Ducky

or anyone...

I remember seeing pics of Rob(I think) Taking his ARB off and shuring up the framerail endcaps that the arb screwed in, since from all the pulling of prerunners out of the dunes... or anything else started to bend or warp his...

does anyone have pics of this or in general a stock endcap?

For some reason when I installed my ARB, I didnt have a end cap for the ARB to screw into... I cut off the triangle shaped endcap and now its completely open at the end of my rails...

so when i get a winch I might have to fab something up... any pics or documentation out there?

Mad Chemist

Ducky,

Check out Steve Schaefer's site- he strengthened up the ends of his frame rails for his TJM. Might be a different setup than what you're thinking, but may give you some ideas.

WATRD

I used a piece of angle iron and the legs off a u-bolt to replace that wimpy tin foil end cap.

I will see if I can dig up the photos.

WATRD

WATRD

I don't know how the ARB mounts on the 4Runners, but if it is the same, that end cap is a serious weak point. It bears much of the stress of winching, the vertical bolts are more for alignment than anything, and yet the tin foil they use there is really wimpy.

I guess it's plenty to hold the Tupperware stock bumper, but when you start pulling the truck around or pulling other stuff, that end cap gets distended and looks like the one in my photo.

92 Toyota

When I mounted my ARB I drilled where they said to drill,&put everything where it needed to go.I'll tell you the way it's mounted there is no way it is going to come off.Check my install out
www.msnusers.com/yotatech
click on pictures,then ARB install

smr4runner

Mounting the Tacoma ARB bumper on the 4Runner was slightly different than of a typical install for the Taco.

I was also unable to screw the bolt through the end of the frame rail.
The hole on the absorbtion bracket was about an 1/8 of an inch higher then the frame rail end hole. Also the bolt you are supposed to use that came supplied with the bumper was the wrong size for the frame rail end.

Rob. How about a wrench-a-thon to help a couple guys out. he he.

WATRD

If you are planning on having a winch, I would certainly recommend having that horizontal bolt beefed up. If you don't have that horizontal bolt, I would think twice about even installing a winch.

Without the horizontal bolt, all the stresses would be trying to shear the vertical bolts At best you are just going to yank something out of kilter. At worst, your bumper and winch will be laying on the ground in front of your truck with the wires all shorted out and you will have that to deal with on top of whatever you were winching for... not pretty.

The Tacoma install is like the photos 92 Toyota linked to. There are a pair of boxes that fit into the crush cans and each one of those boxes bolts up to that horizontal bolt as well as having one of the vertical bolts passing through it. It's the mount system that ARB tested on my truck before the bumpers were released to the public. It works great for everyday use, but after you do some hard winching, that end cap begins to stretch. It's still a weak spot in the install in my opinion.

Smegal, I would like to see what you are talking about. I think I know already and it has a pretty quick solution if I am right.

It sounds like we should order up a mini wrench-a-thon I got a fuel pump and a 4Runner lift this weekend as well as the Tahuya run. The next weekend I might be able to shake a day free, but after that I am on a moments notice for the SAS and that is going to keep me and the ChrisCo shop tied up for a while...

Ducky

Even if I dont have a winch yet, I would like to be apart of that wrench a thon to beef up my mount so I dont have to worry about it... so let me know... you can all see what they did to my runner....

oh yea ill throw this in too.. that front skid plate that came with the bumper... sux... havent even installed it since I had the bumper installed...

44Runner

my ARB prado bar has nothing that goes through the tip of the frame like that...

Ducky

Prado bars mount on the outside or sides of the frame rail not right?

WATRD

...and Prado bars were never designed to mount on Tacoma's or 4Runners.

44Runner

<sarcasm>Yeah just Prados, I mean they are so damn different its scarey isn't it?</sarcasm>

WATRD

I am detecting a bit of sarcasm in your post... but maybe that is just me.

They are different enough that the Prado bumpers don't fit "right" on the Tacoma's, at least the ones I have seen. I haven't crawled underneath one and looked at the mounts, but cosmetically, they don't look like they fit to my eye. They stick out a bit too far and ride a bit too high.

But, to each his own.

HiLux_1990

So do the ARB bars that you guys use all have a crush-can mounting system?

I'll go outside and double check mine later on, but I'm pretty sure it's a robust 'ole mounting system with just sideways and fore-aft bolts.
Mind you, this bar was put on a good 10 years ago

WATRD

Mine has the crush cans but I can't speak for the others. I would love to see a picture of how yours is mounted, in the land where they were invented Heck, for that matter, I would love to see a picture of your HiLux We don't get to see a lot of them up this way.