3rd Gen 4XInnovations Front Bumper Install With Pictures (2016+)

Well, TL;DR, I decided to write this up because the 4XInnovations bumper came with no instructions, and I want to hopefully make things a bit easier for people in the future. In my eyes this is the cleanest looking steel mini bumper out there. Here it is prior to install (semi-gloss heavy texture powdercoat) and after it has been installed - install instructions to follow in next posts.




Here’s the install brackets they provided (also recommend they get powder coated). The two slotted L-brackets along with the baggie of nuts, washers and bolts (bag of nuts/bolts/washers not shown) are for the light bar mounts, if you ordered a bumper with the light bar cutout. The three rounded tabs with a 5mm hex screw on one side are used to relocate the power steering cooler back towards the radiator.


For the install, I used:

• 10mm socket on short ratchet
• 14mm socket on long ratchet
• 17mm socket on long ratchet
• 14mm socket on a breaker bar (or impact gun)
• 17mm socket on a breaker bar (or impact gun)
• 14mm ratcheting wrench
• Needle nose pliers
• Vise grips
• Razor blade
• Dremel
• Painters tape
• 5mm hex on a socket (for power steering cooler relocation tabs)
• Angle grinder with cut off wheel and flap disk (I used 60 grit)

(Probably forgetting a few things!)

 

First step was to remove stock grille, pop the front part of the flares out of the front bumper, then remove the front bumper.

First, open the hood.

then, pinch the black retainer on the below connector to release it from the top of the grille tab


Then do the same for this brown retainer.


Now, disconnect the black connector seen below (there may be different/more connectors on different years and optioned models - this is a 2019 TRDOR 6MT with middle tech pack).


Now, pop the middle of the black trim clips out, which hold the headlight to the grille, and remove them.


After those buttons are removed, use a 10mm socket to remove the two screws in the top of the grille.


Now, pull the grille straight out (towards you) and it should release fairly easily.


Now that the grille has been removed and set aside. We begin getting the top of the bumper ready for removal.

First, we push these brown retainers out of the bumper in four locations (this holds the fog light wiring up).


Pop the middle of the black trim clips out, which are holding the bumper to the front crossmember, and remove them.


Remove the black retainer from the bumper.


Pop these black trim clips off of both the driver and passenger side.


Take the fog light bulb/harness and rotate it ~33* to the left (your right), and pull them both out.


Looking in the wheel well, pull the lower pin out of the inner fender/fender flare)


It should just pull right out. Remove the top screw with a 10mm.


Organization is key! Especially if you’re not 100% sure when it’s all going back together.


Looking at the front bumper from underneath the car. Remove the following 10mm screws on both sides (6 in total).



Now the fender flare should be free. Prop it up on the side of the bumper so it will allow you to pull the bumper towards the front of the truck in a second.


Retrieve the wiring harness for the fog lights as to not break the bulbs.


Pull the other fender away from the wheel well.


Now you are ready to remove the bumper. Start by working the sides of the bumper off from underneath the fender flares and headlights. Once those are free, the rest of the bumper should pop off easily. If you’re like me - you forgot to pop that last fog light connector off of the bumper .


Now it looks like this:


I zip tied my bulbs and harnesses up out of the way, probably easier to just pull the bulbs but I didn’t really bother because they looked pretty safe up there.

 

Install prep:

Now we remove the front crash bar. Start by loosening the three nuts in between the cross-brace and the lateral supports (they are hard to get to, but make it easier to remove the whole assembly) I used a 14mm ratcheting wrench to get the outer two, and a 14mm socket to get the inner one. The inner one is horrible to get to, I’d recommend either trying to wiggle the crash bar without it loosened, or remove the black rubber spikes from the front, to gain access to get a socket in there.




Now that the crash bar is removed, use the 17mm socket to remove the two bolts from the frame crossmember, and set aside the bolted on factory tow hook from the drivers side


After that the front of your truck should look, more or less, like this:


Now it’s time to relocate the power steering cooler (big U-shaped tube with steel fins located in front of the radiator). Use the three supplied tabs shown below, use the supplied hex side to connect to the power steering cooler bracket, and the factory bolt to connect the supplied tab to the frame crossmember (NOTE: there are only two mounting points on the front of the truck, the other is on the passenger side frame, near the front suspension - this third bolt also needs to be removed in order to secure the new tabs into place):


From underneath the truck, you can see the tab that holds the third power steering line to the frame:


Here is a view of the third tab, mostly installed. This was taken from up in front of the passenger side front wheel - on the wheel well side.


Now that everything’s secured, it should look like this!


Next, take your angle grinder and cut the factory welded-on tow loop on the drivers side, as-flush-as-possible to the frame crossmember. Use a flap disk to smooth it down the rest of the way and remove sharp edges, then mask and paint it.


After that, the front end is all prepped for the bumper to be installed!

 

Measuring and cutting

I installed my winch and did all of my winch wiring - I put my solenoid on the passenger side because there was a little crossmember under the hood in the very middle. Light bar hadn’t arrived yet, so I had to wait on that.


Checked the fitment of the bumper and winch without trimming any crossmembers - all things cleared!


Here’s how I mounted the light bar (Diode Dynamics Stage Series 18” combo spot/flood). I used the L-bracket 4XInnovations supplied, and put their supplied nut on the welded bolt, mounted that bracket to a DIY adapter I made, then bolted that to the Diode Dynamics mounting bracket that the light bar came with:


Checked fitment on the truck again:


Now’s time for the point-of-no-return... cutting the bumper! Best advice on cutting is, wash the area you’re cutting, dry it, lay down painters tape, and trace where you want to cut in sharpie. I used a Dremel with a plastic wheel to cut the long cuts, and a razor blade on a box cutter for the more precise ones I cut straight up on the vertical black line - the horizontal line was so that I could figure out the angle of the bumper’s contour. (Spoiler, this was not enough cutting )


After looking it over fitment-wise, cleaning some of the below bad cuts up a bit, I used some trim seal found here:

Strongman Tools 5 Meters 16.4 Foot U Shape Rubber Seal Trim Protector Edge Guard Strip for Cars, Doors, Windows, Child Safety, Weather Proofing

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TNRBS7?_encoding=UTF8

It is rubber with metal clips inside of it. I pushed it on there as hard as possible, and then used vise grips to clamp down the metal clips inside the seal to hold it on there better:


here’s some better pictures of where I cut:


Cleaned up my rough cuts with a razor blade, checked fitment a final time. Then, installed trim seal:


Here’s how I checked fitment after I finished wiring. Placed steel bumper on bucket then placed plastic bumper inside of metal bumper, and checked the fit against the 4XInnovations website photos:


After all this you’re ready for install!

 

Finally time to put it all together!

Tighten these three 14mms down on each side:


At this point, I tested out the winch, and the light bar to ensure it all works and cycles correctly.

Slide the plastic bumper in behind the steel bumper, and take care to push the plastic bumper in between the fender flares and the body of the truck:


Tuck the ends of the plastic inner-fenders up above the plastic bumper:


Use the 10mm screw with the phillips head on the upper hole, and the flathead plastic pin on the bottom one:



Make sure the plastic trim in these corners is snapped back into the plastic bumper:


Re-install the fog light + connector back into each light housing, and righty-tighty (twist to your left since you’re facing the opposite direction).


Snap the brown wiring retainers back into the bottom of the bumper:


Underneath the plastic bumper corners, reinstall the 10mm screws (with the larger thread) into the orange plastic clip nuts on both the driver and passenger sides. Be careful to thread this slowly and not over-torque, the orange clip can start spinning and never stop


These 10mms with the smaller thread are no longer needed:


Re-insert the plastic clips that hold the plastic bumper to the upper core support.

Re-insert the four plastic clips that hold the bumper to the lower core support.


Now, reinstall the grille by sliding it back in above the bumper. Make sure the black pins on the grille slide into the holes in the core support:


Re-connect the connector(s) running to the grille:


Clip in the retainers to the top of the grille:


Push in the plastic clips which connect the grille to the headlights:


Screw in the two 10mm which hold the upper grille to the radiator support:


Make sure nothing is loose or accidentally left under the hood, and close it up!


Take a drive, take a breath and enjoy!

 

@TXnativeson was asking about how flush the new bumper is relative to the stock plastic lip:


Now it is more flush with the grille, however the shackle tabs inevitably stick out maybe a little further than the stock lip did.

 

Bitchin’!

 

Those tires look awesome with the stock rims. What are they (brand/size)? Also, what kind of lift?

 

Thank you!
Yokohama Geolandar MT 255/85r16 (33x10.5)
Lift is somewhere around 2.5” all around. Front is King extended travel coilovers, Camburg balljoint arms and Wheelers superbumps. Rear is also King extended travel with OME medium duty leafs. I have Firestone Ride Rite airbags as well for towing/long trips with lots of gear.

here’s my build thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...series-goodness-ft-misc-yota-mistakes.671599/

 

Awesome write up man. They have some great looking products. I'm pretty sure that detailed write up would've taken me as long as the install itself.

 

Thank you!! I have bought a good amount of stuff from them over the years, had a few items on my old 2nd Gen, and a few on my new truck. They make very solid stuff that will take a beating. The write up didn’t take me too long, the install took a while due to not having instructions, but hopefully I simplified it for the next person doing this! I’d estimate that if I did it all again on someone else’s truck, I could probably knock it out in 5 hours without a winch and light bar. I would say if you’re mounting and wiring a winch and light bar, it may take a couple more to measure out everything, check clearances, make adapters for the light bar, and wire it all up.

 

Awesome write up!

Curious about your RTT setup - I don't see too many roof mounted - what are you running and how are you finding it? Looks big!

 

Thank you kindly!

It’s also touched on in my build thread (linked a few posts above), but not too much. It’s a Cascadia Vehicle Tents St Helens. It’s a two person, and it’s probably wider than most of the folding two person tents, at least from my experience, it’s closer to the 2.5/3 person tents. I just have it mounted to my Prinsu with the supplied CVT hardware and a few aluminum flat bar spacers I drilled out to help the bottom of the tent clear the top of the rack. It’s mounted as far back as possible while still allowing the Softopper to stow forward. We’ve wheeled with it, camped five nights in it, and it’s been nothing but awesome so far! It does rattle a bit due to the mounting beams attached to the bottom of the tent being independent of the aluminum frame that goes around the entire bottom of the tent. I got 80% of the rattling under control by putting some more of that edge trim on the top of the Prinsu, though it will bounce on big bumps, and with turbulent air from passing semi trucks. It’s on there nice and sturdy! There’s a few people on TW running these tents, but I haven’t seen any mounted on the roof (probably for the best I think it’s a bit fugly). While it is ugly, I find it really useful for everyday things where I need the bed + a lot of room above where a camper shell and tent would be a nightmare. That, plus it’s realistically 4” or so shorter than a foldable one, and much more aerodynamic. I don’t really notice it MPG-wise with all my mods I still get 15-17MPG highway averaging 75MPH. Setup takes 2 minutes - undo the four latches, pop it up, put four poles in the side to hold up the doors. Done! Also love that it comes standard with an anti-condensation mat, thicker mattress than my old Tepui Autana (even has more space for sleeping bag, blankets and pillows), and in the mornings if it rained or hit the dew point you don’t have to worry about putting away a wet tent as much, since the top is fiberglass. Plus it doesn’t flap in the wind while sleeping like a foldable one does.

Here’s some pics of it mounted, side shot of it closed and open:



Only downsides I can think of are the mounting point bars being independent of the aluminum frame. Also, the latches are a bit of a pain in the butt: they like to bend, and then won’t lock down, or worse, will break - CVT has not revised them on this newest version, to my knowledge. There’s also no easy way to mount an awning on one side of the roof rack underneath the tent! (I’ll figure it out one day).

Edit: it’s also HEAVY at around 160 pounds, it’s about 50 pounds heavier than my old Tepui, but I will say it’s also 5x faster to set up and at least 3x more comfortable for my needs.

 

Wow thanks for the hugely detailed response!!!!! Sorry I missed your build thread link! Gonna check it out now.

Yeah I'm super keen to push the limits on roof mounted, as I want to use the bed for bringing dirt bikes and general crap. I have 2 toddlers though, so with wife included it'd probably be a bit too cramped maybe? I might have to just get a trailer.

Anyway, didn't meant to distract from your guide, thanks again!!!

 

I totally get that, and no worries on changing the subject in here - I didn’t really document the tent much in there. I kind of doubt it would be spacious enough for two adults and two kids. I’m pretty big, 6’4” 215lbs, and my wife is 5’3”, and I doubt adding a third human of any size would be the least bit comfortable. Have you looked into the iKamper? Those are a good hybrid between folding and hard shell, and I think the smallest (original) is supposed to be able to fit two adults and two kids IIRC. And I’m glad we had the same goals with the bed, I need the space back there for the random hauls of stuff around town and hate taking stuff on/off the truck.