Soooo I went into some water.... Lower Trim Panel came right off!

Funny little story...

Went out with some of the boys and we found ourselves a long submerged road that went on and on and on hahaha. Turns out it was deeper then expected. Luckily I was able to have enough speed that I didn't bog down and my inside cab didn't get wet but after we all stopped to pat ourselves on the back for finding such a mighty adversary and conquering him my buddy pointed out the front of my truck and I became mighty disconcerted! Looking back not 100 meters was my Lower Trim Panel floating away at a reasonably high rate of speed, claimed by the beast we had just defeated! So there I was, forced by nature to take my boots off and go for a dip!

Moral of the story! Use zip ties on the attachment points of the lower trim panel to hold it tight to your vehicle! Maybe this wont happen to you!
Anyone have any ideas on a replacement for this plastic POS?

 

Low profile bumper, like SOS concepts.

 

Or an SSO slimline

 

I want! Right now though I was just thinking something cosmetic as future purchases involve a very aggressive replacement for the entire thing. future me problems...

 

Hopefully you didn't stop for long and suck in any water into the rear diff.

 

Or C4 Fab Lo Pro - all three are almost identical lol

 

But isn't the plastic bumper there so that in event of an accident, or frontal collision it would give itself away for the crumple zones to absorb the energy from an impact?
That said, Toyota could have designed the truck better instead of cheap plastics parts and tabs.

 

Let's see... don't hit the water at 912 mph?

 

I hate the cheap plastic bumpers on the Taco.

 

It can be truly stated that no where, on a Toyota, can there be found any "cheap" plastic!

(..."Cheap" as in low cost, the true meaning of the word!)

 

And some people claim that initial quality means nothing...

 

Yes, it gives way in the event of a collision. I know this first hand

 

were you able to reattach it? Just curious... I never really liked that under bite, but definitely looks worse without it.

 

I'm sure those data metrics used to decide "initial quality" included river crossings, fjording, or whatever you want to call it here. Am I right?

 

If your running your truck in stuff like that. I think it's time for you to upgrade to something with a winch.

 

This ^^

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you were just running through the water too damn fast. I've done plenty of crossings with water in the 2'-3' range and have yet to lose my chin trim. The key is to maintain the bow wave and not outrun it. I honestly don't know how fast, because I've never looked at the speedometer during a crossing but I'd estimate it falls right around 5-7 mph. In the future you should make sure of the depth you are crossing before entering, prepare your truck for water well in advance of crossing (relocate breathers), and slow the hell down.

 

thats no fun .... The truck says "off-road" on the side... Imma take that as far as i can.... Even into the drink lol.