NEW WarFab Armor Tube Bumper

I've been waiting for a minimalist, lightweight, high clearance, tube bumper to come to market since I bought the truck in 2016, and this is it! This is a pre-production unit I agreed to try out and give feedback and suggestions in order to make the final production unit the best it could be.
First of all, I have to say the customer service was great. I received updates to the build status and hoops they were jumping through to get the bumper to the point in quality and design they where trying to achieve. Once the bumper was built there were issues with the courier service they were trying to use and decided to just deliver it themselves( a 5 hour drive, one way).
What I received was an extremely well packaged bumper. The tubes were all protected by roll cage padding or pipe insulation of some sort, wrapped in bubble wrap, and covered in cardboard before being thoroughly wrapped in plastic wrap. In the plastic wrap was a couple WarFab stickers, hardware, invoice, and as I imagined might happen (because it was a pre-production unit) no instructions.




I immediately jumped into tearing into the install. I pulled the fender flares and looked at as many pictures I could find regarding where the cut needed to be and made the cut, I was off by about 1/2 inch on the fender side and now it looks like the tubes are angled down, I'm not totally in love with that. You'll see i cut from the top of the fog light bezel across to the fender/bumper seam. In retrospect I would have gone down about a half inch (maybe even more) on the fender side.


After making the cuts and removing what was left of the bumper I noticed the factory power steering cooler was going to be in the way of the bumper mounting flush. I ended up making three brackets out of 1/8 x 1 1/4 strap that moved the cooler out of the way. I didn't get pictures but super simple to make.




After making room for the bumper to mount flush I test fit before taking it off and mounting my winch to it. I ended up cutting away a bit of the grill support to make room for the winch. I mounted a Smittybilt 9.5k with synthetic line to the bumper and mounted the bumper/winch to the truck. The winch will not mount to the bumper with the bumper mounted to the truck, I tried.




I still haven't mounted the front plate to the bumper and I'm not sure when I do I'll keep it on. I really like the open look, we'll see if I like it with the front plate. I haven't had a chance to get off the pavement yet but the clearance gained is obvious against the factory bumper, and I love the way it looks.

 

Looks fantastic. This is exactly what I'm looking for in a front bumper, very minimal yet functional.

 

I haven't found anything I'd change just yet, but I also haven't had a chance to put it to the test yet. I'm hoping to go out this evening though.

 

Updated with more photos...

 

Did you mess up on the bumper cutting or is that side tube running downward?

 

Yeah, that was my fuck up. When I cut the flares I was able to cover up a bit of my mistake.

 

Yeah I see that now, that seems to be super easy to mess up... I see a lot of them cut a little off. I got lucky I guess, and my bumper hides my cut. I dig this option, for weight savings for sure!

 

Yeah, I have a plan for hiding it even better. The weight savings was one of the main reasons I chose this. Light weight, winch mount, high clearance. I plan on adding light mounts so I can mount a couple pod lights soon too.

 

Talk about customer service! Looks great

 

I thought of something like that, but ultimately thought I wouldn't like it.

 

would this bumper fit on a 2nd gen Tacoma?

 

Bump, any pics of this bumper with the plate mounted?

 

Thanks, these bumpers look great. I'm just kinda hemming and hawing between this style or a plate bumper.

 

Every day I awake and I have to talk myself out of purchasing that bumper.

 

... and every day it gets more difficult.

 

It has taken a serious beating!

 

I really want this bumper. This thread didn’t help. Still waiting for how much shipping might be. Ughhh