Bull Bars ?

ARB’s about $1200, OME 2” kit with 886 coils and HD leafs is about $1400... sure there are other solutions that don’t involve a lift, but that’s the route I went and I’m happy with it.

x2 on the ARB vs any other type of bull bar. I know it’s all preference, but all it took was a little fawn popping up onto the road to total my old XJ and leave me thumbing a ride back to town in the middle of the night.

 

I am partial to them. IMO they add looks only (if you like the look). They add no protection on front impact (it will pancake). Ask me how I know.... Mine is made by Weston.

 

Approx what I paid

$1200 for the ARB & lamps (Auto Anything)

$400 winch

886 coil swap & labor $400 IIRC

Had my talented mechanic bud install bumper (cash & beer)

Buy once/cry once....one deer strike will pay for itself and not leave you walking

 

Beautiful truck you have there. Appreciate your comments.

 

Anyone who has installed a bull bar knows that the mounting brackets arent strong enough to transfer extreme deadly forces much beyond stock config. The crumble zone or whatever isnt THAT compromised, at high impact it will still be decimated and spread the energy. like Rocketballz said it will pancake upward if struck with substantial force at which pt your front end would be f-ed anyway. BB do however provide modest protection cosmetically and a bit structurally for your radiator and such and also against agro parallel parking fools for when you have to re-enter civilization. My old truck had a bullbar and it plowed through brush and saplings when meandering through the woods. for only a couple hundred bucks if you buy one it looks cool and saves its $ in damage 10x not that i even cared since it came on the vehicle. Also at least a handful of poor birds and critters have ricochetted off it over the years RIP. Lastly its a place for more bumper stickers and tchotkes.

only downside i see is lost clearance

have fun roll on

 

Bought this a week ago and it came with an LED Bull Bar. While I would not have paid to install it, I LOVE the lights at night, and the look of it is IMO appealing. I have received many compliments on it in just a week.

 

What's the approximate cost of an ARB and suspension mods?

Sweet looking rides!

So, we're talking about $2k ish. There's no doubt that they provide the ultimate in protection but I really don't think it's a fair comparison between bull bars and full armored bumpers. They're in different leagues for sure.

I'm a firm believer in "buy once, cry once". However in my case it's "buy twice, file for bankruptcy once."
Modding 2 Tacomas at the same time makes budgetary considerations more critical.

 

lol buy twice eat rice

 

food for thought......still $1150 at Auto Anything + lamps

Prob 10% off with sales/promos & free shipping (150+lbs/truck)

Its a quality product but coils swap is suggested

https://www.autoanything.com/grille-guards/arb-deluxe-bull-bars

 

As noted above, the ARB bumper is just under $1200. If you ask when ordering, 4 wheel parts will give you another 5% off. At least they use to. FWIW, the increase in weight is 130lbs net change. I didn’t need a suspension upgrade. Eventually I did go with a lift kit but that wasn’t due to the bumper but instead TW...

Edit: the issue with bull bars is the thickness (or lack of thickness) on the mounting plates welded to the bull bar and how far away it is from the top cross section. It doesn’t take much force to cause it to rotate in and hit the grill/front bumper. What happens is that a parking lot hit that would normally damage the bumper now causes more damage to the grill.

 

I like my ARB, the key decision for me was how rural of an area I live in. If I hit a deer or in my neighbors case a black bear its nice to know I stand a reasonable chance of driving home compared to the stock plastic excuse for a bumper. Winch and light mounts are useful to.

 

Welcome to the best damn Tacoma forum on the interwebs

Short answer, don't do it. Unless you don't drive your truck.

Long answer, I had one on my 4Runner and slid into/tapped the back of a very old F250 in fresh rain doing 15 mph.

The guy got out looked at his truck, looked at my 4Runner, laughed, got back in his truck and left.

Damage quote to repair by Toyota, $4,500. Besides the hood and both fenders buckling, it snapped all the tabs on both headlight assemblies requiring them to be replaced.

Unless the bull bar or anything else you mount, bolts up to multiple points of the frame and/or bumper support structure with serious hardware, walk away.

 

This ^^^^^

 

I agree with part of what you're saying. Hit a shopping cart, bicycle, young sapling, small animal, big cardboard box, or most immovable objects at less than 5 mph, you're good.

The more mounting points you have to structurally sound points of the truck and you can increase that speed to maybe 15 mph.

I had a NFAB light bar mounting bar on my previous Tacoma. It was attached at multiple points. It was considerably more structurally sound than the bull bar I had on my 4Runner. It was heavier and bolted up to multiple points behind the grill, unlike the bull bar.

https://n-fab.com/or-pre-runner-light-bar/2017/toyota/tacoma

It actually did ok in a 50 mph crash.

 

Pro there is none . They are ugly .. unless u live in Texas on a farm and you have bulls . Then by all means install one .

 

Absolutely, and if the mounting points can be triangulated, all the better. Another concern with BB's is the material diameter and wall thickness. Some I've seen are meant to be merely cosmetic. A friend of mine put a BB on his Jeep and honestly, I wouldn't use it as a tie down point. In my eyes it was pretty sketchy at best....

 

I agree with all of this as well. I guarentee the tubing on your bumper protection (which looks fantastic by the way) is definitely way more sound than any larger diameter tube offerings.

 

Thanks. For my needs and budget they are a good fit. I thought that their design was better than the average BB and the fact that it was lower than most on the market was important. The higher they are, the more likely they are to pivot at the mounting point during an impact of any severity. Again, ARB's and similarly designed bumpers are the gold standard in front end protection and comparing them to BB's in terms of protection, it's no contest. Some folks feel they need the additional protection they provide. Some don't. That's what makes all the Tacomas out there unique......

 

Yea, I mean we each have to determine what is acceptable to us. Like I said, I was amazed how much force that NFAB took. It was not at all intended to do anything except provide a place to mount a light bar. However, it protected the light bar and the only damage to it was some trim that surrounds the plastic lens. But that bar was straight.