The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

I have a nice love/hate relationship with my factory hitch. I've hit it a few times going through some deep deactivation ditches. I think its saved my rear bumper on more than one occasion. I actually bent one of my safety chain eyelets pretty bad on my last trip. Ultimately nothing a BFH and some black spray paint couldn't fix. If it wasn't for the trailer hitch bottoming out I probably would have ended up damaging my stock bumper.

 

I scraped my OEM hitch many times and FUBAR's my trailer plug when I had the trailer out! Duct taped a few wires and the plugs together when it was time to hook up the trailer and go home.


Now I have this. Id say this bumper with the hitch added 100lbs. The sliders another 120lbs. Aluminum skids next

 

The All Pro aluminum rear bumper has an optional receiver hitch which weighs as much as the bumper. Bumper is 30 lbs, receiver hitch is 32 lbs. It is hidden behind the license plate so as to not reduce clearance. So if you want to forgo towing (like I do) the All Pro is quite light weight (but add 7 lbs if you want the extra panels for the side - it would appear from Crom's last trip that he may want those).

Near as I can tell the OEM tow package receiver hitch and chrome bumper combined are about 80 pounds together. The chrome bumper by itself seems to be estimated by folks on TW and places shipping parts to come in around 20 lbs. Aftermarket class III hitches for the Tacoma are around 45-50 lbs and the OEM one is a class IV so probably a few pounds more than that.

So I'm estimating by going with an aluminum rear without any receiver hitch will actually knock about 40 lbs off of my curb weight.

The aluminum skids (IFS, mid, trans, LCA, fuel) added up to 100 lbs and I'm guessing the stock stuff removed was maybe 15 to 20 lbs (need to weigh that stuff).

So I'm estimating full aluminum skids and aluminum rear bumper with no receiver is net only about 40 lbs total over stock. Steel is a whole different story!

 

steel high clearance with swing-gate. 33inch spare is shoe horned in. 4 aluminum skids and front bumper. glad i went all aluminum, and glad the rear bumper is steel.

 

One thing to note though with the AP hitch in you can only fit the stock spare underneath. It looks to me that even a 32" wouldn't fit. You can see how much clearance is gained by how much of the spare is showing. The biggest improvement in clearance is gained with the HC rear bumper - not counting lift of course. I've only just brushed it a couple of times where I was scraping big time before. In fact the pics below is where I blew out the trailer plug.

 

BFH can fix many things.

That's a good one!!! 7-pin connector destruction! New bumper looks great!

Thanks for your estimates. When I take mine off, I'll weigh it. The AP sounds like a winner. I've got a lot of time before I have the means to armor up the Tacoma, so I appreciate the input.

Looks real good. You carry two spares?

Thanks. That's a very important note to consider for me. I've got a 33" spare tucked under there, and it's tight. Anything aftermarket would have to be compatible with that size spare under there. I'm not willing to relocate the spare.

 

Is it possible to squeeze a bigger spare in if at a low psi?

 

The absolute max size tire you can fit under there IMO, is a 33" tire. I don't think tire pressure would make any difference at all. The reason for this is the durability of the tire carcass, it keeps its shape, even at 0 PSI.

See these two posts for what I had to do to make my tire fit:

Modify spare tire locator tabs, Aug 2015
Relocate spare tire elevator back 1", Oct 2015

 

When you get a chance can u post a few pics of the skids? What kind are they? I'm definitely thinking Alum on the skids.

 

One thing to keep in mind as well is that aluminum cant be bent back into shape with a BFH as much as steel can, the aluminum will start to develop cracks and eventually tear/break before the steel equivalent would.

 

So your tent got hammered too! Excellent! That's one trail repair I'm not set up to do. Rip sidewall = swap to spare time, at least for me.

Glad you got it covered.

Very true.

One reason I was thinking of doing steel skids is that, it would allow me to change my driving style a little bit and not spend as much time navigating large rocks in the path. It would also give me more confidence to take on trails that I know I can't do now.

Here is a picture of @teamhypoxia 's truck, he has RCI skid, not sure if steel or aluminum... pic links to his build... If I did that in my rig now, I'd be buying a new transfer case.

 

I think it is certainly true that aluminum armor is for light duty applications, for the reasons mentioned above. For those of us who proceed cautiously, it serves it's purpose very well, at a considerable weight savings.

 

I finally had enough of the tires rubbing the plastic fender liner crap. Sunday was the last straw. It was wheeling on the hard trail. The suspension got a serious workout, and the tires rubbed the plastic fender liners in places where they haven't before and I am really tired of that. This is probably because the new 4Runner wheels moved the tire out 3/4" and I was carrying weight, so suspension compressed a lot more.

I ordered me up some Camburg ball joint UCA's to fix my alignment.

This is exactly what I wanted in a UCA design. Ball joint, with greasable poly arm bushings.



Now the hard part is finding time to install...

 

Well said Bruce!

 

Guess Ill pitch in with the Aluminum/Steel debate, I have all aluminum besides rear bumper (would if I could) I have taken some serious hits on my skids with out any real damage to them, but they do scratch/dent easy compared to steel but in the long run I don't think it will be an issue unless I'm constantly taking huge hits (which I avoid)

Now the aluminum front bumper was in a accident (just picked up my replacement today) and ill let the pictures do the talking

I think unless your constantly taking the hard trails and kinda pretty rough in the rocks id say go steel but otherwise Aluminum all the way, the weight savings and no ugly rust is a huge plus in my book

 

Thanks for chiming in, appreciated. Especially if your skids are taking hits...

It took me a few mins but I found your accident report on post #300 of your build.

And your bumper did it's job...insurance money was there so why not get new. Good to know! Thanks!

I'll probably go the all aluminum route then.

BTW, your build has some amazing pics in it! Been through a couple times now.

 

Honestly I wouldn't have bothered with the replacement bumper butty insurance policy only covers 1yr old aftermarket parts in the event of a total loss so I figured I might as well in case that ever happens. I probably wouldn't have even bent that recovery point if it wasn't for the D ring that I left on it by accident, I think it acted at a lever during the accident causing it to bend

Thanks, same to you love looking at your pictures and trip reports

 

I would never consider aluminum for any of my armor but that's because I intend to, and have, used it.
In fact, I pretty much murdered that crossmember for the tcase skid. I got a beefed up revision of it now from RCI.

I've put the front corner of my Pelfreybuilt bumper hard into the rocks at Moab. In fact, we used the winch on a couple of other trucks to pull it back out as it bent in an inch or two.
I've put the high clearance BruteForce Fab bumper through some abuse as well.

Everything I've put the truck through and the zero body damage I have to show for it makes it all well worth it to me.

I realize not everyone will use their trucks the same way but if you go for aluminum, just know it's limitations. If those limitations fall within your intentions, then go for it. If not... you might consider steel.

 

Unless you were rubbing in the front of the wheel well, the UCAs are going to increase your rubbing issues rather than decrease them.
Caster added at the LCAs moves the wheel forward in the wheel well. Caster added with UCAs moves the wheel back.

I'm not saying "don't get the UCAs" but I am saying "don't expect them to stop the rubbing issues." Gotta get out the dremel for that