CBI MOAB DIY Bumper Review

I just finished the welding of my new CBI Moab DIY Bumper, and wanted to say what a great product this is. I was totally impressed with the quality of the pieces. Everything fit together without any "tweaking". And the end result is a great looking plate bumper, with a nice mount for a winch. So if you can weld, or have a welder buddy, this is a great route to go to have an inexpensive quality bumper. It took me quite a while, but I was working with a very small welder, using flux core, so considerable clean up, and also wait time so as not to exceed the duty cycle.

Only real downside is that it does not come with any instructions, but there are several threads on here that give you most everything you need to know.

Once I finish painting and get it mounted, I'll post a picture or two.

 

"Only real downside is that it does not come with any instructions, but there are several threads on here that give you most everything you need to know."

Sounds like you had to figure it out mostly on your own. That can be a daunting task when it comes to proper assembly order on the parts supplied I would imagine.
You reference some posts that proved helpful...would you mind sharing them for the benefit of others considering this option??

Thanks!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-1st-gen-tacoma-front-bumper.584372/#post-19750617

 

Also:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cbi-front-bumper-build-question.587595/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-bumpers.492948/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1st-gen-cbi-diy-moab-1-0-front-bumper-build.587768/

Pictures to follow, just painted today. Mounting it up tomorrow. Had a couple of f***ed up cans of Rustoleum Bedliner, so it has runs everywhere, to the point it dripped off.

Cans would not spray when upright, only when turned upside down, and then it was huge amounts of paint. ​

But it's only bedliner, so won't so much. I ain't takin' it to the fair!!!

 

damnit, you're ahead of me now!

 

Even further ahead. We had weather coming in today, so I worked last night to get it mounted up. Much like yours, it was a helluva tight fit. I wound up centering it up below the mounting plates, and using the floor jack to push it up to align. It wouldn't go in from the front. Still need to adjust one side down just a skosh. But all in all, I am quite well pleased. Need to get my lights mounted back up, along with wiring up the winch. Once the rear bumper kit arrives from NWTI, it will be time to build another one.

 

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......looks great! (The bumper, not the weather!!!)

 

How many hours of welding?

 

I don't think I would be a good measure. I was using a very light duty flux core welder. 20% duty cycle. Considerable wait time, and I had to pre-heat everything with a torch. Also lots of cleanup time. Overall time was about six days, working maybe 4-5 hours each day, from a pile of pieces to a finished bumper.

 

Good job taking this on with limited resources and getting it done. Look great!

 

It's better if you don't count, lol...


But let's see... Once I started in on it, I had the thing tacked together in about half a day. The finish welding/grinding in another day or 2 worth of time.

That's assuming you have some solid days to work on it and what kind of welder you have.

I ran into a little hitch with my winch plate, and the fitment with the bumper assembly, and it's actually gotten side-lined for the last couple weeks.

 

Nice. Im not a welder nor do i even know how to. My buddy loves welding so i just want to see if he can doit but i need to give him some more info. Id pay him in beer lol

 

I'm not a welder either. I'm a grinder, lol.

I'll throw a little math at you though:

The DIY kit is like $450
My welder was ~$450

The Moab 1.0 bumper (same as the DIY kit) is like ~$900

Since my time is worthless, I essentially get a free welder at the end of the project, lol.

The same applies to most all types of add-ons for the truck, sliders, skids, etc... I spent $250 on a DOM slider "kit" from 4xInnovations, whereas most sliders cost at least $500 or more, some sliders are over a grand!

Bumpers, IMO are a pretty good project to learn welding. I would practice laying some beads on scrap first, but the nice thing about welding is that if you screw up, you grind it and start again.

 

I'm right there with you brother!! Buying tools and doing it yourself is way better than paying someone to do it. And you have the tools to go on to the next job, and the next, and so on!!!!

I bought that little welder years ago, one day when I went to Sam's Club without adult supervision. This is only about the second big project I have done with it, but lots of little five minute jobs. It's very handy to have, but if I were doing this sort of stuff on a regular basis, I'd be buying bigger and better.

 

Finally getting around to posting my CBI Moad install this fall. Love the bumper. Currently supported by OME 2882 with nitrochargers. Just need to finish re-locating the control box for the smitty x20 and should be good to go. Will install a lightbar when i get some more cash. Thanks to @jbrandt for helping me out!

 

Nice!

What did you end up doing with the turn signals? Did you do an LED relay? Or relocate the oem lights to the corner lights, and splice the LEDs into the stock wires?

 

Hey bud. I went with this relay here:

$10 iJDMTOY 3-Pin CF14 EP35 Electronic LED Flasher Relay As LED Related Turn Signal Bulbs Hyper Flash Fix

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XAU66V4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8

Found them online though another CBI install and luckily they worked. Bit of a pain to take apart the dash but ive done it so many times now its not that bad..

 

Looks like a successful venture! Congrats! Any pictures from the process? Like as you figured out which pieces went where? Still think it looks like a grand
jigsaw puzzle!! (With a nice outcome however)

Cheers!

 

Im living in Yellowknife NT, Canada. Pretty far north. I sourced the bumper from CBI, had them ship it, then powder coat it here and have the shop do the install. The pricetag on that was silly. I try to tackle most jobs personally but that was out of my scope.