Thanks Habanero! Yes, my son has been an amazing experience.. can't wait to have him in the garage with me working on stuff

 

Intermediate post due to excitement..... Good news! I finally forked out a ˟˟˟˟˟ ton of money for a 4x4 labs 2nd gen rear bumper, swing arm and tire carrier.... like I said a ˟˟˟˟˟ tone of money but by the time it is delivered I would have forgotten about that part

can't wait to install and share pics and all that wonderful stuff!

 

Those bumpers do look real good and I've heard their work is very nice. Looking forward to those pics n stuff!

 

So jealous, I really want one of those bumpers. I have a simple steel rear bumper but no tire carrier. Can't wait to see some pics.

 

Hello everyone... again it has been several months since I've last posted in my build Thread. In that time I haven't done much on the rig other than wait for my 4x4labs rear bumper. I am about 4 months into waiting for it and am getting a bit nervous. I have spoken to Luke (owner of 4x4 labs I believe) several times and as of 2 weeks ago they had welded the wrong mounts on the bumper by accident and needed to fix it. OK, I have been patient mostly because I didn't NEED it, but at this point it is a bit much. I haven't been able to reach anyone at 4x4labs all of this past week, I left several messages and an email to Luke, so hopefully they were on vacation or something.
Anyway... worst case I lose $700 as that was how much my deposit was... but more than not wanting to lose the money I want the bumper!

ANYWAY... meanwhile I don't have much time to do anything on the car, but I do have some maintenance items and decided I rather move my dual battery setup into the engine bay instead of the rear cargo area where I had originally planned. I'll get around to that sooner or later..

I have been busy with work and for the last 3 weeks with the newest addition to the family, my 3 week old son.

I have a trip planned for March 25th of this month at Hungary Valley OHV area... wish we were going to somewhere with more challenging trails though.

 

I hope this works out for you. Nice 4Runner.

 

Another kid, how awesome!!

Hope your bumper comes along very soon, 4 months would have me itchy too.

 

And finally, it is here. Quite an annoying story of it's delivery into my hands.. long story short.. they asked for commercial address only fo delivery. Fine I gave my sister's business address. Called them around noon said it will be there in about 30 min. I went to the business to wait. An he passed, nothing. Checked online tracking said taking back to dock. Wtf. Called they got hold of driver
Driver said oh nowhere to park first bull˟˟˟˟. My sister gets deliveries by 18 Wheeler's all the time. I said I need it today, the rush delivery was for a reason. Said I can pick it up from parount, too far. So I said where is next stop, sylmar Can. Done. I'll meet him there. Then got there and waited for 1.5 he's. Guy gets out of truck and FIRST thing he says is "I'm not going to help you load it" I lost my ˟˟˟˟ a bit. My response was a healthy "what the ˟˟˟˟ man. Can you say hello first? Sorry I was too lazy to deliver to your address..." Then I stopped myself and said "just give me my package"..

He dropped it off without a single word the whole time. I loaded all 220 lbs of it myself. Took it off the pallet. I don't think the bumper weighs 220 lbs. I think the pallet it was on was a good 30 lbs.

Since it is raining balls and I have demolished my garage to rebuild. I couldn't do anything when I got home.

Going on a ride on Sunday. That's why I was in a hurry to get it

 

I apologize for the many typos in my previous post. Typing fast on phone. :/

 

Figured it was all the excitement. Readable all the same.
Sorry the driver was a butt and a half, and for the crazy turn-around time. Awesome you were able to jump through all the hoops and finally got the bumper.
So exciting is the prospect of seeing it on the truck, so slow the paint dries!!!

 

Man that looks beefy. Glad you finally got it, sucks about delivery hassle. Now let's see that thing mounted!

 

Agreed!!! ^^^^

 

That pallet looks like oak, is it? Lot of nice angles on that bumper, I like it.

 

So. I installed the bumper. It's not without issues. Very unfortunate as I was really looking forward to a well built item
Well, the craftsmanship is great, the issue is that it is not centered. It is about 3/4 inches off to the right. It's far enough that it really bothers me but not far enough that when I complain I'm not going to sound like a jack ass.

Everything went really well. I test fit the bumper, had to pound the left support a bit to get it in, I mean it's a very strong bumper so moving that support 1/16 inch was tough. Then I built the tire carrier kit. I didn't have time to paint the tire carrier before the trip yesterday. I am missing caps on the two swing arm spindle.assemblies, I am not sure if that was supposed to be included or not. But since the order took more than 4 months they threw in a double swing arm and a license plate holder for free. I had originally ordered a single swing arm. Ok. I shut up now. Pictures.

Right side. Big gap.
Left side touches body

 

This tranny jack has been a great friend for many none tranny jobs


Put the swing arm assemblies on.

I thought they would be parallel with the bumper. But.. no. Doesn't bother me. I assume it's the design.
Then problem number two. The side brackets. I could not get them to work. The geometry is off. Both sides. I'm gonna try again before I complain about this.. I don't know why I suspect I may be the problem. Lol

 

Shots of the bumper with swingarms but no attachments.





Getting this alignment dead on was very tricky. Especially at 10 pm.

Got it all tacked up eventually and test fit on bumper. Looking good! Time for some vigorous welding.


Got all the welding done.
But the mount that goes on the swingarms was not perfectly aligned. And I ruined a grade 8 bolt trying to get it in. So I drilled out the holes and eventually the path was clear.
Looks great!
Oh. Also, the license plate holder bracket didn't come with hardware to mount on to swing arm. And although they included lug studs for the tire carrier they did not include the lugnuts. So a trip to home Depot and a trip to AutoZone for the hardware.

 

And, here is part of the pictures of the ride from Sunday. We were lazy this time and basically only took pics at the 4X4 play area and not much on the trails.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zfvZsERSbfGhp4G03

 

Cool pics and videos. Where is that at? Bummer about the off center by 3/4" are they going to make it right? By the way the bumper looks awesome.

 

I have been too busy to call them about the issues. I'll get to it soon.

The area is Hungary Valley OHV area. Southern CA

 

That is a cool looking bumper.
Bummer the alignment is off..that would drive me nuts too.