I think you hit the nail on the head. I do like the protection that horizontal pipe offers the tires and fender though. It's the way the others sweep up on the bottom that makes them look higher. I think I can do some stuff to create that same illusion of an upward swing. What are your thoughts about raising the whole thing up 3 inches and cutting out the grille? SEMPER FI by the way.

 

Semper Fi I don't know much about the 3rd gens. as far as what it looks like behind the grill. Try searching for a bumper for StevO he has a sac third gen and he has his winch mounted really high. There may be some tips in there. 3inches will help, but it will still need some of your handiwork to fill in that gap or give some illusion that it goes upward.

 

I am currently working on a front bumper, and i designed it for if you use a non integrated solenoid winch you have to cut out the grill right under the toyota emblem.

 

the more i look at it, the more i think the only way to make it look/function right would be to just start over. Even if you somehow made the illusion that the bar wasn't so low, its not gonna change the fact that your approach angle is terrible now...

 

The approach angle is not terrible. It's no different from a stock bumper. In fact it's an inch and a half better. I measured it over and over again. If you read the thread you would see that. Compare mine to the pics above and to most of the Fab bumpers out there. Look at the height, look where the plate is, look where the winch sits.

 

These pics just look different than in person. I took the pics with my cell phone. It looks way lower in these pics than it actually is. It does look really low though.