Relentless Fabrication 2nd gen Stingray Bumper Group Buy Thread

All trucks are different due to factory and the years of abuse they’ve taken. The mounts that your bumper mount to are 1/8 inch thick and bent when I leaned on it today. Easy for each truck to be slightly off. If you aren’t willing to modify slightly, don’t buy aftermarket parts

 

No disrespect but I disagree, all 2nd gens are gonna have the exact same dimensions on frame mounted specs. Maybe if someone bent a frame they would be off but judging from he posts no one has been able to fit this without modification.

 

One thing that may help people that feel the need to modify their bumpers:
The frame plates that the bumper mounts to is rediculously thin at about 1/8”. This actually works in your favor for install. We bent the outer frame plates so the studs angled in towards the truck’s centerline and this allowed the bumper to be mounted without drilling out the holes or otherwise modifying the plate. The tolerances on the Relentless bumper are really tight but using this method we were able to get everythibg on an lined up. Once everything was tightened up, the frame mounts flattened out agains the heavy steel of the new bumper.
For anyone that has done the frame plate reinforcement (where stock plates are cut off and a new 3/16” plate is welded in with grade 8 studs replacing the short factory studs) then you might need to modify one or the other but I’m sure this won’t be an issue since you’re obviously not afraid to cut n weld.

 

We mounted the bumper without modification. Just a little wiggling.

 

When mounting mine i noticed the bolts were not completely straight and like mentioned before the frame isn't exactly robust in this area. I did not need to drill anything but instead used a crescent wrench to grasp the frame and slightly tweak it to correct the angle the bolt was at. my bumper slid on perfectly. Please excuse the crude drawing but i hope this make sense.

 

How did you do this?

Does this create unexpected force outword on the studs after mounting since you had to bend inward to fit? I'm no engineer but it seems like bending the end of the frame just to mount a bumper seems like a bad idea

 

Read my post above. Angled the mounting studs inward enough to get the bumper on. Although I guess technically that is a “modification”, it’s not permanent as the frame plate gets flattened again once everything is tightened down. We didn’t drill or cut anything other than the reservoir mount.

 

Not sure what that means. Im just saying that adding stress by compressing the extreme front end of the frame wasn't intended to those mount bolts. Gonna be a weak point.

 

I’m going to type this as carefully as I can so there’s no miscommunication, but it seems that you don’t fully comprehend wat it means to install an aftermarket bumper. You’re not pinching the frame itself, you’re simply slightly (and temporarily) bending a very thin metal plate that holds the bumper studs on the truck so that you can get the relentless bumper on. Once it’s on, everything gets tightened down and the frame plate gets flattened back to where it was. If the thought of making that small of a “modification” to your truck makes you question the integrity of it then maybe this isn’t the bumper for you. You’re not taking anything away from the original structure of the truck and are actually adding and reinforcing it by adding the relentless bumper.

 

Even with your "carefully typing" you aren't grasping my point. You are compressing the frame inwards loading more stress on the mount bolts, that stress exists forever. The better option is to drill out the mount points, the bolts won't have the outward stress that you are creating. As I said originally, this bumper was made for 2nd gens, the dimensions for those six bolts should match up with no modification.

 

Ok. Good luck.

 

Likewise

 

Think of it this way. Bumper is made for a perfect, brand new 2nd gen. If there are any flaws from factory or abuse (like 90% of Tacomas) you might have to slightly bend a 1/8th inch piece of steel into place. This is a perfect piece being mounted to an imperfect truck. Make sense?

 

Yes we mounted the winch before the bumper went on but didnt wire up or mount the control solenoid. Bad idea. It was very difficult to do so after the bumper was on the truck but we got it done. I just used the supplied smittybilt fairlead. Had to grind off a bit of the bottom of my licence plate to clear the top of the fairlead.

 

I agree tolerences change with miles on our trucks but we're talking about the frame. I'd argue that after 40k, (my current miles), it's abnormal that the front end of my frame would be out of spec by 1/8". It may seem like a small dimension, but when we're talking the frame, that's a large change. If my frame was out of spec bybthat much I think there would be other effects that you would notice like alignment and braking. I had an alignment check done recently, still in spec.

I feel I need to say, Relentless made a good product, I'm happy with the end result. The outer mount points on the bumper could have been made wider to accommidate 1/8" diffs so everyone didn't have to drill out and paint, but it's a great bumper and I'm a Relentless fan.

 

To address the mounting stud fit/bolt pattern conflict-
Most trucks have the studs not perfectly straight. Some more angled than others. We've ran the same bolt pattern for 8 years and found that maybe 20-25% of trucks will require the studs to be straightened a bit to allow the bumper to slip over them. Not that the pattern is off, but because the studs just don't point perfectly forward. We'll use a wrench or dead blow hammer to get things straightened a tad before mounting and everything should line up. The frame end plates have a tendency to do this, just the nature of the truck.

 

On my truck, it's not the angle of the stud that's off, i.e. the tips of the studs, but the base of the stud itself is an 1/8" out from the bumper mount holes.

I'd suggest if you make this bumper again, enlarge those 4 outer holes by 1/8", the inner holes are good and will keep the bumper aligned side to side. That way if the studs are off angle or for whatever reason the don't line up no drilling and painting will be required.

 

Drill it out and move on ?

 

Toyota should make the truck again with the studs in the right place.