Recommendations for front steel bumpers, <$1k

I'm at 160K miles so I'm only going to keep my truck for another 2-3 years if all goes well. I'm in the market for a new steel front bumper, priced under $1k delivered. Yes, I know ARB is great, but please don't suggest anything more than $1k shipped.

If you have recently purchased a steel front bumper for <$1k, or know someone that has, please let me know what, how it fits, and a link

Thanks!

 

Less thank 1k shipped ! Might limit your choices ..... Hooke road bumpers would probably be your best bet in that price range .

 

Trail gear. Order from summit and get free shipping

 

Thanks. I'll look at the above suggestions. ARB is out of the question with this many miles.

 

That's an odd way of looking at things

There are plenty of people easily spending over $4-6k on suspension for a vehicle with over 250k miles. Exo cages on fully beat up turds that run 5 digit odometers, and worse.

If you don't need a steel bumper, just don't get one. But saying 160k miles is too many to "upfit" your vehicle is ridiculous especially for a Toyota.

One more thing, costs will continue to rise up. Have you seen the cost of steel? I collect anything I can versus buying it cause it's expensive as hell.

Just got done fixing up an old trailer with scrap steel no more than an hour ago.

 

Either cheap China shit or weld your self coastal off road bumpers. But in my opinion the only good bumper is arb.

 

Check BAMF

 

Coastal Offroad for sure

 

I don’t think there’s any good ones under $1k.
You can keep an eye out for used.
Or wait until a great driver crashes into your front and let them pay for it.
Happened to a buddy with street parking. They backed into his front causing damage and left tail light shards on the ground from their vehicle. But simply repaired it back to or similar to stock.

might not be as common if your parking is not parallel public street parking.

I think a good criteria is:
-maybe some tubes/hoops
-improved approach angle
which when it comes to fitting that I don’t see many that do. Only to pick from:

-coastal extreme clearance DIY kit
-ATHfab
-WarFab Tomcat
-BAMF
-ARB
-C4

how to narrow it down even more than that I don’t know. I do know this though:
-ARB juts out far. Bad approach angle
-some do not offer side reinforcement brackets, though other brand brackets might be compatible
-WarFab is the only one who makes recessed recovery points for off road performance
-some look better than others
-headlight/full hoops. I hear this is important. Even fewer actually offer that
-Coastal DIY kit may be harder to do

right now I’m resisting the urge to blow my money on one and the heavier duty springs I’d need to swap in to handle it as well as costly regear that would become even more needed for weight reasons.

but if tomorrow someone smacks the front of the truck I’d absolutely start comparing the above options


ARB brags it’s bumper is the only one crash safety tested to deploy an airbag. They’re also a big company, likely rich.
As opposed to a small shop or one man operation who even though skilled at welding and design, is not gonna buy a $20k truck just to slap their bumper on it and crash it into a wall to see what happens.

It’s perfectly possible the other bumpers are airbag compatible as well. I’m sure their design and material is similar if not the same.

I don’t know how the Tacoma airbag system works. But if it’s the same as most cars which it may be; cars have impact sensors and inertia sensors. If a vehicle suddenly slows a great amount in the blink of an eye, the vehicle computer knows that a crash has occurred and trigger the airbag.
I assume a Tacoma will “quickly slow” in an impact and because of that hopefully deploy an airbag, regardless of which steel bumper

whether you push me down a hill into a wall in a shopping cart from IKEA, Target, or Walmart, it’s still a sudden stop

I wouldn’t put a Hooke Road bumper on my truck if you paid me to

 

I need a front bumper. I can scab together my cracked OE bumper, but....

Like I said, my budget is <$1k new, shipped. I don't care if people spend $10k on whatever on a truck with 200k miles on it, I'm not going to. Soooooo.....

 

i just ordered a front bumper for my 3rd gen from BAMF. 816 shipped

 

so look for a replacement OEM bumper locally and swap them out.

 

Why is ARB out of the question with your miles? I have 184k miles on stock suspension with a camper and roof racks. No issues here

 

Sounds like a completely pointless pursuit if you see no use for it. Go on rock auto, get a new bumper shell, take it to maaco to get it painted and you’re likely under $1000

 

Thats a good price, I like theirs and warfab best.

 

You can surely find a used steel bumper on craigslist, offer up, fb market place for $1k I see them all the time. Got my v1 “ebay bumper” used for $400

 

So now I've been looking back through the bumper dealers and I could have sworn one of the smaller cottage shops offered a difference based on whether you run bulge fenders...anyone recall or am I just dreaming?

 

that is a steal, I paid $850 for my all pro.
gave my all pro to my girlfriend for her truck, looked around at bumpers and now I think all pro is the best option for my truck
looked into getting another and now they cost over $1300, and of course DV8 is also up there at $1000

 

https://www.bayareametalfab.com/Deal-of-the-day_c_33.html

You’re welcome. It’s on sale for the next 12 hours or so

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175293240591
found this but not sure its real..