I know this is a frequent topic for a lot of people. Will an arb bumper fit with a body lift? I have had my arb bumper on my 4runner for about 9 months. I have lived with the hideous 1" gap caused by my 1" body lift. I always figured it would be too much work to fix it.

I finally came up with a way to raise the bumper. It is easy as long as you have a welder, and some other basic shop tools. This took me about 2.5 hours start to finish with paint.

First off my truck with the ugly gap:


Too most people this is not too noticeable, but it seemed unfinished too me. I started off by removing my bumper from the mounts. Do not remove the mounts, because it is easy to work on them mounted to the frame. ( I welded mine to my frame, so they are stuck on there anyways). My idea was to cut the mounts in half with a sawzall, move the half with the welded in nuts up the desired amount. Im my case 1" and weld it back together. Some may cringe at cutting the mounts in half, but it works and did not make them any weaker, TRUST ME I had to test them. I have a warn m8000 in the bumper and it could not be weaker.

Here is a mount cut, notice where I cut it. Right Behind the crush ripples, this is a good place for a weld. So cut behind the crush ripple on the top, side and bottom only! Then cut the other 2 braces off at the front of the mount. Everything will line up if you cut as i said.:


You can see the cut one and the regular one. Next is to mark how much yo want to move it up and tack it in place. then repeat on the other side. After do a test fit. Everything lined up so went ahead and welded it all up. The braces that were cut will sit in a new place. I did 2 passes on the out side, and 1 on the inside. Then i fabbed up a 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" piece of steel to fill in the gap in the top :
here is a pic of the extra piece and the bracket welded up:


Here are both completed and painted:


Final product and finally i am happy


The cool thing about cutting the brackets and moving them up is its simple, and you still have the slots in the bumper for fine adjustments. to make it level and whatnot.

A few hours later i got stuck in Deep Creek and i had to winch out. I hooked it up to a friend jeep and ripped his bumper!!!. my newly raised arb did not budge. I got to take everything out because my 4runner had 6 inches of water in the floor.

SO IT HOLDS UP AND WAS EASY THERE YOU GO GOOD LUCK

 

Sweet write up, I'll def be needing to do this when I get my 1" cus I've got about a 3/4" gap already. Brian at Wabfab did somethin similar to a rig a while back but it was to accomodate a 2" bl. Great job J

 

The issue isn't with your welding holding up, its the frame itself holding up. The ARB bumper is designed so that the winch is directly inline with the frame rails so when you winch the weight is being transferred straight back into the frame rails.

The problem is when you raise the bumper and the winch up, you've changed the winch forces from being a straight pull to a lever action. As you winch the raised bumper is going to put a downward bending force on the frame rails.

With 1" your will probably be OK if your smart with your winch and don't do anything crazy.

Also I couldn't tell if you have done the end cap mod or not but with the excessive forces now applied on your frame I would get it done ASAP if already not done.


FOG

 

Thats why my brackets are welded to the frame, as well as being bolted. I figured it would be plenty strong that way. without it being welded it flexed weird, and i could tell i would bend the end of the frame.

 

ive been waiting 3 years for someone to do this mod with the winch on the bumper. 3 years living with the damn gap is too much. nice to see that it holds up nice too. ill be getting on it ASAP so thank you so much!!

 

Looking good, wasn't that bad was it?

I've decided against a custom front and just getting mine upgraded this summer after I finish my degree, so I will be reinforcing the end caps with angle iron and some nice cosmetic/functional tweaks as well so I'll keep you updated

 

On Kregg's 4Runner and we just copied pics on 4crawlers website.

 

Is it still holding up after all this time?

 

Ohh yeah. I have smashed my bumper on rocks, and have winched a few times since lifting it up. It does not flex even when winching. It seems to be as strong, or stronger than the original.

 

Great to hear, I'm finally getting around to doing it tonight

 

oh how i'd love to have an ARB/TJM :'(

 

my TJM gets compliments all the time. I had a guy offer me 400 for it at a gas station... ( I paid 400 for it ) but I couldn't take it. haha 6-700 now... that might be a different answer haha

 

Another option is just to drill new holes in the bumper, that's what I did and it took me ~1 hour. Both ways will work just fine, but if you don't have a welder then drilling is easier and faster. You just have to drill the new holes 1" down from the original holes and 3/8" toward the rear to clear the angle of where the bumper touches the mounts. No winch yet, but I have pulled quite a few stuck/broken Heeps out and pulled an old oak tree down with mine and no problems.

 

Brian's idea actually was what I originally set out to do. But when I got the bumper off the truck I found out haow hard it was going to be to drill those holes with the winch installed. To get the right angle to drill new holes you need to take the winch out. that is a pita so I just busted out the sawzall and cut the mounts. I think either way is perfectally acceptable for strength and appearance.

 

I cant believe your cuts on the brackets are so straight. Trying to avoid the braces and what not, mine was a total hack job

 

you should invest in a cutting wheel, that keeps things straight and pretty.

 

They were a little wavy. It doesn't really matter, you can always grind down your cuts a little to help straighten them out. And when your welding just fill in the gaps.

Im glad someone else attempted this.


Ohh and i am a little sketchy when it comes to using a cutting wheel on long cuts when it is something thicker than sheet metal. I think a plasma cutter could have done a nice job also. But then again if you sneeze or twitch when using that it will look like ______/\_______

 

LOL! Imagine what surgeons must feel like!

 

I can only imagine.

 

great idea, only thing i would do is put some little triangle guessts on the top and bottom for just a little extra support