Apogee Off Road 3rd Gen Tacoma Bumper Options

Consult the almighty Googles! I don't know the wiring diagram off the top of my head, but splicing them wasn't difficult, just peel back the plastic shroud and go to town.

 

@Apogee Offroad would you be able to provide me the dimensions for the BSM sensor not including the mounting tabs?

 

Not enough pictures in this thread!

 

Mine gets here today. Ordered in June. I'll post a pic when I get done with the install, hoping to have time this weekend before the cold weather gets to Colorado!

 

Picked mine up last week. Let's see the installed pic!

 

Got it put on today. Everything went on pretty smooth, except the stock truck side wiring harness for the trailer plug doesn't reach to the bumper side connector now... I will have to cut some of the truck side harness electrical tape upstream to see if I can get some more reach. Took our time and completed the install in about 5 hours. Taking the old bumper off was definitely the hardest part. And, I still need to wire up the S2 pod lights.

 

Same issue here. Like how the black bumper goes with the color of your truck, so familiar!

 

So here is my detailed installation of my Apogee rear bumper. I have had it on about a month and the BSM and the parking sensors work fine, although the parking sensors seem more sensitive and pick joints up in concrete as obstacles.


HOW TO INSTALL THE APOGEE BUMPER

Bumper as it arrived on pallet. Was very well packed. The truck that delivered it had a lift gate to lower it and a pallet jack to move it to where I wanted it next to my driveway.


NO Instructions for installation were included, however, you can download them from the Apogee website next to the description of this rear bumper. When I went to the website it had the instructions for the front bumper install there so I contacted them and they put the correct instructions up. They weren’t very complete so I decided to do this write up.




REMOVING THE OEM BUMPER

I have the towing package, parking sensors, and Blind Spot Monitor (BSM). Before removing the bumper you need to disconnect the three connectors for these items. One of these three connectors also powers the license plate lights.

NOTE: ONLY REMOVE THESE THREE CONNECTORS AT THIS TIME. EVERYTHING ELSE (the BSM, the parking sensors themselves, the connectors to the license plate lights, and the connector for the tow package) CAN BE REMOVED MORE EASILY AND MORE SAFELY WHEN THE BUMPER IS OFF THE TRUCK. DON’T TRY TO REMOVE ANYTHING MORE THAN THESE THREE CONNECTORS NOW—YOU WILL MOST LIKELY DAMAGE SOMETHING IF YOU DO.

Here is a YouTube video that shows this—but only remove the three connectors shown from about 2:04 to 2:19 and 2:31 to 2:53. He shows removing more electrical items now than I recommend—don’t do what he says. All the rest of the electrical items and harnesses can be removed easier when the bumper is on the ground. If you try to remove them now you will likely damage/ruin them. https://youtu.be/tqbvOmav5tY


After you have disconnected the 3 electrical connectors your are ready to remove the OEM bumper. You ONLY need to remove 10 ea. 17mm bolts (5 bolts on each side of truck). Keep the bolts you will reuse them to install the new bumper (this photo is actually after the new bumper was installed since I forgot to take one when I removed the OEM bumper)






Here is the bumper removed. You can see the various wiring harnesses running through it.




View of truck with the bumper gone.




REMOVING THE PARKING SENSORS, BSM AND LICENSE PLATE LIGHTS FROM THE OEM BUMPER

These are two of the three connectors (the third was the tow system connector) on the bumper that you removed above. You can remove the wiring harness attached to the bumper by cutting/removing all the connectors (zip tie in the picture below) from the OEM bumper. You don’t need to save any of these connectors because you won’t reuse them—you just use zip ties to attach the harness/wiring to the Apogee bumper.





View of the left (driver) side BSM monitor (with the “L” scratched into it) with a parking sensor above it. You must remove the plastic bumper covers to see this. The BSM is held on by 3 bolts. Just remove the bolts and discard them—you won’t reuse these either.





These are the plastic cover pieces that came off the steel portion of the OEM bumper. To remove the BSM you need to remove all the plastic bumper covers pieces from the steel frame of the bumper. You can use a flat edge screwdriver or a trim removal tool to remove about a dozen or more clips that attach the plastic to the steel sub-frame. You don’t need to save any of the clips, or the plastic bumper covers because you won’t re-use any of them. I don’t know if any of it has re-sale value. Mine are scratched up from off-roading which is why I decided to switch out to the Apogee bumper in the first place.





Grommet for the parking sensors. There are four of them in the bumper altogether. KEEP THEM—you will re-use them. The sensor has already been pushed out of it (see previous photo showing the BSM device). There are little plastic clips molded into the grommet that hold it into the plastic bumper. I couldn’t see them since they were so small. Didn’t really matter since they just bent out of the way and weren’t damaged. Also, the steel in the Apogee bumper is thicker than the plastic OEM bumper where these grommets are so the clips in the grommets don’t work anyways—the friction fit in the new steel bumper is fine.



Removing the connector to the license plate lights is difficult. I broke them on both lights and had to buy two new lights (set me back a total of about $110 at the dealer—so BE CAREFUL). This is a picture of the connector that plugs into the light. You depress the piece (under my finger) on the wider side of the connector to remove it from the light itself.




This is the license plate light. You can see the slot (on top of the gray portion of the light fixture) where the clip of the connector fits through. To install the lights themselves into the new bumper you just depress the two molded-in clips (under my thumb and finger) and push them in. They go in easily, so if you are having problems just turn them a quarter turn.




INSTALLING LIGHTS & SENSORS INTO THE APOGEE BUMPER

View of one of the license plate lights installed. (The bumper is upside down in the picture)








This is a picture of the connector installed into the license plate light already installed in the new bumper. There is a red stripe molded into the light fixture itself where you need to depress the connector to remove or install it. Also shown is a rear view (normally not seen) of a parking sensor and its grommet (not visible) that have been re-installed.




This is the towing connector reinstalled (next to my hand). All you had to do was push it into the provided hole in the new bumper. Also shown are the other two connectors (lower right) ready to be connected to the wiring on the truck. This is a view of the driver side of the bumper.

I waited until the bumper was bolted back on the truck and then zip-tied the harness to the various holes on the bumper and truck body. This allowed me to make sure the harness cleared any obstructions on the truck body.





It took we a while to figure out how to attach the BSM’s to the new bumper. They come with a plastic cover piece that you see from the outside of the truck and two metal holders that align the BSM in the right spot. These two metal pieces and the plastic cover piece are held together with two bolts that also bolt the assembly onto the bumper. To keep everything together, I test fit the metal pieces, the BSM and the plastic cover piece and used the two bolts to line everything up. (Picture 1) Then I used some pieces of electrical tape to keep everything in its place, removed the two bolts (Picture 2), placed the taped-together unit in the bumper, and then used the two bolts to do the final attachment. (Picture 3). I left the tape on the final installation. I guess it will eventually fall off (or not).

Picture 1: Bolts temporarily installed to line up the plastic cover, the two metal pieces, and the BSM.




Picture 2: Bolts removed and only the tape holding everything together. You can also see the connector for the BSM at the end of the wire harness.




Picture 3: Place the BSM assembly into the bumper and put the bolts in to permanently hold it in place. View is from the back side (normally not visible).



Parking sensor grommet ready to install. Poke the parking sensor through the bumper, align the grommet over it and place the two back into the steel hole in the bumper.



Normally hidden view of the wiring harness, parking sensors, and BSM installed.




Parking sensor/sensor grommet (by my finger), and BSM installed.



LICENSE PLATE HOLDER/HITCH

Front side of bumper (view from the the rear of the truck) of the tow connector installed. Also shown is the long shank hitch that is needed for this bumper because of the flip-up license plate.




This is the flip-up license plate holder installed. You can see the square hole for the hitch underneath the license plate. You can see that the bolts on the bottom of the license will hit the bumper, so I installed two felt pads to prevent rattling and scratches.





Hitch (Hidden Hitch No. 80232 with a 2” drop) Installed with a shackle installed in it. I don’t have a trailer, so I haven’t bought a ball yet. The four holes around the hitch hold the flip-up (or flip down depending on how you install it) license plate bracket.






INSTALLING THE APOGEE BUMPER ON THE TRUCK

Lift the bumper with a friend (you can’t do it yourself) and put the 10 bolts back in. It would be better to have a floor jack to help. LINE UP the bumper to make sure it is square on the truck BEFORE tightening the bolts. ALSO, close/open the tailgate to make sure it clears the bumper BEFORE you tighten the 10 bolts. Make sure the wiring harness is not pinched by anything as you install the bumper. After the bumper is bolted up zip-tie the wiring harness where you can find some attachment points.




This is the tire clearance (about an inch) with the stock 265/65/R16 Goodyear Wrangler A/T tire (fully inflated). The loop next to my fingers is for attaching safety chains for towing.



Reconnect the 3 wiring connectors that you disconnected at the beginning. I found the connector for the tow connector to be pretty taught.

You are now done.

I thought that my back-up (parking) sensors were not working at first, but I realized I had turned them off at the dash, so I turned them back on and everything was fine. The BSM have worked fine in the month I have had them installed.



This is the bumper installed.I did not install any additional lighting in the two holes in the bumper. Apogee does not appear to have any blanking plates to cover the holes, so I am just leaving them for now.

 

Awesome!!!

 

Hey Apogee! Long time lurker, wondering if you guys have any photos of the front bumper with grill guards installed on trucks. Can’t seem to find any on your website or social media.

 

Couldn’t have done the install without the @Waynebarkr instructions!

Thanks, Wayne!

 

That looks great!

 

Very Welcome. Glad I could help.

 

I want to order this bumper this month but in all the pictures I’ve seen, it looks like the bumper sticks out inches past the bed sides. Can someone what has it confirm that it does or does not? I’ve had this in my cart for months and that’s the only thing holding me back lol.

 

From the drivers seat, you cannot see the bumper sticking out on either side, from the side view mirrors. The rear fender trim sticks out WAY further than the rear bumper does. That being said, the rear bumper does stick out from the body a fraction of an inch, with the housing for the backup safety monitors… essentially the sole reason I bought these bumpers, myself.

It isn’t remarkable enough to be a dealbreaker in my opinion. Chances are you will never be “threading a needle” on a trail narrow enough where this will prevent you from proceeding.

 

Awesome, thanks. That’s good to know! I’ll be moving forward then.

 

I’ll do one better and try to show what it looks like. This is the best side angle I could snip from a walk around video I made the other day, goofing around for tiktok. That’s 285/70/17 tires barely poking out, for reference.

 

Oh that’s perfect, now I see what you mean with the fender flares. I can certainly deal with that. From the other images I was thinking it was 2 or 3 inches of poke.

 

This looks very promising. I’ve wanted a metal rear that works with BSM because I don’t drive in the city but when I do it’s a nice feature to have.
I might have to pull the trigger after thinking this over for a couple weeks.

I’ve currently got the OME leaf pack on my truck and wanted to know if the rear will sag or not? I can’t remember which leaf spring firmness I went with but at 95lbs that doesn’t seem like a lot.

 

I have stock leaf springs, and didn't notice any difference in sag after installation.