ARB Vs. Relentless Fab Front bumper.

I'm curious to know the pros and cons between the ARB and Relentless Fab front bumpers for the 1st Gen Tacomas, mine specifically

I was originally looking at Elite and Shrockworks, but the turn around time rules them out. I'd either be getting an ARB bumper or a Relentless DIY kit with the summit bars or possibly the full light guard. I'd like to have recovery points, a good winch, and LED lighting in addition to having a bulletproof bumper for daily driving and exploring Baja.

I'm trying to wrap my head around as many variables as possible and figured I ought to post a thread and see if anyone has insight to offer me before I pull the trigger on an expensive (for me) purchase. I'd like this bumper to last the lifetime of the truck, God willing.

 

Relentless FTW.

 

Can a light bar be mounted under the bar comfortably? if so, what would you say the max length would be for a light bar there?

 

depends.. if you are looking for strength id go with Relentless for sure. if your looking for something where if your going to get into an accident and you don't want something that will completely destroy the car you hit then go with ARB.

 

If you were thinking "Elite" but are turned off by the lead time.....your answer is the "Relentless" DIY. Hands down, the two best looking front plate bumpers out there for the 1st gens.... imho

 

Feel free to continue the discussion, and if anyone in the thread is a welder in the S. California area and can weld the kit together for me at reasonable price great, but the custom shop that currently has my truck just contacted me that A) welding the DIY kit together with a jig is just too big a job for a professional shop to do and B) They'd charge me an arm and a leg to do it if they could.

I don't mean to knock on anyone but FFS, I guess if you want a job done you've got to do it yourself. It looks like they're making the decision for me, and I'll be getting an ARB bumper. I shouldn't feel too bad as I do like the ARB bumper. I guess I hate feeling forced into something. I've become used to customizing things how I like when it comes to my other interests, primarily PC building, or guitars even. "...yeah I know the tuners cost nearly the same price as the guitar, can you install them or not?"

Also, if anybody with a black first gen (preferably double cab) cares to show off their ARB bumper in the thread, that would be grand. I don't suppose clear signal lenses are an option with ARB, would they..? I've been spoiled by my clear on black pre-collision setup.



I guess I could say that I'm going ARB because I'd want to give the other person's vehicle in a potential collision a chance at salvageability.

 

A 22" fits awesome. We even offer them and might be able to work you out a package deal on the combo

 

I'd love to, but the shop refuses to weld without a jig. I see that teaching myself to weld really needs to be bumped up on the "things to do" list. I wish life would throw me more success (or at least money) than hurdles to overcome and maybe I'd check it off by now

If you have any completed bumpers and/or customers dragging their heels with payment, let me know.....


Shit, how's an ARB bumper going to look with 4.5" flared fiberglass fenders?

 

This makes no sense. The ARB has the same strength as a relentless. One is no weaker than another. Looks on the other hand, everyone has their own opinion.

 

Thats kind of a lame reason. The fronts fit together very simply. As long as the top plate is put onto the center section centered, and square/flat the remaining pieces fit together under it and theres really no way to mess it up. It can be assembled on your truck in their shop in about 30 minutes(with the stock bumper removed in advance). Then weld it up with some breaks to keep it from getting too hot and warping and you're good to go.

 

Let me look up your phone number, I'll see if I can have my people contact your people. You say it's a 30 minute job, huh? I overheard the shop welder state that it would cost me $3k to have him fabricate a bumper from scratch..... Anyways, I'll have them give you a call. At this point I'll be happy with either bumper, I just don't want to get screwed over on labor to have someone weld for me.

I didn't mean to insult the ARB bumper (I really ought to quote posts) I was just commenting on that other guy's reasoning for going ARB, hence the sarcasm face
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE:

Louie or Dale from the shop should be calling you to find out more about assembling the bumper. If things are a go, they won't rake me over the financial coals, and you can swing a good deal, I'd love to get some lights for my new front end, as you mentioned a bundle deal earlier.

Momentarily putting ARB back on the back burner. I probably should be PMing you this....

 

This eliminates ARB right?

 

That's what I thought, but the ARB site says that they are standard...

 

Arb has no recovery points.

 

Foot in mouth. Just noticed first gen. Whoops

 

RELENTLESSSSSSS DIY Kit Here

 

Freakin Sweet! I was just going to ask if anyone could post their DIY kits. I'm paranoid that the welds will come back wonky compared to ARBs one-piece design. I just watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yqHL7Uo4_s and I can honestly say I'll be happy with either my first or second choice.

I don't suppose you have any close ups of the bumper? I'd love to see how smooth the welds and everything came out

 

The relentless took us noobs 45 minutes to have it tac'd and ready to go. Now finishing the welds will take a while but whit him the first hour of putting my bumper together we had the old bumper off and the relentless DIY was all tac'd together. We took it off and started stitch welding the inside and fully welded the outsides.

Here's a pic vvvvvvv

The one thing we did wrong was weld the recovery points on wrong. The pic was right after welding so they are on there wrong, but have since been fixed

 

I'm guessing the seams aren't worked completely smooth yet in that photo? I'm checking out your build thread and I too found inspiration from Blackdawg's build, as well as username's. I'm still trying to figure out if it's possible to squeeze 37s under a first gen without bottoming out or having to resort to a bro-lift. I want H1 beadlocks and Kevlar tires whilst wheeling out in no-man's land...

 

what the fuck, 30 min!? took me like 6 hours by doing it on mytruck by myself and i had to cut two pieces down because i couldnt get all the angles right