Aftermarket Bumper

Hey Guys!

New to the forum but I've been following around for a few weeks now. I recently lost a battle to a stone wall with my beloved 4runner. Totaled, but luckily Toyota's hold value really well!

I'm looking at switching over to a Tacoma after owning 4runners for the last 8 years and I have a few that I've found locally and on Autotrader that have seriously caught my attention.

So here are my questions;

This particular 2013 Tacoma DCSB TRD Off-Road has been on my radar for about two weeks but haven't been able to take the trip to go see it personally. Now, I never got into aftermarket bumpers with my runners but have always wanted to.

First, does anyone know the make of this bumper just by these two photos? Like I said, I haven't seen it personally so I can't see what it is.
Second, are there issues caused by an aftermarket bumper? I travel quite a bit, mostly highway, but also off-road when I'm back home in Tahoe. Will the added weight cause problems with suspension, etc?
I've never bought a vehicle with any type of mods on it, as I generally like doing them myself and knowing how long its been done, if it was a good job, etc.

Any info you guys can give me I'd really appreciate it!

 

Its an allpro apex series bumper

Front end will likely sag if not upgraded to better springs fuel milege will suffer

 

Yep and it looks like it's missing the lower valence piece.

 

Does it look like it may have already had an upgrade? Looks like OME may be on there?

That part really bothers me...not sure if I would keep the bumper or just replace it with an oem and sell it off.

 

Bumper in the pic might be Allpro's aluminum version that costs $1300+ depending on options. If that's the case its only like 60 lbs (not "too" big a difference from the stock front end stuff you remove to put the bumper on). Someone else on here was running the aluminum apex on stock suspension....I had pm'ed him a while back and he said ride didn't suffer hardly any.

 

I'm going to get one of these (with the center hoop also), but it looks terrible without that lower piece.

 

Is there a way to confirm that just by the photos? I'm hoping to go see it in the next week, but I'd like to know as much as I can before going there.

 

Pretty sure Boogie is right. Looks exactly identical to the Allpro apex series.

& yeah it looks horrible without that lower piece.

 

Anyone know if you can buy that lower piece?

 

Maybe, try contacting them

 

I asked a guy on here who owns the exact setup that I am interested in and he said it was an option you select when checking out. You might want to call AllPro though because I did a fake checkout and never had that option to add the lower piece ... which I assume means that it comes with it by default.

 

I have the All pro Apex

 

Ive had the allpro apex but I like my Relentless bumper so much more. If you PM him today I bet he will hook you up the the 20% off black friday sale.
http://www.relentlessfabrication.us/

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/deals-coupons/353067-relentless-fab-thanksgiving-sale.html

 

Personally, I wouldn't buy a front bumper that wasn't aluminum due to weight differences. The bummer is Relentless currently isn't offering their aluminum option for the front bumper which sucks for me because I have one of their rear bumpers. As a result I'm leaning Pelfreybuilt front bumper because the aluminum is such a good deal and they were doing 15% off for Black Friday through yesterday or Sunday I think. Might be worth contacting them to see if they will still honor it as that's a VERY good setup with lots of options and weighs about 100lbs less than the steal version.

 

I think it depends on how you used your taco. I had a couple hard hits on some rocks that Im not sure an Alloy bumper would have taken. But the wieght difference is huge.

 

Everything I've read says that the aluminum bumpers offer 75-80% the strength which is a conservative estimate. Pelfreybilt even has a video of them pulling a truck around by the bumper which doesn't demonstrate everything that comes with bumper strength but is pretty impressive none-the-less. For me that's worth the weight savings especially if fuel economy, handling and suspension sag are a concern.

 

Interesting. I would not have guessed it was that strong. As for the sag I compensated with stronger taller coils and the dakar leaf pack plus the add a leaf.

 

I understand the sag can be addressed for the most part with more money but it's tough to address the acceleration & fuel economy difference from added weight. I'm just saying that everyone has different priorities so for those who put more weight into those points there's other options.

 

I opted for Pelfrey's steel bumper for piece of mind. Seems like the ride got a little smoother with the added weight because of the load E tires I have on.

 

I get it. Ive given up on MPGs though. I bought a commuter.