Need Front Bumber Advice?

[Appalachia]

About eight months ago, I bought my dream truck, a Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road 2019. What I am looking for is some advice on a new front bumper with a winch. I have attached a link to the setup I am looking at. I don't need anything crazy, and I like the looks of the setup. Most of my excursions take place in the Appalachian mountains and one or two trips out west every year. I have a habit of going to places by myself with no cell services, so I want to make sure that I have some options in case I was to become stuck. I use to drive a Ford Focus, and I am surprised it's still functional. If you know of a better option, let me know.

Hidden Winch Mount | Fab Fours

 

[Wildabeest]

I went with a bumper from C4 Fabrication. I like how it integrates well into the front grill and looks more OEM. It’s heavy duty steel and comes unfinished, so you’ll need to have it powder coated or painted. Comes with the low profile cattle guard (shown on mine). a higher profile one, or no cattle guard. It’s not shown in the pic, but they will do a cool TRD logo cutout on the underside. You also choose what style of light bar cutout you want (if any), and they also offer several light bars. I chose the slim, dual color, LED Extreme bar. There’s also two recovery hooks welded onto the main plate.

For the winch, I went with a Smittybilt X20 10k. Quite a bit cheaper than the comparable Warn, and comes with either synthetic or steel cable and wireless remote.

With winch, the whole thing weighs about 125-150 lbs. So I also replaced the factory shocks with Bilstein 5100’s to stiffen up the front end a bit and lift it 1-1/2” to get rid of the notorious “Toyota Dive” profile and level out the profile.

Install is moderate effort. You need to basically pull off the whole front end of the truck (which is pretty straightforward), cut the plastic grill, then install everything and wire up the light bar and winch. Lots of good videos online for installing this setup. It’s a two person job given the weight of the bumper. I did it myself using a floor jack to raise the bumper in place, but would not recommend that approach. It fell off the jack twice and scratched up the powder coat :-(.

PM me if you want more info or more pics.

 

[JLS]

16-Current Toyota Tacoma Semi Hidden Winch Mounting Kit

Warn-100044-The WARN Semi Hidden Kit is ideal for the third-generation (2016-Current) Toyota Tacoma owners looking to have a hidden winch mount, but also a level of protection to the front of the vehicle. KEY FEATURES: Provides Two Recovery Points For Shackles Low-Profile 2 Inch Grille Guard...

sdhqoffroad.com

 

[furness]

I had a Fab Fours winch mount on my pickup, and the quality was very good. I had some issues with the one I bought, and they sent me a new one no questions asked, even paid for the freight to my door. Very good company to deal with.

 

[MT_Chad]

Personally I would get a bumper with a receiver hitch in it and mount the winch in a receiver hitch bracket. That way you can wire the truck to use it front and rear and store the winch out of the weather. Way more functional IMO.

 

[furness]

Personally I would get a bumper with a receiver hitch in it and mount the winch in a receiver hitch bracket. That way you can wire the truck to use it front and rear and store the winch out of the weather. Way more functional IMO.

I’ve thought of doing this, but the front hitches are only rated for 5,000 lbs. Pulling a stuck truck is way over that. I have a friend who bent his front hitch pretty badly pulling out of the mud.

 

[Appalachia]

Thank each of you for the insight and possible bumper options. Hopefully in the next few months Ill be able to make the modification to the Tacoma.

 

[elkhnter]

Got a Fab Four on my F250 with a 12k winch. I like the setup, solid but not too massive. You can easily get to the winch.