Installing SSO Hidden Winch Bumper - 2nd Gen Tacoma - Writeup with pictures!

There's literally not a single good write up on installing an SSO Concepts Hidden Winch Bumper.

All the install questions and photos around here seem to geared towards third gens.

Well guess what, that's about to change.

Had this puppy sitting out in the back since February. Time to get it installed!



Goodies! - A BD light bar and a Smitty Winch



Install the light bar FIRST. I had to bend the end tabs that hold the light bar a little bit because they were too much of a tight fit and the light bar didn't fit. It's like an 1/8" to "closed", per se.

Use a croissant wrench. Yes, croissant. Not crescent. Croissant.



Do an eyeball inspection, make sure the lightbar sits even with the light bar opening:



Time to install the winch!



Make sure to install the fairlead BEFORE installing your winch, cable or synthetic line





Winch Installed along with control box and wiring. Winch wiring is straight forward, smitty makes it dummy proof. All wiring is color coded for ease of installation:





Now that the bumper is assembled, time to get into the meat and potatoes of it all!



Remove the grille by removing two phillips screws and two push buttons. These are on TOP of the grille:





Now the grille will pop off. Pull away from the truck firmly but carefully.



These tabs are holding the grille to the truck, so if it wont budge try messing with them using a flat head



Those flat tabs go in here:



Now the grille has been removed:



Once the grille has been removed, you will find these push buttons on each side by the headlights. Remove them.





Next remove the headlight filler CAREFULLY!



It is held by this green pop button:



Take a good look at this picture, you see the fender has a tab that goes INSIDE of the headlight filler. So once the green pop button is released, you want to remove the headlight filler by pulling firmly away from the fender, parallel to the headlight. This will prevent damaging the headlight filler:



Here's a better picture of all of it removed:



Next we remove all bolts securing the bumper cover to the truck:





There's a few along the fender wells:



Save your bolts!



Bumper cover removed! **IF YOU HAVE FOG LIGHTS, DISCONNECT!!**



Now we will remove the aluminum crash bar





Let's remove the tow hook:





Bumper cover removed, again - if you have fog lights, don't forget about disconnecting them!



See these blue buttons? remove them:



I used a flat head screw driver:



Next, I popped out these tabs to release the bumper filler:





Bumper filler removed:





See this ridge? Use a dremel tool to cut it, leave about 3/8 inch.



See how the ridge here has a lip curves towards the camera? Looks silver. Trim that down, but do not cut much of the ridge here. Just trim down that curved lip.



Trimmed!





Here is a close up of what the ridge looks trimmed. Try to leave as much as you can. I almost cut too much up toward the top of the the picture here. You need that ridge to attach the rubber edging.



Install rubber edging:







Reinstall bumper:



After discussing the winch box placement with @Th3_Admiral , he recommended to move the box over to the side instead of over the spool. For clearance purposes. Smitty provides support brackets to install it over to the side. Picture of one of the black brackets is shown here:



After relocation of control box:



With the help of someone else, I installed the bumper using the hardware provided by SSO:





Next I ran my wiring for the lights and the winch along the front of the radiator frame:





Used zip ties to secure it and tuck it away:



Ran the winch wiring thru the hole next to the headlight and connected DIRECTLY to the battery:



Almost there!




Now it is time to install the synthetic line and spool it into the winch!



Once the synthetic line is bolted onto the spool, DO NOT reel it in. It must be reeled in tension.

I parked my Camry down the block, popped the Tacoma in Neutral and started winching the Tacoma towards the Camry.





Keep an eye for an even and clean spool. Prevent the line from pinching into itself. USE GLOVES!



You are now done!

 

I failed to take a picture of the SSO hardware. The hardware was some replacement bolts and nuts for securing the bumper to the frame of the Tacoma. I highly suggest reviewing the SSO instructions to determine which bolt/nut goes where.

I could not take pictures of this because the bumper with winch is heavy and it was hard to take pictures of the locations for these bolts.

Believe me, it is straightforward!

 

Awesome write up, thank you for this!

 

not a problem!

 

Thank you for the terrific write up and great pics!!!! I just purchased the same bumper but will not be doing the winch or lights. Just looking for better front end protection. As a side note, go out to your truck, open the hood and pop off the mutes on your horns. They'll be much louder!! Again thanks!!!!!!!!

 

Great write up, pictures are on point too.

Just wish it was made for an 08...

 

Wow! Nice write up. Wish I had this while installing my mobtown offroad recovery bar.

 

Do you have a link to the croissant wrench?

 

Yes. Hold on

 

here it is

 

Perfect

 

THAT was awesome! Thank you! This is exactly what I’d like to do. How do you like it so far?

 

really like the almost factory clean look, was just about to order a winch bumper till i came across this !

 

i love it! its more about the clean subtle look

 

I can confidently say it’s not worth the effort to remove your headlight trim or bumper to install these lower valence bumpers. There’s so much room under there, with just the grille removed you can reach everything easily. Plus you can check left/right fitment which requires the bumper on anyways.

edit: also forgot to mention that bumper support brackets will be deleted and you’ll have to fab up 5” L-brackets to give the lower part of your bumper back the rigidity it had originally.

 

Nice writeup! It looks great. Sorry for the necro reply but I'm shopping for a bumper winch combo.