In this video I touch on a long debated topic, steel vs aluminum bumpers. The truth is, there's equal pros and cons to each, however for me personally, I'm just not willing to compromise on one aspect. Enjoy!
I went alloy over steel due to weight and only wanting the bar for potential animal strikes. Steel has more potential to bend your chassis and cause worse passenger injuries in a hard crash aswell
If your rear bumper tends to drag a lot on rocks and other obstacles, steel might be a consideration as aluminum tends to crack on big impacts. Steel might also require GVM or spring upgrades to account for the additional weight.
Great video - really helpful. Can you comment on other considerations like suspension changes that may be necessary and re-gearing when adding metal bumpers. Thanks -
It sure help me put what I want in perspective! I’ll be hunting for aluminum rear bumpers because all I want are a few accessory mounts and some clearance.
Does a heavy front bumper affect driving in the snow and ice? I know having weight in the back is important but not sure if front weight is a problem or not.
When I had my 2022 T4R TRD OR-P (Oct 2021) I was looking at Hefty Fabworks as they had the best shipping price to Honolulu. Backwoods Adventure Mods does a hybrid style bumper and it is only 85 pounds at least for the Tacoma (I have a 2023 Tacoma Access Cab TRD OR now)
The main concern should be length. First off, can you still fit in the garage with the ARB (it sticks out a good bit). The weight isn’t too crazy, especially when considering you remove about 50-60lbs off the stock front end before install.
