Install notes for Ironman bullbar on a 2008 LX (1 Viewer)

[afgman786]

@tbisaacs why did you cut this bar? I'm curious to what you ran into where that needed to be cut. I didn't cut that and bumper and winch fit.

 

[Aint Misbehavin]

Hard to see in my second photo but when I put mine high and snug the verticals for the bull bar made contact with the support. I ended up cutting a little more than the blue tape mark.

 

[tbisaacs]

@tbisaacs why did you cut this bar? I'm curious to what you ran into where that needed to be cut. I didn't cut that and bumper and winch fit.
View attachment 2605878

The winch fit fine with the grill support in place

But it would have made reaching the clutch through the top of the bumper cutout impossible.

The other reason is that it’s in a different spot than the land cruiser and the bumper wouldn’t clear it without making contact. This would jade prevented me from positioning the bull bar as high and tight as it could be.

There are a couple other folks on this board who installed without this modification and their bumper is further out and lower than mine.

 

[afgman786]

The winch fit fine with the grill support in place

View attachment 2605922

But it would have made reaching the clutch through the top of the bumper cutout impossible.

The other reason is that it’s in a different spot than the land cruiser and the bumper wouldn’t clear it without making contact. This would jade prevented me from positioning the bull bar as high and tight as it could be.

There are a couple other folks on this board who installed without this modification and their bumper is further out and lower than mine.

Didn't think there'd be a difference like that between LX and LC. I went high and tight and it didn't stop my bumper from being up tight, so wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. My winch plate looks like it sat a little lower than yours where it mounts into the frame bolts. Also the hole in the bumper for releasing the winch is way more forward than the actual release on the badlands. Same for you?

 

[tbisaacs]

Didn't think there'd be a difference like that between LX and LC. I went high and tight and it didn't stop my bumper from being up tight, so wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. My winch plate looks like it sat a little lower than yours where it mounts into the frame bolts. Also the hole in the bumper for releasing the winch is way more forward than the actual release on the badlands. Same for you?

Yea yours looks perfect. I’m positive there are minor geometry differences in position of the bottom of the grill and headlights between LX and LX. Just look how my grill overlaps and yours does not.

Here is what I was referring to. Look how close the clutch is to the grill support

 

[cc93cruiser]

This bumper is $999 right now! Classic Off Road Bumper Suited For 2012-15 Toyota 200 Series Land Cruiser

Did you really use the 2012-15 ironman bar on your quote I inserted or did you use the 08-11 with part number BBP025 for your 09?

 

[tbisaacs]

Did you really use the 2012-15 ironman bar on your quote I inserted or did you use the 08-11 with part number BBP025 for your 09?

My bumper is BBCD025

 

[cc93cruiser]

My bumper is BBCD025

I wonder what the difference is between both the 200 series bumpers they advertise on website.. there is a 08-11 200 series bar with part number BBPO25... Wonder which one to order for my 09 lx..

 

[tbisaacs]

I wonder what the difference is between both the 200 series bumpers they advertise on website.. there is a 08-11 200 series bar with part number BBPO25... Wonder which one to order for my 09 lx..

One is classic and one is premium. The premium has thicker tubes with slightly different shape, steel fog light pockets instead of plastic, and extra mounts on the top tube for mounting a hi-lift jack.

 

[highfructose]

I have a set of tundra tow hooks on the way from a parts picker on eBay.

I’ve heard the newer bumpers for the newer land cruisers aren’t compatible with arb recovery points.

Did you choose tundra tow hooks because arb recovery points are also not compatible with your bumper?

 

[tbisaacs]

I’ve heard the newer bumpers for the newer land cruisers aren’t compatible with arb recovery points.

Did you choose tundra tow hooks because arb recovery points are also not compatible with your bumper?

As far as I know there aren’t any compatible. Ironman makes a set sold in AUS market but no way to get them through Ironman USA

 

[Rasaus]

Over two weekends I installed an Ironman bullbar on my 2008 LX. Documenting some tips for future installers. Note — not a step by step how to.

Ordering:
Couldn't be easier. I ordered on a Monday, by the end of they day Ironman called me with a bumper ready—it was ready for pickup at my local freight terminal. Ironman is running a special right now that includes a pair of 7" "Blast II" lights — they are really nice. The bumper arrives on a 7ft narrow pallet:

View attachment 2462812

This thing is ridiculously well padded. It took me almost an hour to get everything off - and probably 4 bags of packing to get recycled. Aside from the bullbar, your pallet includes

• A pair of driving lights
• A wiring harness for driving lights (relay + ugly switch)
• A wiring harness for the fog lights (i didn't use, just plugged into factory)
• Ironman goody back with hats, stickers, drink holders

Instructions
I'm going to be real - they are useless. You'd be better off watching videos for ARB. The most helpful thing would have been a list of fasteners and recommended torque specs, and better photos. I watched a bunch of bull bar installation videos and got the gist.

More importantly - the included cut template is for a Toyota — and is worthless for an LX. Don't even bother.

What you'll need
It feels like I used every basic tool that I had at least once, but here's what was most helpful:

• A multi-tool and 180° blade for cutting bumper skin and wheel liners
• A step bit for drilling a couple of rather large holes
• Spray paint to rust-proof your holes
• Marine-grade heat shrink and connectors
• A heat gun
• Bulb trim — the pinch weld that comes with the bumper is very low quality
• Ratcheting wrenches - there are some hard to reach places
• Angle grinder with cutoff wheel — or equivalent dremel etc

Prep
Because I'm a novice - I did a lot of homework and prep ahead of time. I new it would take me two weekends so the first weekend I tried to plan ahead and do as much pre-wiring as possible. The first chunk of work on the truck:

• Removed the fog lights (in my case, I had baja design SAE squadrons
• Disconnect and pop out parking sensors
• Disconnect headlight washers — pinch the line or wear a gallon of fluid like I did
• Wire relay for driving lights — the kit basically does all the work. You just need to mount it (I mounted mine to my slee compressor bracket) and run the switch wire through the passage way to the firewall. The relay needs power and the switch need ignition signal — I just wired mine hot because I'm lazy
• Disconnect front camera

Next best thing to do is remove the bumper from the truck.

• Remove your radiator shroud if you have one
• Remove 4 clips along top and one 10mm bolt
• Remove the torx bolts in each wheel liner
• Remove the plastic "wings" that are between your skids and wheel wells
• Pull the grill off by yanking firm but gently
• Remove 3 more clips for bumper skin once grill is off
• Start peeling clips for the bumper skin - its easiest to start at the wheel well.
• Remove the absorption foam
• Remove the aluminum crash bar (3 bolts)
• Remove the mount that holds the crash bar (4 bolts)
• Remove your tow hooks

If you are following along - we're here:

View attachment 2462843

Cradle mounting and first round of cutting
The ironman bumper is a two piece design — there is a winch cradle that mounts to the frame horns, and the winch mounts to that, then the bull bar mounts to the cradle. In order to make the cradle fit, you need to cut the shroud on the right — and I removed the one on the driver side completely.

Once you do that the cradle bolts up. There is a clevis nut that slides into the frame (the threaded holes point toward outer edge of vehicle) and very long bolts. Slide the cradle in place and bolt up using factory hardware + the bolts for the clevis. You can bolt your tow hooks to the bottom.

The bar in the middle is the grill support and it has to go if you plan on running a winch. The winch will fit fine - but the cover would block your access to the clutch:

View attachment 2462850

You can unbolt the whole grill support — but I was worried that doing so would make the headlights wobble (notice that the bottom corner of the light bolts to the grill support. So I instead opted to just cut the middle out, giving the headlights something to mount to. There is no point in saving anything but where the headlights bolt to — it will just get in your way.

Here's the first cut:

View attachment 2462856

I don't have ea close up photo - but eventually my buddy and I removed most of that material.

Bumper prep
There were a number of things I did while the bumper was on the ground that would be a pain while on the truck:

• I drilled holes for parking sensors using a step bit. Installation was pretty painless, just slip them in
• I installed the driving lights
• Drilled holes for winch control pack
• Installed upgraded LED fogs (base bumper comes with halogen)

Dry fit
View attachment 2462857

The bumper will easily slide onto the cradle and sit unsupported — but it's definitely a two person job. An engine hoist would make this ideal. There is about an 1" of horizontal and vertical adjustment in the bumper. My buddy and I started as high and as tucked as possible to start.

It took a little more trimming here of that cooler shroud on the radiator + grill support to get everything out of the way.

Bumper cut
Before locking in the bumper fit - we wanted to see what kind of cuts would be required. The first cut was to lop everything below the grill and parking sensors off. A multi-tool makes it really easy. After that it's trial an error of re-fitting, and re-cutting.

Its important that you leave 25-40 millimeters of clearance between your bumper skin and bumper our you are going to have a bad time. Getting the fit took hours of trial an error. I wish I could give you a magic formula — but there just isnt one.

In general your cut will be just below the headlight washers and go across. You will not have much material under the grill either. What helped was running long lines of continuous tape and making lines. We also used a set of calipers to scribe a consistent line to make sure we where even.

Despite my buddy and I being careful - we still ended up with a bigger gap under the headlight washers than we had light — but the bulb trim is pretty forgiving and hides mistakes well.

Seriously - take your time on this.

Locking it in with pin bolts
Once you have adjusted and cut — you lock in your bumper fit by drilling two big ass holes in both the bumper and the cradle for some M12 bolts. Despite multiple rounds of measuring, I'm off by 1/8" - 1/4" side to side. If it really bothered me I could drill new holes - but it doesn't.

Getting the pin bolts in is a gigantic pain because there is a reinforcement panel on the back side. What we did is secure the bumper in the adjustment holes with one bolt, then locked in the bottom pin bolt. Remove the adjustment bolt, then do the top pin bolt.

There isn't alot of room to get a ratchet in there. We used a pair of needle nose vice grips to get nuts in place, then ratchet on the nut side. This took like an hour because its so easy to knock your bumper out of adjustment. This is where a hoist would help out.

Trimming it out

Once you lock in the bumper you can get your bumper skin (with bulb trim) locked back into place. Don't forget your headlight washers. Once the grill was in place I started cleaning up all of the wires for fogs, parking sensors, washers, and driving lights with zip ties and careful routing.

Once that is done, you can put your skids on. The main bash plate ties into your factory skids. There are 3 spacers in the hardware bag + longer 12mm bolts that replace the 3 front bolts in your skids. The spacers keep from distorting the bash plate. The rest of the skid bolts + wings are all 12 mm.

At this point I also zipped off my fender liners and used the factory torx screw and just drilled new hold.

Overall I probably spend 20-30 hours on this (with help from a friend). I'm sure a more experienced wrencher could do it quicker — but glad I took my time.

Hi there. Love your setup.
What type of

Over two weekends I installed an Ironman bullbar on my 2008 LX. Documenting some tips for future installers. Note — not a step by step how to.

Ordering:
Couldn't be easier. I ordered on a Monday, by the end of they day Ironman called me with a bumper ready—it was ready for pickup at my local freight terminal. Ironman is running a special right now that includes a pair of 7" "Blast II" lights — they are really nice. The bumper arrives on a 7ft narrow pallet:

View attachment 2462812

This thing is ridiculously well padded. It took me almost an hour to get everything off - and probably 4 bags of packing to get recycled. Aside from the bullbar, your pallet includes

• A pair of driving lights
• A wiring harness for driving lights (relay + ugly switch)
• A wiring harness for the fog lights (i didn't use, just plugged into factory)
• Ironman goody back with hats, stickers, drink holders

Instructions
I'm going to be real - they are useless. You'd be better off watching videos for ARB. The most helpful thing would have been a list of fasteners and recommended torque specs, and better photos. I watched a bunch of bull bar installation videos and got the gist.

More importantly - the included cut template is for a Toyota — and is worthless for an LX. Don't even bother.

What you'll need
It feels like I used every basic tool that I had at least once, but here's what was most helpful:

• A multi-tool and 180° blade for cutting bumper skin and wheel liners
• A step bit for drilling a couple of rather large holes
• Spray paint to rust-proof your holes
• Marine-grade heat shrink and connectors
• A heat gun
• Bulb trim — the pinch weld that comes with the bumper is very low quality
• Ratcheting wrenches - there are some hard to reach places
• Angle grinder with cutoff wheel — or equivalent dremel etc

Prep
Because I'm a novice - I did a lot of homework and prep ahead of time. I new it would take me two weekends so the first weekend I tried to plan ahead and do as much pre-wiring as possible. The first chunk of work on the truck:

• Removed the fog lights (in my case, I had baja design SAE squadrons
• Disconnect and pop out parking sensors
• Disconnect headlight washers — pinch the line or wear a gallon of fluid like I did
• Wire relay for driving lights — the kit basically does all the work. You just need to mount it (I mounted mine to my slee compressor bracket) and run the switch wire through the passage way to the firewall. The relay needs power and the switch need ignition signal — I just wired mine hot because I'm lazy
• Disconnect front camera

Next best thing to do is remove the bumper from the truck.

• Remove your radiator shroud if you have one
• Remove 4 clips along top and one 10mm bolt
• Remove the torx bolts in each wheel liner
• Remove the plastic "wings" that are between your skids and wheel wells
• Pull the grill off by yanking firm but gently
• Remove 3 more clips for bumper skin once grill is off
• Start peeling clips for the bumper skin - its easiest to start at the wheel well.
• Remove the absorption foam
• Remove the aluminum crash bar (3 bolts)
• Remove the mount that holds the crash bar (4 bolts)
• Remove your tow hooks

If you are following along - we're here:

View attachment 2462843

Cradle mounting and first round of cutting
The ironman bumper is a two piece design — there is a winch cradle that mounts to the frame horns, and the winch mounts to that, then the bull bar mounts to the cradle. In order to make the cradle fit, you need to cut the shroud on the right — and I removed the one on the driver side completely.

Once you do that the cradle bolts up. There is a clevis nut that slides into the frame (the threaded holes point toward outer edge of vehicle) and very long bolts. Slide the cradle in place and bolt up using factory hardware + the bolts for the clevis. You can bolt your tow hooks to the bottom.

The bar in the middle is the grill support and it has to go if you plan on running a winch. The winch will fit fine - but the cover would block your access to the clutch:

View attachment 2462850

You can unbolt the whole grill support — but I was worried that doing so would make the headlights wobble (notice that the bottom corner of the light bolts to the grill support. So I instead opted to just cut the middle out, giving the headlights something to mount to. There is no point in saving anything but where the headlights bolt to — it will just get in your way.

Here's the first cut:

View attachment 2462856

I don't have ea close up photo - but eventually my buddy and I removed most of that material.

Bumper prep
There were a number of things I did while the bumper was on the ground that would be a pain while on the truck:

• I drilled holes for parking sensors using a step bit. Installation was pretty painless, just slip them in
• I installed the driving lights
• Drilled holes for winch control pack
• Installed upgraded LED fogs (base bumper comes with halogen)

Dry fit
View attachment 2462857

The bumper will easily slide onto the cradle and sit unsupported — but it's definitely a two person job. An engine hoist would make this ideal. There is about an 1" of horizontal and vertical adjustment in the bumper. My buddy and I started as high and as tucked as possible to start.

It took a little more trimming here of that cooler shroud on the radiator + grill support to get everything out of the way.

Bumper cut
Before locking in the bumper fit - we wanted to see what kind of cuts would be required. The first cut was to lop everything below the grill and parking sensors off. A multi-tool makes it really easy. After that it's trial an error of re-fitting, and re-cutting.

Its important that you leave 25-40 millimeters of clearance between your bumper skin and bumper our you are going to have a bad time. Getting the fit took hours of trial an error. I wish I could give you a magic formula — but there just isnt one.

In general your cut will be just below the headlight washers and go across. You will not have much material under the grill either. What helped was running long lines of continuous tape and making lines. We also used a set of calipers to scribe a consistent line to make sure we where even.

Despite my buddy and I being careful - we still ended up with a bigger gap under the headlight washers than we had light — but the bulb trim is pretty forgiving and hides mistakes well.

Seriously - take your time on this.

Locking it in with pin bolts
Once you have adjusted and cut — you lock in your bumper fit by drilling two big ass holes in both the bumper and the cradle for some M12 bolts. Despite multiple rounds of measuring, I'm off by 1/8" - 1/4" side to side. If it really bothered me I could drill new holes - but it doesn't.

Getting the pin bolts in is a gigantic pain because there is a reinforcement panel on the back side. What we did is secure the bumper in the adjustment holes with one bolt, then locked in the bottom pin bolt. Remove the adjustment bolt, then do the top pin bolt.

There isn't alot of room to get a ratchet in there. We used a pair of needle nose vice grips to get nuts in place, then ratchet on the nut side. This took like an hour because its so easy to knock your bumper out of adjustment. This is where a hoist would help out.

Trimming it out

Once you lock in the bumper you can get your bumper skin (with bulb trim) locked back into place. Don't forget your headlight washers. Once the grill was in place I started cleaning up all of the wires for fogs, parking sensors, washers, and driving lights with zip ties and careful routing.

Once that is done, you can put your skids on. The main bash plate ties into your factory skids. There are 3 spacers in the hardware bag + longer 12mm bolts that replace the 3 front bolts in your skids. The spacers keep from distorting the bash plate. The rest of the skid bolts + wings are all 12 mm.

At this point I also zipped off my fender liners and used the factory torx screw and just drilled new hold.

Overall I probably spend 20-30 hours on this (with help from a friend). I'm sure a more experienced wrencher could do it quicker — but glad I took my time.

Love the setup. What trim did you use for the bumper cover? I guess it's not included with the Ironman package.
Tia

 

[tbisaacs]

Hi there. Love your setup.
What type of

Love the setup. What trim did you use for the bumper cover? I guess it's not included with the Ironman package.
Tia

Standard pinch weld trim is included and works fine. I bought some Nicer and more forgiving bulb trim:

Trim Seal with Top Bulb – PVC... Amazon product ASIN B07KY4J7ZR

 

[highfructose]

Arb recovery points will fit with a mild modification to the winch cradle. I’m able to get bow shackles on.

I wouldn’t trust a soft shackle on the passenger side one…but there’s no issue on my driver side one.

 

[tbisaacs]

Arb recovery points will fit with a mild modification to the winch cradle. I’m able to get bow shackles on.

I wouldn’t trust a soft shackle on the passenger side one…but there’s no issue on my driver side one.

View attachment 2848884

View attachment 2848885

View attachment 2848888

View attachment 2848889

Great work on the bumper trim

 

[highfructose]

Great work on the bumper trim

Thank you. My brother is a very good body man…he made the install a breeze. Without wiring, it took us 5 hours (including modifications to fit the recovery points)…he says if he did it again he could easily cut the time in half.

Anyone in central Florida, dm me and I can put you in touch with him.

He used an air saw for the bulk of the fascia trimming and a scraper sharpened into a “press knife” for the close details around the “supports” for the bumper. We were able to remove and replace the fascia for fitting without removing the bumper.

Once we “scribed” the holes for the “pinning” bolts that “locked” the bumper adjustments, we removed the bumper, did a final install of the fascia/grill, and drilled the holes for the pinning.

We used your instructions…the ones from Ironman were not really helpful.

I’m currently trying to figure out whether I’m going to purchase the Ironman LED fog lights…or find a way to retrofit the halogen bulbs with led bulbs.

Any advice? I’d rather modify the existing housing so the bulbs are replaceable if possible…

 

[tbisaacs]

Thank you. My brother is a very good body man…he made the install a breeze. Without wiring, it took us 5 hours (including modifications to fit the recovery points)…he says if he did it again he could easily cut the time in half.

Anyone in central Florida, dm me and I can put you in touch with him.

He used an air saw for the bulk of the fascia trimming and a scraper sharpened into a “press knife” for the close details around the “supports” for the bumper. We were able to remove and replace the fascia for fitting without removing the bumper.

Once we “scribed” the holes for the “pinning” bolts that “locked” the bumper adjustments, we removed the bumper, did a final install of the fascia/grill, and drilled the holes for the pinning.

We used your instructions…the ones from Ironman were not really helpful.

I’m currently trying to figure out whether I’m going to purchase the Ironman LED fog lights…or find a way to retrofit the halogen bulbs with led bulbs.

Any advice? I’d rather modify the existing housing so the bulbs are replaceable if possible…

View attachment 2849251

The Ironman LED lights are worth it IMO

 

[highfructose]

This may already be in the thread, but if not: the place to drill for parking sensors appears to be between 2.5” and 2.75” from the parking light. It clears the bracket for the parking light but doesn’t dig into where the bar enters the bumper.

Also, if you’re not a fan of the Ironman sticker that comes on the front of the bumper, you can use heavy duty two sided tape to attach rare earth magnets to the back of the bottle opener they send with the bumper…and then the bottle opener can be affixed in the cutout for the Ironman sticker…for a removable bottle cap opener.

 

[highfructose]

For anyone considering this bumper and a winch, a badlands zxr12000 winch will fit into and out of the bumper without needing to remove the bumper….it’s a relatively compact unit…almost identical to the warn evo s. To get it in from the top, you just need to remove the engine covers, loosen the grill/front fascia a little bit, and pry the grill back 4-5”.

The zxr12000 also, if you swap the fairlead for an aluminum hause style fairlead and synthetic cable, only weighs about 60 lbs (compared to 86 for the apex, 66-79 for a come up, 67 for a smittybilt, and 73 for a warn evo).

Even if you don’t swap the cable and fairlead, it only weighs 83 lbs (comparable to the apex)…and it’s only like $250 when on sale.

Edit: the control box fits on top of the winch while mounted in the bumper too…so you don’t have to mount it on the bumper or somewhere else. Though, it probably needs to be removed to get it in there or out…just two screws though. Not bad at all.

I believe the attached bolts will work to affix a synthetic cable to the zxr1200 winch drum.

 

[John Guedry]

For anyone considering this bumper and a winch, a badlands zxr12000 winch will fit into and out of the bumper without needing to remove the bumper….it’s a relatively compact unit…almost identical to the warn evo s. To get it in from the top, you just need to remove the engine covers, loosen the grill/front fascia a little bit, and pry the grill back 4-5”.

The zxr12000 also, if you swap the fairlead for an aluminum hause style fairlead and synthetic cable, only weighs about 60 lbs (compared to 86 for the apex, 66-79 for a come up, 67 for a smittybilt, and 73 for a warn evo).

Even if you don’t swap the cable and fairlead, it only weighs 83 lbs (comparable to the apex)…and it’s only like $250 when on sale.

Is that the same case for the LC version that the winch will fit wo removal?