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Technical > Installation Guide

February 2005 Issue

Project Maya Hunter, Part 2

Down Under Protection: Customizing an Australian-made ARB winch bumper to fit the new Tacoma

story and photos by Bruce Smith

It takes a lot of time, a commitment to a goal, and several months’ salary to trick out a vehicle. But the end result, if the process is well thought out, makes it worthwhile.

We had a specific goal in mind for our Maya Hunter Toyota Tacoma expedition package, and a number of folks spent a lot of time reaching that goal. If you recall from our last issue, much of that effort concentrated on upgrading and uplifting the stock suspension of our Project Maya Hunter Toyota Tacoma with Skyjacker components. The Add-A-Leaf in the rear leaf-spring pack, the Big Gas shocks in the rear, and the Platinum Series coil-overs in the front gave our jungle-bound 2005 Double Cab 4x4 two-and-a-half inches of suspension lift.

We also mounted 33x10.50-16 Interco TSL Bogger mud tires on American Racing’s new Victor II (Series 367) one-piece, machined, clear-coated alloys with Teflon finish. We got them mail order as a complete mounted set through 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers.

Now our attention turns to the front bumper.

In jungle travel, as with any location an off-road adventurer treads, a vehicle’s bumper takes on a much bigger role than it does on the open road. Not only must a bumper serve as a formidable barrier against objects that might unexpectedly try to crash through the radiator into the engine compartment, but also it must serve as a platform for auxiliary lights and a winch, a sturdy lifting point for a Hi-Lift Jack, and, on occasion, an attaching point for tow straps.

Although the factory Toyota bumper is more than adequate for highway use, it falls short as a bumper destined for true off-road use. A far better candidate is a true winch bumper. Our choice for this truck is the ARB Bull Bar-a winch-ready bumper built in Australia and sold through ARB, USA in Seattle, Washington.

“Engineering a bull bar requires careful consideration of a number of factors to ensure it properly serves its purpose,” says Jim Jackson, president of ARB, USA. “Factors such as vehicle design, crush rate, airbag deployment, approach angles, accessory fitment, strength, weight and aesthetics are addressed in every ARB bar before it reaches the market.”

ARB has been a major player down under for decades, and its products have been a big hit here in the States since it brought in the ARB Air Locker in the mid-1980s.

Bull bars (as heavy-duty winch bumpers are referred to in Australia) also have been high on the American off-roader list. And for good reason.

The Aussies take great pride in their bumpers, making them works of art in welding and build quality. Each bumper is vehicle-specific and designed to spread impact over both chassis rails, thereby minimizing damage caused by a collision, be it with another vehicle or something nature has put in the path.

ARB Bull Bars also are designed to work with the vehicle’s factory safety systems, replicating the vehicle’s crush rate and ensuring complete airbag compatibility without compromising protection levels.

An added benefit for the off-road adventurer is that ARB’s bumpers are designed to accommodate Warn winches, and every ARB winch bumper is built to handle the massive strain generated during winching operations. Lastly, ARB bull bars are designed to complement the unique contours of individual vehicle models and are finished in a durable powder coat that can be color-matched to the vehicle to further enhance the bar’s appeal.

That said, ARB Bull Bars take time to design, test, and manufacturer for a new vehicle, so they are not available for every vehicle — especially brand-new models such as our 2005 Tacoma.

No worries, though. ARB sent Tim Lund, its ace U.S. fabricator and tech guru, to the 4 Wheel Drive Specialist shop in West Monroe, Louisiana, to prototype a bumper on the spot for our Maya Hunter.

Without a bumper already designed, Lund does what any truck owner would do, if he wanted an ARB bumper for his own vehicle — customize.

After measuring the new Tacoma, Lund found a close match in width with a pre-existing ARB Bull Bar from the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (Colorado). The Prado is a popular SUV (sold outside the U.S.) and is slightly larger (wider) than the Toyota 4Runner. Fortunately, for this application, the Prado bumper was a close fit for the new Tacoma right out of the box. The factory Toyota bumper-mounting points for the Prado and Tacoma are nearly identical, making the first and most important aspect of prototyping a bumper easy.

Lund made the initial fit by elongating one mounting hole by less than an 1/8 inch. The other half-dozen holes matched perfectly.

Ideally, ARB likes to have its tubular-light and hood-protector bar, which is welded to and fabricated inside of the bumper, positioned slightly above or even with the top of the vehicle’s headlights. The new Tacoma’s headlights are slightly higher than the Land Cruiser Prado’s, so the bar sits about an inch lower. But because the bumper didn’t impede the functionality of the Tacoma’s headlights, Lund decided it would look better if that part was left alone. He focused instead on fitting the bumper itself.

From that point on, it was lift, mount, mark, grind, or trim to match the Tacoma contours. During the process, Lund demonstrated how to make templates out of cardboard so that a cut or grinding off of metal from one side of the bumper could be marked for duplication on the opposite side. (We suspect that his templates, notes, and measurements found their way to Australia, so ARB Bull Bars for the 2005 Tacoma will be in quick supply for U.S. Tacoma owners.)

Lund is an expert fabricator. His motto is “Measure thrice, cut once.” That meant lifting the 100-pound steel bumper on and off the Maya Hunter a dozen times over the course of the day and a half it took for the fitment work. Thankfully, 4WD specialist-mechanic Charles Robinson was there to lend some muscle, and having the Tacoma on a hoist saved wear on our backs.

When the grinding dust and sparks from the cutting wheel settled and the rattle-can touch-up paint dried, the end result of Lund’s tedious and meticulous work was a perfect-fitting ARB Bull Bar that will serve its duty well on our project Toyota Tacoma for years to come.

Lund also installed ARB auxiliary and parking lights, which are an option to supplement the ones that came in the factory bumper on the Toyota TRD 4x4 package. ARB, USA is a distributor for IPF, and the optional MD02 light housings for this bumper come with IPF driving lights designed fit inside the ARB bumper’s cutouts to provide excellent road coverage while being well-protected.

The two-piece housing, consisting of a plastic bucket sandwiched to the ARB bumper by a matching steel rear housing, is easy to install, and the fog/driving lights plug into the factory wiring at the bumper-wiring disconnect. Such lights are a must for serious off-road adventurers.

Lights in place and bumper fitted, another aspect of the Maya Hunter Tacoma is done. The bumper is destined to come off one more time — for a Rhino Lining spray booth in Gulfport, Mississippi — before it finds a permanent place protecting the Tacoma’s nose on the demanding roads ahead. You’ll have to wait for the Rhino Lining part in our next installment, when we detail the installation of a Warn 9.5 Xtreme Performance winch and PIAA lights on our newly fitted ARB bumper.

Buy ARB Bull Bars from www.4wheelparts.com.

1. Craftsman donated two complete professional mechanics toolkits, mechanics gloves, and a military-style special tool case for the Maya Hunter expedition. The 154-piece set (open) will be kept at base camp, while the 151-piece set will be stored in the Tacoma. Both have full sets of standard and metric tools.		2. ARB, USA fabrication and installation expert, Tim Lund, begins unbolting the stock bumper from our 2005 Tacoma. Working with a hoist makes bumper installation much easier as opposed to lying on the ground.
3. Toyota grille must be removed to access the remaining bolts that hold on the bumper assembly. Grille is held in place with just a couple of bolts and pop-in fasteners.		4. With the factory bumper out of the way, the new ARB Bull Bar is slid into place for the first fitting. Lund figured a Land Cruiser Prado bumper would be a close match. He was right.
5. Prado bumper is correct width and close in proper height. But, for proper fit, it needs trimming along upper edge where it meets the grille cross-brace and outside headlight supports.		6. Lund uses white grease pencil to trace outline of Tacoma body for trimming the bumper to fit the new truck. This process is repeated several times during the custom-fitment/prototyping process.
7. ARB’s fabricator begins the first of what will be many grinding steps to carefully mold the Bull Bar to fit our Tacoma. Some metal is removed, and the bumper is placed back on the vehicle for another fitting, and the process repeated.		8. IPF fog/driving driving lights are an option for the ARB Bull Bar. They are easy to mount, utilizing screws to attach them to the heavy-duty plastic MD02 light housing and a prewired loom for fast connection.
9. Auxiliary fog/driving light and parking-light housing mounts into existing ARB bumper cutout. Installation is simple, quick, and clean.		10. A Craftsman cut-off tool is used to follow the marked line and make the first cuts required for the proper fit. Craftsman mechanics gloves protect hands while providing the feel needed for delicate metal-fab work.
11. With one side trimmed, Lund makes a cardboard template of the finished work so it can be flopped over and used to trace pattern on the opposite side for a perfect match.		12. Now bumper fits as it should along top and sides, but “wings” are too long, necessitating trimming. Curved white line indicates cut needed to match factory fender radius.
13. Cutting the thick steel bumper wings requires an electric reciprocating saw. Lund masks area to be cut to preserve powder-coat finish and give easy outline to follow.		14. Final shaping and smoothing of the customized radius of the wings are done with a disc sander.
15. The last fabrication step is welding on a new end cap and smoothing it out. The end cap adds additional structural support to the wings and gives the bumper that ARB factory look. The bumper later will be sent to Rhino Lining to give it that jungle-ready finish.		16. Factory bumper mounting studs on frame ends are near-perfect match to the bumper mounts on a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, making ARB Bull Bar fitment much easier. (Factory frame tie-down hoop was cut off to make way for new front skidplate.)

Pulling Power

ARB bumpers are designed to handle several different makes and many models of winches. The one caveat is the winch chosen must have the solenoid control-box remote mounted on top of the bumper, while the winch itself is housed inside.

This hidden winch-mounting location limits the winch selection to any size and type of Warn other than the new low-profile models, which have the solenoids as an integral part of the winch housing on the old upright 8274.

We chose the new Warn 9.5 Extreme Performance (XP) for the Maya Hunter. Its 9,500 pounds of pulling power and heavy-duty solenoid design are ideal for long pulls and frequent use, and it comes with 125 feet of 5/16-inch wire rope and roller fairlead.

Be forewarned: it takes two people to mount the winch — it’s heavy and the bumper is cumbersome. The job is best done with the bumper resting on top of sturdy milk crates or suitable stand.

Mounting and wiring the Warn winch are straightforward in the ARB bumper, with two small details: 1) the mounting holes in the roller fairlead must be drilled out to match the mounting holes predrilled in the bumper, and 2) the Warn winch motor has to be rotated so the control handle is accessible through the opening in the bumper’s top plate.

You also may need to modify the ARB solenoid pack’s mounting bracket that mounts the pack to the bumper. Usually the bracket fits perfectly. But we had to make a two-inch extension for this application. — BWS

Buy Warn 9.5 Extreme Performance (XP) winch from www.4wheelparts.com.

1. Removing the 10 hex-head socket screws allows the clutch-lever housing to be rotated so the operator can easily reach the lever.		2. Clutch lever of the Warn 9.5XP winch can be counter-rotated to the one o’clock position to make it accessible through hole in top of ARB bumper.
3. Place the roller fairlead in position on the ARB bumper and use a felt marker to mark the mounting holes. A 7/16-inch bit is used to drill new mounting holes. Bolts hold fairlead and winch to bumper.		4. It takes two people to install winch-one to hold winch in the bumper, and the other to place mounting bolts through fairlead.
5. ARB Bull Bar with winch in place. Note bumper cutouts on each side of winch where Hi-Lift Jack can be positioned to lift vehicle.		6. Wiring Warn 9.5XP winch is as easy as this wiring diagram illustrates. Control box mounts on top of bumper during final stage of fitment.

 

 

 

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