1st gen Tacoma DIY tube bumper build

Picked up this Tacoma a couple months ago , after my first couple times off-roading in SoCal . I caught the bug. So I want to build this truck to be more off-road capable. First thing I thought of doing was a tube bumper with winch mount. I have a rogue fab tube bender, a Lincoln 140hd mig welder, and a alpha tig 200x(out of gas for it so haven’t had a chance to use it yet ). Using 1.5x.120 DOM steel.Now pictures with some narrating to go with the pics. Hope you enjoy!!!

The stock frame mounts were flimsy and the stock bumper mounts looked like they wouldn’t hold anything. So I decided to weld/box in the frame to make it sturdy

Welded up

Grinded down. Now I needed more mounting point because those 2 frame mounts wouldn’t be enough.

Drilled out the hole on the frame along with adding a hole on the other side of the frame

Slid a tube in to make it strong

Welded this pipe on both sides

Grinded it down so it was flat for mounting points.

Welded a pipe to a fat washer put a bolt through with a washer welded on the other side.

The main support, welded and mounted

Two 90 degree tubes coming up to hold the main bar.

And the added support bars for the corners going to the frame mounts I drilled out and reinforced.

Painted a dark copper color cause I guess this will be the color scheme for the truck now . All I could get done over the weekend . Will be adding more so I can mount a winch.

 

subbed.

 

I want to see the rest of the build and whenever you manage to flip it I expect a second tacoma to follow, a la @Speedytech7

 

Lol, let's hope he don't flip it like I did

 

Funny enough I saw you post a while ago about the shock relocation and was planning on doing something similar. How did you like the ride quality with the shock relocation. Any difference beside the fact you were running different shocks?

 

I absolutely love how it rides now. The whole purpose behind it was to make sure the shocks could cover the whole range of motion the leafs could generate and tune the ride how I like it. But to do that the mounts had to move a bit to fit the custom shocks. Now I'm running those 10" King reservior shocks that you probably saw and they were tuned for the weight I carry typically and my preferences for softness. I've jumped the truck a couple times and it is super comfy and it is great on washboards and rutted roads too. I have big front coilovers as well which is helpful of course haha

 

Well I love the idea of having a 1:1 compression ratio on the shocks, that’s what I wanted and then I saw you post . And I’m torn between getting fox or king but I still have some time befor I have to make the decision. And are you saying you moved the mounting location again after the original relocation

 

I haven't moved them since the post you saw, I will have to at some point but that's because I made a mistake and welded them on about .5 too high which causes me to miss out on about an 1" worth of travel but no biggie, I'll be getting a different axle too. I don't think you can go wrong with Fox, King, Icon, or ADS, depends on what the people near you tune and what lengths you end up needing I think. The 1:1 (or close in my case) is nice for ease of tuning, I got 2.5" dia shocks just so I didn't have to worry about fade too.

 

Picked this up from harbor freight because
1- I’m cheap and 2- I’ve actually heard good things about these bad land winches. Tomorrow gonna continue on the bumper to fit this.

 

I I've had great luck with harbor freight winches. I own 2 12k and a 5k. I use the 12k on my trailer the most by far and it's never let me down. I also have a 16.5 warn on my f350. The biggest difference is line speed is slower(sometimes that's a good thing) and the hardware, remote and wiring is much lower quality. Check the crimp on the big cables, I had one that was barely on and the wire pulled out in install. Also the warn remote will fit the HF winch plug if you want to replace or upgrade later

 

Been getting some work done today, here’s is where I’m at so far

Bottom bar for the winch mount is welded

Flat 11g plate cut and just placed for now

And I just put the winch on to see how it looks.... and I love it .

 

That color is very nice. It looks good.

I've had it a while, but haven't used my Badlands winch frequently. It has worked great the few times I've needed it.

 

Thanks man , good to know . I’m sure it’ll be fine especially if I use a snatch with it .

 

Thank you for the kind work , keep on keepin on!!

 

Just finished stitch welding the plate on and mounted the winch no with bolts. We are almost done here

 

Still plan on adding a skid plate but I’m happy with it so far , tomorrow gonna pull the winch out and paint everything .

 

Went to Vasquez rock truck trail. Had some fun. Managed to bottomed out the oem skid plate a couple times. Definitely need to get shocks cause it absolutely sucks when I hit washboard surfaces. And I think that either the steering coupler is very bad or the steering rack bushings , there is a lot of play in the steering. After I wash it down I will get under and inspect everything. Gonna put a small pause on “modding” the Tacoma for a couple weeks so I can work on my other car . E36 m3 . Its my track car or soon will be if I can finish it . Lol

 

Hey man for the top bar what was the lengths of the pipe before you welded it all up

 

Top notch work. Wish I had a bender.

 

Just picked up a 2000 V6 4wd extended cab. The front bumper is the style with plastic in the center and a little chrome on the sides...was looking for place on the bumper to mount some Hella fog lights....BUT there is Not much there! I remember years ago getting rear ended by a nice clean 2nd Gen taco into my'72 F150 (with the massive steel rear bumper). My bumper barely had a dent and the whole front end of the taco was caved in. I'm looking to reinforce the frame behind the stock bumper and weld in a cross tube (2 x 4 x 1/8" steel tube)...Looking to keep things stock but make it a little more bullet proof and provide some solid point of attachment for a bull bar/light bar/push bar??....Anyone offer up an opinion about front end frame reinforcement???? Thanks all!