Body Armour TC 19339 Tacoma Bumper

Hey there all
Bit of a long review but trust me it’s worth the read as a precaution to deciding on this bumper.
New to the site and don’t normally post on sites but really thought I could add some value to anyone trying to decide whether to buy this bumper for their Taco.
I bought my first Taco a few weeks ago and found this bumper almost right away. Loved the geometry of this one more than others available and the fact it retains a somewhat stock-ish look, has a spot for a light bar and provides the option down the road should I choose to install a winch. Trust me I researched the hell out of it, almost analysis paralysis but saw great quality in all reviews, photos and videos.
Beware that’s where the thrill stops. After waiting a week to ship up from Cali to the Vancouver BC area I took my wife on a date night and “swung by” to pick it up an hour from my home. She was a little unimpressed when in the store I added a 20” light bar to the bill but hey, kill two birds with one stone right?
Got it home and unwrapped it and to say the least I was anything but thrilled. I’ve been a journeyman Metal Fabricator as well as Pressure Welder for +20 years (I know what you’re thinking, why not make it yourself) but there are only so many hours in the day
After opening it I found that it looks like my 8 year old daughter, bless her heart, performed the weld and post-weld clean up. I mean it’s so bad I won’t put it on my truck like this. I have reached out to BA for a replacement but short of that I may have to sand blast the Powdercoat off, repair the welding and repowdercoat it. I simply cannot bring myself to put something that has this level of shoddy workmanship on my brand new rig.
Also beware it says it’s made of 3/16” steel and 1/4 which mount. Not mine!
Mine is a 1/4” winch mount base plate and mount plates but the rest of the bumper is entirely 1/8” not 3/16” steel as advertised. Not impressed as I bought it partially for front end protection. Anyone bumps this with any force and it’ll bend easily and possibly take out your light bar in the process. If it was actually 3/16” you’d likely be fine, or safer anyways.
Anywho hopefully BA honours their “commitment to quality” however if experience has taught me anything they will likely want me to foot the bill to replace it shipping back to Cali.
Let’s hope not but guys I’ll post some picks.
One more thing I would not trust a stressed 10,000lb winch-pull on this bumper as it is out of my box as the stitch welding throughout the inside of the bumpers is actually below min required thickness for any type of structural weld. If it’s a 1/8 plate they should be at least 1/8” weld sizes and mine are so inconsistent I simply couldn’t put enough faith in this unit to withhold that type of stress. I’ve designed (3D CAD), stress analyzed and built a few structural products in my day
If you look closely there are very few straight lines on this bumper due to the terrible grinder work.
I really hope they replace this bumper or I have a $850 CAD. bumper that I have to strip repair and recoat. At that point it’ll be a $1200 bumper.
Lucky for me I have a shop and welders but for you guys that don’t or are looking for a “bolt on and go” application be very wary.

 

Updated photos
No 3/16” plate here as advertised.
And really poor welding

 

Couple more pics in daylight. Local distributor (one hour away from me) has been real good about it so far and totally agrees this is not acceptable. Guy there has one on his Taco and it looks clean, good lines, nice workmanship. Looks like BA has some quality control to work on. Good thing I check the product before cutting the bumper

 

Update on this. One week later and no reply at all from Body Armour. Pretty disappointed in their customer service. I’m thinking quality is not a focus at this point in time.
Luckily 4WP have been good to deal with and should have another from their warehouse by end of the week however if that one looks the same I will abandon Body Armour products.
Bummer!

 

I'd just charge it back on your credit card and make them pick it up. Go to another fabricator.

 

4WP hooked me up but it took four bumpers. I took the original one back today to pickup the replacement. We had to dig through 3 more new ones to find a good one. The second one was full of porosity in the outer visible welds. When I tipped it back a whole pile of rust fell out of the drain hole on the top bar. The one I picked was of good quality welding and had rust inhibitor used inside the top bar along with rubber plugs inside. It also had a significantly better powder coat finish.
All four bumpers side by side varied widely in weld quality, powdercoat finish quality & packaging quality.
If I couldn't have found one in the four today I would have gotten my money back.
Even the guys at the shop couldn't believe it.

 

BTW I never did get a response whatsoever from Body Armour. No email reply. No returned call to my phone messages......nothing. I have worked in the steel fabrication and manufacturing industry for more than two decade and have never received such a uncontrolled quality and low level of customer service from a manufacturer.
I get the impression they are not doing the manufacturing themselves and are nothing more than a reseller hence cannot control their quality and don't know how to even address it.
Its a bummer because its a great looking bumper.

Would I buy one again.......not a chance given the time I had to spend to get a good one.

 

doc76 - Appreciate the time and effort you put into this post! Starting my "search" for an good bumper (and future) wench and your photos and description are enlightening and totally help me out in my search. Again, much thanks for this informative post!

 

Well mine arrived today. Drop shipped direct from body armor. Box was destroyed and mounting points slightly bent. Also had some of docs issues. Bumper tang for skin was t welded and lots of other imperfections

 

doc do you have any pictures you can post of the bumper you kept? I want to compare to the one I received today. Its way better than the first one but still seems like it still has some imperfections. Maybe some is normal, I dont know.......

 

Yes I’ll send you some in a few hours. That bumper you have looks like one that we rejected on our end here.

 

I posted pictures of the one I got today in the other thread

 

Here’s the forth one I accepted.
I certainly wouldn’t pull what they said the lugs are rated for.
At one point in my career I was a weld inspector as well for structural and pressure and I wouldn’t feel comfortable pulling what they claim they are rated for.