that is horse s*** its made for a 2005 and up i cut it into pieces and modified and rewelded it together so that it would fit my 2001 toyota tacoma......
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The product clearly states 05+ so we all know that this review is not applicable. Also, our pal Patrick is a fabricator (see the trend)

 

this is good..

 

Okay - Disagreeing about the fit and quality of a product is one thing, talking shit about fab skills and intelligence because of those differences of opinion is another.

Knock off the shit talking and try to provide a helpful answer for the OP, mmmmkay??

 

Understood.
I addressed all of his points, struggles and provided pics.

He just continues to throw stones.

 

Was a general statement. I'll take care of anything further on a more personal note from here.

 

Sorry OP for all the some times a member gets carried away but my buddy has that bumper and I helped him install it and it does fit good we didn't have any issues and he got the tire rack and mounted a 35" tire and after 2 years it still looks good and their is no damage at all hope this helps.

 

Cool. No worries.

 

Took me about an hour to install my bumper. And another 30 minutes to hook up my light. 15 dollars at autozone and I spayed it flat black. I'm happy with my bumper for the cost and still able to show off my dark knight hitch cover.

 

Let me say that this bumper is not perfect. It did have some fit problems, but I was still able to mange to put it on. The instructions are not perfect either. I could see were someone would have problems. The weight of the bumper has leveled out my truck. Time will tell how the leaf springs hold up.

The front was a different story. First off I should of known it was not gonna be good when this showed up in box. Given the weight I can only image what kind of abuse it took during shipping. This bumper I got was twisted and was not even close to looking square in any kind of way. But I didn't really notice until I put it on. I probably could have made it work, but for the money it cost why should I. And yes I have the skills and tools necessary to have made it work. The instructions were horrible and I was disappointed since the rear bumper I have from them was not too bad. The only good thing that came out of this is finding Tacoma World!!

 

I can definitely see your point with the front bumper and appreciate your honesty with the rear.
I also appreciate that you posted pics

 

Kinda off topic but I have the Body Armor Sport rack for my Tacoma and the build quality was pretty shoddy. It was brand new in the box when I got it but had missing powder coat, dents, rusty welds, and the mounting brackets were bent every which way. Installing and adjusting took several hours and a big mallet. it convinced me to avoid Body Armor in the future...and I really liked the rear bumper and tire carrier! You guys reinforced my decision to stay away.

 

My Body Armor (Tolar Mfg) for my CJ was imported from China = crap.
The one on the display at 4Wheel Parts, was made in USA. But the one received was made in China.

Once they have your money either through a distributor or Body Armor, your experience will be they "could care less" attitude; from their employees, the manager and Jeff included at Body Armor as previously mentioned. As recommended by Jeff at Body Armor, I installed a unwarranted hole in my tailgate for the recommended bump stop, and still the unit failed. I should take Body Armor to small claims for the damage.

 

I found out that my Body Armor tire carrier and side steps had been previously returned to 4wheel parts prior to me getting them. The bands had been cut and the boxes were missing the instructions.

The tire carrier was defective and returned as the set screw hole was not ever drilled from the factory for the bottom cup. The bottom cup as previously mentioned was missing. The side steps had also been returned as the banding was missing and the instructions were not in the box. As previously mentioned the mounting bracket holes that are in the steps were all installed too close together and once you tried putting the brackets on the bolt heads were so close together that you could not get a wrench or socket on them.

I got the same "customer service" attitude from 4wheel parts. Previous poster said to call and use a "professional", yea right. The 4 wheel parts "professional" told me the wrong wheel offset that I needed, told me the wrong tire size that I could put on my truck, told me the wrong leveling kit to buy, and and then acted like he didnt know me when I asked him about the Body Armor problems.

As also previously mentioned Body Armor themselves did nothing and offered no assistance. The manager did offer to send me free step inserts and a replacement u bolt for the tire carrier but it never happened. I sent another email to him about it which went un answered. Being that my carrier was a return and manufactured wrong I am now confident that the ubolt had been stripped by the previous person had had tried to install it.

Instead of making this right, Body Armor and other posters have accused me of taking on something that I couldnt install. Horse Hockey! Ive had to take all of the "professionals" wrong advice, poor engineering, and defective product and make it work, which Ive done extremely well.

 

Body Armor did admit that the front bumper skin, 8 holes where it attaches to the frame mounting assembly and where the d rings go, were designed / drilled too small. I was told that they should have been bigger to allow for up and down / side to side adjustment of the bumper skin on the mounting assembly that bolts to the frame. As I previously posted I had to drill out all of these holes to 1/2 " bigger in all directions to get my bumper to align with the fenders and front grill.

They did not address the gap and misalignment of the bottom tabs on the assembly that bolts to the truck and said nothing about how to fix it. As previously mentioned I had to step drill them out, add a 3/4" stack of stainless washers, and install new stainless bolts, washers, and nuts to make the connections.

 

Question for the two in the pissing contest. When did both of you purchase your parts? Could there have been changes made in the time between each of you bought those?

 

Discover from 12 different 4 wheel parts locations that they ALL hate installing the Tacoma version of Body Armor. "Welcome to our world". I was told this by 7 different techs.

I believe that I have also been a victim of the Chinese version of the stuff. Body Armor used to be mfg here in the US and i was told that now it is not. My front bumper skin is actually twisted somewhat, not from shipping damage but from poor jig alignment when it was welded.

I had a local guy stop me at a gas station here in town who is a Tacoma World member. I pointed out every place where I had to drill out holes and grind on the main mounting plate to get the bumper to go on the truck. I have to take the bumper back off one more time and grind some more on the bottoms of the main mounting assembly gussets as the front of the bumper still needs to tilt down about a 1/4".

My concern is that the top rear edge of the bumper skin will not clear the bottom cross brace that goes across in front of the radiator from one head light to the other head light. The bumper is already rubbing on it somewhat and there is no room for it to go down anymore.

There is a 5/8" gap at each end of the bumper at the fenders. The bumper is not "level" across the front of the truck, under the head lights, or under the fenders. It looks like it is tilted back. It is an extremely tight fit under the grill and over the cross piece between the headlights with the 3/8" lower gaps each side at the fenders. I had to grind a 3/8" taper to both sides of the bottom of the main winch support in order to To get the bumper even close to being aligned enough to even fit on the truck. I know that the entire main assembly was built wrong and there is still the miss alignment and gap between the frame and bottom tabs of main attachment assembly.

I showed this guy at the gas station, he said that he had a 2012 and was looking for bumpers. I showed where I had to grind the main mounting plate and where it needed more. I also showed him that if it needed a little more off that the bumper skin would not tilt forward, raising the rear of the bumper level with the fenders, but then could not clear the center cross brace between the headlights.

I guess you guys are beyond considering that manufactures sometimes make shit wrong. You guys would have given up putting this on I'm sure. I will look into a flicker account to upload pics so that I can tell all you guys to kiss my ass.

 

To: Body Armor
Subject: You are now off my list

 

AMEN! Body Armor is NOT a good product...too many bad reviews and unhappy owners such as myself make buying it a big risk.

 

Can anyone give me the short version in how to post pics using my phone?