Wow that thing looks space age!! Cool

 

ian where is a pic of the arb

 

Heres mine

 

old thread... but oh well.

Front-TJM
Rear- SS

 

I was just wondering if changing the bumpers effects the air bags or anything?

 

Wow...$2,200+ just for a front bumper with goodies...yikes! I am going to build and weld my own for under $700.00...thats with winch included in price...

 

Damn 700 with winch ? What kind of winch are you getting ?

 

guessing smittybuilt

 

thats still pretty good. I ended up paying about 300-400 just in materials to build my bumper. Then still had to get a winch and syn line. Add in consumables and everything else and it still cost quite a bit to build my own

 

Whoa, that bumper looks like it might float your front end in a water crossing ;-)

 

X2 on the air bag question.

 

Yea, it came out bigger than i thought because i had to add 2 inches in for the body lift but i still like it and it has amazing clearance from the sides and not bad from the front

 

Here is mine, should have a winch shortly.

 

No they don't affect airbags as the airbags have inertia sensors to detect sudden decelerations. ARB bumpers are more crash friendly as they have accordion crush cans built into the mounts.

While it wasn't a head on, my ARB did a fair job of absorbing some of the impact on my last tacoma.

 

yep, confirmed

The air bags will still detect a similar crash pulse (the fraction of a second your vehicle actually "crashes") and should still go off as designed. However, as stated, some bumpers are more "friendly" with built in crush cans. Off road this may seem not as ideal, even though they should only crush under most extreme cases (a real crash), but on road, this is a huge difference when adding a non-stock bumper.

Just remember that adding a steel bumper will greatly reduce the amount of energy absorbed in a collision. A stock bumper will crumple more of course, but when it crumples it absorbs a lot of energy. So, the effects of adding a beefier bumper to your vehicle could be damaging. By reducing the amount of energy absorbed by the bumper, the energy is transmitted farther up the frame rails, resulting in more "crush" of the rest of the vehicle, and generally a "harsher" impact inside the vehicle (occupant vs air-bag/seat-belt/steering wheel/dash). A certain collision in a stock vehicle that may only result in minor damage to the frame (and of course bumper) could instead result in a totaled frame/vehicle if outfitted with a sturdy steel bumper.

With all that said of course... here are pics of mine

(click larger)

and the thread (linked in signature) to view all progress of design/build/install/finish