Owners with Steel bumpers.....

Just curious. How many of you made holes to fit the factory bumper sensors? Or did you just remove the sensors after switching over to a steel bumper?

 

can’t speak for all companies, but I believe there are some aftermarket steel bumpers that accommodate the sensors.

 

There are only a handful. I think more companies used to make them, but must have had liability issues.

 

I thought most had issues with sensor reliability with stock bumpers that they gave up on the system all together.

 

I think they work fine, unless you mess up the bumper, which a lot of people did off roading

 

I'm using a Body Armor rear bumper. Sold my blind spot monitoring sensors on eBay, no way to use them on 99% of the aftermarket bumpers. For the backup sensors, I drilled out the bumpers for the sensors.

Initially I didn't use the factory grommet around the sensor, I just drilled the steel slightly oversized and used FIPG to make sure they didn't want to work their way out. This method caused errors and they were unusable. The sensors freak out being this close to the steel.

2nd try I used the factory grommet around the sensor. This required drilling the holes larger. Still used FIPG to seal the bare metal and keep them in place. This worked perfectly.

 

Smart move! One less maintenance item too worry about. The Taco already comes with a Backup camera, how much more detection do we really need??

 

Would you happen to know which ones?

 

You know which ones by any chance?

 

I’ve been looking for a year I’m still looking....

 

For rear bumper, I went with MBRP Off Camber Fabrication. It has pre made opening to specially accommodate Tacoma sensors. It actually fits perfectly to the truck unlike the old stock which had an eye sore gap next to the rear light housing.

 

I don’t miss the parking assist or BSM at all, after installing my rear bumper. Learn to use your mirrors and you have a backup cam if you wanna see how close you are to something.

 

I agree mine work great and even though I'm typically 'old school' regarding this type of thing, I wouldn't give up my system as it's saved my ass once. See below thread.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/almost-lost-my-ass-end.658194/

 

This place is a good reference. I'm not exactly sure about the rear sensors since I'm in a 2017.

https://bumpersuperstore.com/c-1207664-all-bumpers.html

 

The rear cross traffic is pretty sweet. Saved my ass once or twice

 

https://www.apogeeoffroad.com/shop/toyota-tacoma-rear-bumper-gen3

This one claims to support blind spot sensors. I don't have any personal experience though...

 

BAMF steel bumpers come with holes for the back up sensors. Uses the factory grommets. No BSM support. I took the BSM sensors off and sealed up the plugs to prevent water and grime intrusion. With BSM turned off you get no errors in the cab. The BSM alerted me to unseen cars and pedestrians a few times but the added clearance was worth losing the feature for now.

 

Totally agree, especially when you’re backing onto the street from a middle driveway with cars on both sides.
You’re nudging out into traffic hoping people will stop.

I’d still like to keep the bsm, that gives some extra range to the mirrors and most of the time I have a dirt bike blocking my rear view.

 

If they made a high clearance version I’d be tempted.


I wonder if there’s anyway to rig the bsm sensor somewhere else?

 

Maybe, but then you'd have to recalibrate for sure