Southern Style OffRoad Slimline Full Plate and Slimline Full Tube bumpers!

I just found a pretty good solution in a video from Twonz. They just zip tied it and it looks pretty decent. If anyone else has a better suggestion I’d love to hear it.

 

Easy fix- don’t cut off your fender liners! There is absolutely no need to do that.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...age-2-high-clearence-fender-liner-mod.686353/

 

This looks great! Thanks for linking this. I’m thinking this should work fine for the tube bumper as well. Kind of hard to tell from the photos how it gets secured but still it looks like a good option.

 

@SouthernStyleOffRoad does the optional grill guard obstruct the front-facing camera on stock Off Road grills? The camera sits pretty low so I suspect it might.

 

There are no know issues with the TSS or front-facing camera. If you have any specific questions on the install or operation of the bumper, you can always email mechanic@southernstyleoffroad.com. He will be able to address any of these or future mechanical-related questions.

 

I also used a heat gun to fold mine up out of the way on the tube bumper. After folding it, I took the 2 front mounting holes and ziptied them in place.

We welded tabs on at first for mounting, but they ended up going unused.

 

Thanks for explaining this, would you mind posting a picture?

 

Yeah, let me try to get some tomorrow. I tried taking some earlier, but it had already started raining here.

 

My full tube bumper is finished and has been sitting somewhere in "ready for shipment" for almost 2 months now. No one I've talked to can give me a reason as to why it has not been shipped yet. Coming up on 7 months since ordering. @SouthernStyleOffRoad what is going on over there?

 

I'd also love to see the pics when you're able to take them!

 

I’ve had similar issues. I finally emailed them and they couldn’t figure out why the shipping department didn’t contact me, the bumper has been ready and waiting. Gotta keep on them I’ve found. Send emails and ask questions. Even after contact they said my emails went to spam and didn’t see them. I think mine has finally shipped, at least they charged me for shipping....ordered back in September I think.

Edit: confirmed, ordered September 3. I know people will claim impatience, but I was quoted 12 weeks, it’s been over 7 months. Crazy

 

Not the best of of pictures, but this is what I had settled with doing for now. You can see in the upper right where it is ziptied.

 

Yeah I ordered mine on September 4th. Pretty crazy that we have to go through this at all. I have left voicemails and emails and I cannot get a response. The only way I have been able to get ahold of someone is to use the chat feature on their website and every time they claim the manager is out and they will have him call me the next day to get shipping info, which never happens. I honestly feel like I'm getting ghosted by them at this point. They were able to send me a picture of my bumper lined up with a bunch of others, so that's the only reason I know it's finished waiting to be shipped. But it makes me wonder how many others are waiting as well. I just don't understand what the hold up is but I guess I'll just keep bugging them.

Just a forewarning to anyone thinking about ordering this bumper... 14 weeks (what it says on the order page) is an extremely generous estimate. I would not expect any sooner than twice that.

 

Dear Tacomaworld,

I do apologize for the way things have went with the full/tube bumper. I honestly can only attribute it to generated interest on top of complications left on us from Covid. I'm not going to sit here and bull crap anyone on what's going on other then we got overwhelmed with the full/tube product. When we first launched this product is was 2 weeks before the nation wide shutdown so the interest was very very manageable on our end of things. We had 1 guy doing the full/tube bumpers and the rest of the Tacoma products were handled by our other welders. We did not see the need at the time to hire more welders because the interest was poor to begin with, but what we noticed a few months later is the interest was ONLY limited due to the shutdowns/hype of Covid at that time. Once Sept/Oct came around we saw a huge jump in our tube/full bumpers. Originally we expected the tube/full bumpers to sell about 1/3 of our overall Slimline bumpers every month.. but that just ended up NOT being the case once things started to pick up. Our tube/full bumpers almost match the Slimline bumpers to the exact %. Say we sell 150 Slimlines a week, we're now selling 150 tube/full a month as well. This has honestly kicked our ass. You add the generated interest, ontop of issues we had in the shop (Shipping department got Covid, weather, holidays, terminations, etc) it's created a perfect storm of issues for us to look irresponsible and I understand that.

In the past month I have hired 2 additional shippers, and 3 additional welders, I'm currently training a customer service rep on side of me as we speak. So we're trying to alleviate any current issues going on right now, but if you're in the current crack or issue with us please email me personally at Lee@southernstyleoffroad.com and I'll give you my personal cell phone and we will get this handled.

I apologize for this and I can write 1000x apologizes but I know at the end of the day you guys just want your product. So I am sorry, but let me get this fixed for you as well!

-Lee

 

So I have a question for you Lee. Are you catching up on production or are you just barely keeping up with the backorders and new orders coming in? I have been watching this bumper for a while and really do want to order one, however, if it is going to be 20, 25, 30 weeks to receive it will change my mind a bit.

Everyone seems to be delayed from UpTop, RCI, King everyone, so I think most of us are pretty understanding of these issues. However, lack of updates when requested can become a bit concerning especially when paying full price for something that still needs to be fabricated.

 

Essentially we are. It's just a lot to deal with, I would say full bumpers moving forward are about 16ish weeks out. We're clearing the floor with the old full/tube but they've been done, just shipping had a BUNCH of hang ups. You see, when we first started the full/tube bumpers we had to charge freight upon completion. This means, 16 weeks later, I had to call you and tell you that you owed 200-700 for shipping, not everyone has that kind of cash sitting around for their SSO bumper to finish. So we got held up on that aspect of the business alone, which is why we changed it to a flat $250 but it doesn't go to your house no more it goes to your local hub and you have to drive to pick it up.

To be quite honest and not bias, we're operating with 200% more Tacoma welders and 200% more shippers. We have doubled our staff in the past month and it's honestly been showing, but the shippers just got hired in the past week so it's going to take a second for them to catch up. Once everyone is on page, I project in the next couple of weeks our business will change completely on the Tacoma side of things. Our 4runner side is hitting on all levels and we've already fabricated all orders up until March 13th and we're hoping to achieve that here in the Tacoma world in the next 3-5 weeks.

The issue is, we're still a growing company and we deal with growing pains all the time. We're only human over here and Covid has changed every single interaction. Metal is up, the lumper we use to ship full bumpers is up, stimulus and unemployment are up so finding good workers is down, LTL is charging an assload of money to ship things because everyone in the world is shipping everything at this time, metal is in low supply, etc, etc. And like I said, we're still growing. 7 years ago we were a one man show making 4 bumpers a year, now we're a 30 man show making 4 bumpers every 20-30 minutes and that's just in 7 years. So as we grow their have been pains, and I'm very honest with anyone who ask. *Sidenote* We grew so fast banks would not loan us money, they said our generated interest and expediential growth had to be fabricated and they wrote us off as drug dealers/money launders.. so that's how fast we've been growing and it's legit gotten even more insane since around October, once people noticed the world wasn't going to end because of Covid they started blowing money. Since you can't blow money on inside fun, outside motorsports has been the scene to go to. From motorcycles, to UTVS, campers, offroad shocks, tents, etc.. if it involves outside the growth and generated interest is up by literal 100s of %.

I'm sorry, I rant LOL. If I didn't answer your question or you have more feel free to ask away.

-Lee

 

Appreciate the response for sure. I feel your pain and know exactly what you are talking about from a business standpoint. I know things are rough and I am sure you are not a Magnaflow operation, so it makes sense that there will be growing pains. Hopefully, everything will get in order and backorders will start to catch up a bit more. I am in no rush for this bumper, however, I have some cash and a wife who is willing to allow me to spend it, so I have a small window to take advantage of this situation and get some shit on order. However, as of right now I have over $8k out and nothing to show for it due to all these backorders and delays. So on that aspect, it sucks, to say the least. That said, I am overall really understanding of what is happening around the country and more than happy to support small growing businesses more than the big box shops.

I will follow up with you here in the next few weeks and see how things are going, and if things are starting to look better, I will gladly give you my business.

 

I appreciate this response and honestly anyone whose putting up with us small businesses right now. I wont get into the politics of things, but the support for us small businesses through Covid has been almost non existent in comparison to big businesses. The way things were basically funneled to big businesses and us small guys were pushed out the way, forced to shut down, etc was eh at best and it hurt to see my guys struggle during those times. This is the bad part of being a small business, you get to know your employees, customers and business relationships on a level that big businesses don't so when painful times come around it's much harder on us because well emotion gets into the mixed. For the big business guys, their is no face, just monetary expectations sooo bad times come at very to little emotional cost.

I'm fairly confident in the next couple of weeks the forums, Facebook and customers all over will see a difference in our business model. We're also launching a new website finally after 11 years sometime later this month.

Thanks for your understanding.

-Lee

 

Totally understand brother. Keep your head up, do the best you can and keep growing your business. I can’t speak for the rest of the community, but I know this information would help me to know that my money was going to a shop where it will matter.

Either way, I will follow up with you soon and see how things are going and hopefully get my bumper on order.

Be well and be safe.

 

Lee, thanks for this. I am so much happier to buy from a company that talks candidly with customers, even if there are some bumps along the way.