First of all, Great site! Almost 9000 members, damn thats cool!! New guy to the forum and have already read a lot of great posts but still have a question for all you veterans here. My rig hasn't seen any major trail use in the last few years, but it's not getting any younger so I've decided to add a few more things and first off I believe will be a new front bumper. So far I know ARB has nothin and TJM has a couple options but no winch mounts. What Gives? Without a complete start from scratch makeover does any other manufacturer build a winch mount bumper?

Any info would be a great help so "Thanks" in advance.

BTW.....Keep up the good work on the site, I'll be here readin for a while to catch-up...........

 

what is the "t" you speak of? a tundra, a taco? what?

ok, 95, a tacoma or a truck?

 

might want to look towards allproo, or frontrangeoffroad, or there are tons of other places... check out demello and otehrs as well

 

By "T", I assume he means "T"100. A buddy had a TJM and winch on his 96 T-100?

 

T100

My fault, got to typin and forgot to go back and fix that.....

 

Word is...TJM is a non-winch bumper. The old bumpers were stamped out for it but if you go to their website its says " winchmount......N/A"

 

Good news/bad news re the T100's. Bad news, you'll find the aftermarket support for the T100 pretty scarce. The good news is that most exterior mods will have to be custom made, giving you a unique outfit.

I'm not sure what is going on with TJM. I wouldn't be surprised if they are scaling back on T100 products, but they have offered winch bumpers before -

HongerVenture's TJM on the old blue T100


The only other mass produced product is the Warn Transformer . It's not a full replacement bumper, rather a grill guard with a winch mount but they look good on a T100.

WileyCoyote(?) on this board I think, but it's Adam's T100. His Warn Transformer is now hacked up into a prerunner type winch bumper.


Your other options are going with a custom made unit from Bent Up, Rock Ware, maybe Demello, Armorology, etc.
Sounds like you have a nice truck. If you can, post up some pics -

 

Here's a couple pics of my toy(s).

Taken summer of 2004.

 

Nice looking T100. I remember when mine looked that nice. Now its all scratched up and has that nice textured look At least I haven't rolled it on its side, yet. I started a post like this not too long ago. Here is the link to it https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f28/front-bumper-40121/

Andrew

 

Thanks,

I've stripped it down and cleaned er really good at least once a year to keep it that way. Grab a pressure washer and lay underneath for a couple hours gets all the guke off. It has been a daily driver but I think it's time to take it to the next level.

I read that thread and other posts like it. They seemed to get a minimal response just like this one. May just have to give one of the guys in the weld shop some cash and some pics of what I want and tell em to have-at-it.

I like the clean looks of a TJM or ARB style bumpers though....We'll see......

Thanks for the reply.
Joe

 

I like those bumpers too. But I just got a warn 8274 that I want to mount and nothing will fit one. So later this spring I will build one. I have all of the steel. Just right now I am rebuilding my Mini Baja race car.

Andrew

PS Post some pics of the bumper if you have them build one.

 

Careful with that picture, looks can be deceiving! While the winch is indeed mounted in that bumper, I wouldn't use it like that. The linked threads at the end of this post detail the problems with using a winch on the stock TJM bumper. surlynkid's TJM is most likely why TJM now lists it as non-winchable.

There are two basic problems with the TJM bumper for the T100, at least when it comes to winching. The mounting brackets fail under the load. TJM fabricated braces for the mounting brackets (which they were kind enough to send me) to solve that problem. Upon reinforcing the mounting brackets it was discovered that the bumper face itself would fail under the load. TJM made an internal winch plate to reinforce the aluminum bumper and it was suggested for use with the steel bumper as well after discovering that it wasn't strong enough. Several guys (Water Man on Yotatech) were sent the winch plate and brackets for free because their bumper was sold to them as winchable.

The old blue T100 is no longer mine but I pulled the bumper and winch off for my white T100. TJM would only send me the braces for the mounts, but said they could not get me a winch plate. I don't know the whole story with that... I didn't pursue it. I'm in the process of measuring and designing a 1/4" steel winch plate to fit inside the bumper to prevent the bumper from deforming.

For your reading pleasure:
TJM cracked while winching
Bent TJM pics
And one more...
Pics of the brackets off the truck (for some reason the link to Pirate doesn't work on that thread)

 

That SUCKS!

But if they sent the parts to fix the first 2 then they obviously have a newly dseigned unit. Right?

 

No, they never designed a new unit for the T... they just labeled it as non-winchable and sold it as is. Sorry buddy. If you like the look that much, I think TJM still has some blem (slang for blemished) T17's for the T100 at a good deal. Buy one and fabricate the bracket yourself.

Here's a good thread detailing/picturing the additional brackets.

Great to have some more T100 guys posting here on Yotatech!

 

I think what they did (at least in part) was assign the reinforcement for the aluminum version to the steel one. I think Joel Ericson over on 4x4Wire (...er this guy posting above me I think ) recently found that, yes, they'll still provide the brackets but won't supply the winch reinforcement.

IMHO, take your time, search the web, make some drawings and find a good fabricator. I'm way happier with what I got from Alaska FabShop than with either of the bolt-on options out there.



FWIW though that Trans4mer unit is plenty stout to winch with. This started as a climb out the window stuck and took a double line down to the last 3 wraps on the drum to get this far.

 

Found a couple of pics I had to scan that were taken 6 or 7 years ago when I wheeled this truck a lot more. 35x14.50 Swamper Thornbirds. Personally didn't like em for mud but they did ok and lasted for a long time. Sold em with around 22 k miles with about half tread left.

I loved that look....I'll be needin a set of treads before next winter. Might try something different again. Maybe some Krawlers.

 

Heres a shot of the bumper that started out being fabbed from scratch by AJ, then I took it to the local muffler shop for some tube work, then to Line-x for the final shoot. Finally got to use the winch in the snow last month. Plenty strong, almost pulled over a high tension power pole (darn trees were too far away)