Let’s talk Front Bumpers
I noticed there are very few full width bumpers like a bull bar even without the bar for the Tacoma.
I had an ARB Front Bumper on pre-order, but may cancel.
There are lots of front bumpers that only replace the middle section.
I did not see a lot of value in these so I asked R4T what is the advantage of these. Primarily recovery points and housing a winch along with some front end protection
I am use to the full width bumpers that provide better clearance and protection. They have provided clearance to me on my Land Cruisers to come at an incline at an angle and walk one tire up and then the 2nd would catch.
They also have provided great front end protection. My daughter was at a red light in my 80 series and two cars hit each other in the intersection and smacked into my 80 on the corner. My 80 had no damage and only a paint scratch on the bumper. The cars has dents all the way down where they smacked against the bumper.
Also from wheeling, most of the dings have been in the corner. The skid plates provide protection for rocks hitting the underside.
I looked at the instructions to install the Tundra Zenith front bumper and they are very complicated. Lots of parts and pieces. It is likely a two day shop install which would be over $2K (my guess). One shop told me the first Tundra took them 4 days, but they expected follow on’s to be half of that
Sensors get moved and not sure if that requires recalibration. Moved sensors require harness extensions from the vender. Two dealers wanted $600 to recalibrate the rear parking sensors on my Rear ARB. I replaced them with the stock ones and everything works fine, but they are in similar spots. The front would move them farther out and there are more sensors so not as likely to work without recal, but maybe they will be just fine
This makes me think twice on getting a front full width bumper. I don’t plan on a winch right now, so I see no need to do the partial front. I just lifted my Tacoma and have 33” tires so maybe I should drive/wheel it and see how it goes. My 200 series Land Cruiser is still my primary wheeling vehicle so I would use that for the harder stuff. Still, I do like the on road protection of a full width bumper.
Throwing this out there for discussion. Maybe my thought process is flawed, maybe some front bumpers are much more simple than the ARB Zenith. Maybe there are benefits to the partial width/height front bumpers that seem prevalent ion the market
Check out this video at 1:39 to see the stock Tacoma vs All Dog Springs next to each other for the front
