Body Armor Hiline Series Bumper

I might have liked to put a light bar in mine but, I knew I wanted to watch the spool. And, my old winch has clutch lever to engage/disengage the spool and I can reach it through the light bar holes as well as watch it spool. Otherwise can't do either.

 

Bought the same bumper. love it , good choice. Let me know how the winch install goes. Been thinking about it but wondering if I have to take the bumper off to do it

 

Well I had emailed Body armor. Here is a screen shot of what they sent back.LOL
It is a mystery LOL Good grief!

I guess just choose the way you want to do it and go with it. LOL

 

WTF !

 

Yup that’s par for the course with the product quality I got after 2 defective bumpers so it really does not surprise me at all that their customer service team cannot agree on correct installation.
Like I mentioned I think it looks way nicer with that tang in behind and hidden but mine wouldn’t fit. It had to go in front. My bumper facia simply wouldn’t fit back on with that tang sitting behind.
If I could do it all again I most certainly would NOT install a BA bumper again.

 

WTF indeed!
Unlike Doc76, I would install a BA bumper again. Not a big deal. Not like one guy there said "must use ALL the hardware provided" and another said " just use the hardware you THINK you need." As I said before, this thread was essentially silly. BA simply proved that it was indeed, not important.

 

I just installed my RC light bar to my hiline bumper. The bracket from the light won’t work. Use the L bracket provided by hiline and bolt with the bolt supplied by RC. You will need about 10-12 washer per side to make it work.

i haven’t read the instructions from hiline yet and stop at the light installation. Not sure if I need that L bracket later or not. Guess I’ll read later tonight and find out. Hopefully I don’t need that L bracket ….

 

Doc they responded to my response LOL

 

oh yea doc. My first one was damaged. And had some of the same markings yours had. I posted pics in your bumper thread.

 

They are Winjet Smoke tail lights. https://www.carid.com/2018-toyota-tacoma-taillights/winjet-led-tail-lights-659502724.html

 

My front facia would not fit behind the tabs. Trust me I tried. Mine is also riding in front of the tabs.

 

Here ya go. A video by rolling ready at the BODY ARMOR BOOTH at SEMA 2019.

The tabs are in front of the bumper skin LOL

Cracks me up….BA told buyers multiple different things regarding the tabs and right in their booth at SEMA 2019 it’s the opposite of what they told me in the emails LOL

https://youtu.be/h4nfFQx7yKc

 

Just sharing my experience with this product and yes, I am typically one of the unlucky few. I see it as a big deal after what I had to go through to get one decent bumper for $800 CAD.

When I had problems after opening the box on the first bumper I received due to unbelievably poor workmanship, my local distributor completely agreed and was really fantastic to deal with, 4WP, they hooked me up but it took four bumpers. I took the original one back to pickup the replacement. We had to dig through 3 more new ones to find a good one. The second one was full of porosity in the outer visible welds. When I tipped it back a whole pile of rust fell out of the drain hole on the top pipe. The third was legit laughable and finally the one I picked, the last one available, was good quality welding and even had rust inhibitor used inside the top pipe along with rubber plugs to keep moisture out of the pipe. It also had a significantly better powder coat finish.
All four bumpers side by side varied widely in weld, powdercoat finish & packaging quality.
If I couldn't have found one in the four I would have gotten my money back.
Even the guys at the shop couldn't believe it and called in their area rep to discuss, for all the good it probably did
BTW I never did get a response whatsoever from Body Armour regarding quality issues when I tried to contact them first. No email reply. No returned call to my phone messages......nothing. I have worked in the steel fabrication/manufacturing industry for more than two decade and have never received such uncontrolled product quality followed by such a low level of customer service from a manufacturer.
If I had to guess they are not doing the manufacturing themselves and are nothing more than a reseller hence cannot control their quality and don't know how to even address it.
Its a bummer because its a great looking bumper.

Would I buy one again.......not a chance given the time I had to spend to get a good one.

 

Btw, I've looked all over. What are the tow hook attachments on the BA Hiline bumper rated for? 10,000 pounds?

 

Looking good! Thanks for sharing. I did not know that these kits came with the edge trim to clean up the look. Did you notice any degraded performance with the extra weight?

 

Hey Doc,
So sorry for your bad experience, if I were you I would not have bought another one either. Mine was the complete opposite so, that's why this was so "academic" to me, I just didn't have any other issues.

I bought mine online and on sale for $599 w/free shipping. I opened the box and...it was completely uneventful. I'm a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) and had no issues with welds or other workmanship. It was straight, clean welds, no rust, solid powder coat too. I have friends with other BA products and always thought they were a safe bet and mine was for me. I got precisely what I expected. Yes, sounds like they're out sourcing their production and have no control over quality. Too, too common these days.

 

Hello fellow inspector. Im in the Chicagoland area.

 

Ok this is my second bumper. This looks way better than the first one I received but wondered what you all thought In comparison to what you received.

 

For me that would certainly be unacceptable.
My forth bumper was best. Even then I would not do a full pull on the D-ring lugs

 

To be fair, the undercut on the d-lugs LOOKS pretty bad. Is undercut at the weld always rejectable, no. From a judgement point of view? It's not under cyclical (vibrations) stress or high load impact and would surely require more than 12K pounds (steel is really strong) of static pull to shear it, honestly. And remember it's pushed through and welded on the other side, not just that single crappy weld holding it to the surface. The section it's welded to will fail first. That said, it's probably way over built and the last thing that will fail on this under normal use. Some of the welds on the Toyota frame likely aren't any better. I wouldn't think twice about hooking up to it as long I'm just pulling a truck out, if that were the only issue.

The intermittent welds inside are too cold and are a legit liability under normal loading. Also, the grinding is some of the worst I've ever seen. Ever. I would return it for that alone. I think it's likely structurally suspect and cosmetically objectionable.