CBI vs. ARB bumpers

Just saw this while browsing the Dobinson Black Friday sale...

https://www.dobinsonsdirect.com/col...er-for-2016-2017-toyota-tacoma-4x4-bare-steel

Edit: Says it works with the factory sensors or whatever y'all fancy 3rd gen guys have?

 

Yup!!!

 

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I know . The CBI has a very good wrap around fit that stays close and tight to the body but still leaves the space you need in a high articulation situation.

 

This discussion is dope
Why not the c4 bumper tho?
Im torn between all 3

 

I have a c4 rear bumper . Good stuff also.

 

I can fit more beer cans on my ARB bumper
other than ready availability (got it in a couple of days after placing order) and being cheaper than US made options (here in maple country land) there is no reasons not to get CBI or other brands. ARB mounts weirdly and annoyingly, mounting winch is also a pain. But It looks more legit than any other bumpers I've seen, guess because it's got all the plastic accents and angles.

 

Arb all day, way more protection of the grille lights and undersides vs others.

 

Ok , I actually found another one that looks great and also the best Black Friday deal. I think Im gonna pull the trigger... anyone have any experience with SOS Concepts? I also dig that you can choose from Line-X finish or Powder coat for same price.

 

The airbags go off based on acceleration and not any kind of force measurement. If you directly fix a non-deformable metal bumper to the frame, the so-called "acceleration pulse" is going to have a different shape to it because you are bypassing any type of energy absorption property designed into the space between the front of the original bumper and where the airbag acceleration sensors are mounted.

It is clear from the start that if you install one of these welded bumpers, you are risking setting off airbags when they would not have gone off without the bumper. That is to say, you are risking your truck being totalled when it doesn't need to be. There is no chance that any of these small vendors have any type of crash test program.

I have not heard of an insurance company denying or reducing a claim based on unauthorized mods like a metal bumper with direct fixation to the frame. But you should not underestimate their creativity in denying claims, believe me.

There is also a very large pedestrian safety problem with these bumpers. If you hit a kid with one of those bumpers mounted, you will wish you had not bought it unless you are a sociopath.

 

If you hit a kid with stock or modded truck they're going to be hurt badly if not killed

 

You are not wrong but the bumper and hood on your truck is designed with pedestrian safety in mind. Difference between a simple break and smashing the kid's femur into 10 pieces. When the skull hits the hood, the sheet metal will deform and reduce the acceleration. If the skull hits a rigid tube on one of those aftermarket bumpers, the kid has no chance.

 

I have SOS everything on my truck (Streamline front bumper, IFS skid, mid skid, tcase skid, sliders, HC rear). Eddy makes a great product and provides great support. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a full set of armor from them again.

I did no paint on all of mine and used roll-on Rustoleum bedliner. It has held up great, and touchups are no big deal because the touch up paint I use is the same can I painted with originally, you can't even tell where I touched it up. I also saved a lot of money that way.


All that said, I'm looking to eventually swap my Streamline front bumper for an ARB for exactly the reasons @mrCanoehead outlined at the first two paragraphs of his post (I don't fully agree with the other two paragraphs, but they're still good points). If you rear-end someone with a plate bumper on the front, it's going to either do no damage to you, or it's going to damage your frame. There's no inbetween. That's why I want the ARB - it is capable of being a crumple zone like the aluminum crash bar you remove, allowing some in between. With an ARB, if I rear-end someone at low speed, there will be no damage. Mid-speed, there will be bumper damage. Past that, well it doesn't really matter at that point what bumper I have, but more crumple zones increases survivability if I hit a solid object like a concrete pillar. Hitting another car at a higher speed is a toss-up, I'll be more likely to remain intact at the expense of complete devastation of the car getting hit. There's moral implications there, but I prefer increasing my family's safety over a stranger's, even if that's selfish of me.

 

I work as a collision tech and I also know this . But I also winch disabled vehicles frequently and wheel . I don’t tailgate . To be honest if someone pulls out in front of me and the truck totals I’ll either take the check or rebuild the title . Having a steel bumper mounted to the frame verses a soft aluminum pedestal is more important to me.

 

There are more deer where I am . Less kids and I can see a great distance away . If I lived in the city it would be more of concern. But I moved away from Huntington Beach a long time ago.

 

A vehicle isn't automatically totaled if the airbags deploy. In a high speed collision, it won't matter if you have a stock or steel bumper, you're gunna have a bad day and total your truck. For the low speed stuff, even IF the airbag deploys, you're likely to have less damage and it will more likely be repairable. Especially if it "goes off by accident" when your out wheeling or whatever people are scared about.

I don't really understand this reasoning at all. Doesn't really matter what bumper you have, if you don't mind hitting kits with it, you're a sociopath.

I mean, it's not like the stock bumpers are made with 6" of foam and bubble wrap. It's still a steel bumper, it just has plastic shell on the outside, and it's still attached to a 4000 pound vehicle.

If you hit a kid/person with ANY part of your truck at any speed, that's obviously bad.



Back on topic, tho, I prefer the CBI, but I also prefer to put it together myself, too.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_safety_through_vehicle_design

Let me know if anything is still not clear.

 

"Most pedestrian deaths occur due to the traumatic brain injury resulting from the hard impact of the head against the stiff hood or windshield."

As for limb breakage, the very fact that you already drive a 4x4 truck means your bumper is already higher than what is considered "safe" from that standpoint.

So, yeah, I recognized a long time ago that the very fact I drive a truck means I can run people over more easily. I make it a point not to, though...

 

I moved from Huntington Beach to Northern Idaho. Never been happier. But yeah same for me, Deer, Moose, elk, all kinds of shit running into the road up here lol

 

Yeah me too . I grew up there was born in the late 70’s . Back when nobody wore a shirt and it was the last cool low rent SoCal beach city hold out . You would see some guy riding a wheelie on a beach cruiser from the minute you saw him till the minute he left your field of vision. With some crazy 70s white dude fro covered in sand ... I grew up surfing everyday and was on the school surf team . If they still have it now who knows. I grew up on 12th and olive . My last place was 201 1st street .





I do miss the waves though.

 

The concern here with the air bags isn't that they won't trigger but that the timing is changed when you replace the stock bumper.

Watch how it works in the slow motion video. The air bag has to inflate completely before you come in contact and then begin to deflate after you hit it so that the occupant deceleration is slowed by the air leaving the bag.



When you put on an absolutely rigid bumper the truck begins decelerating immediately compared to a stock bumper that will collapse and break apart, which dissipates energy rather than transmit it into the truck.

https://kodsiengineering.com/airbag-deployment-decision/

If the sensor is simply looking for the g-force it expects then the airbag will trigger much sooner in the crash timeline than it was expected. This has the practical effect of not doing the occupants any good. It'll have inflated and already gone flat before you reached it.

Airbags in vehicles made the past few years are smarter. They watch the accelerometer, know the occupant weight and can adjust their response. So they may be better at delaying the trigger, although there's plenty of unknowns. Will they recognize the crash timing and severity properly? IOW, they might trigger a response more harsh than necessary or go off in a crash that otherwise not justify it.

All of this is hard to say without designing in a way for the bumper to collapse and then crash testing (which ARB does) or having design data to model with from Toyota.

The 2nd generally bumper is an aluminum center bar and a plastic shell with lots of empty air behind it.