EarthX
Owner of Earth Exploration Technologies
Put me down for a DIY kit.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Just saw you post. Thanks, that is exactly what I was going for. Take the old school look of the arb but loose a lot of the bulk. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I think it has a good combination of old school bull bar and modern rock crawler.It really is an excellent looking bumper - you did a great job with your approach of minimal bulk. Can you post some pictures of the mounting system? I think there is an obvious lack of diversity in the marketplace for bumpers and quite a gap between traditional bull bars and the Slee blueberry front bumper.
No problem at all. I think I'm going to leave the grill guards customizable. I'll build the grill guard to order so you can choose.I really like the 'stinger' look that manhattan posted, pic below. Slee's Blueberry has a minimalist stinger as well. I think I'd like to go that route, if you can rig that up, instead of the full bars and center guard. Is that possible?
View attachment 1003400 View attachment 1003401
Good point. I think the small stinger like mentioned above would be the bet option for the lx. At least for nowI really like the idea of a DIY front bumper.
Another item to consider would be if the bars will clear a LX470 hood, since the grill is attached to the hood.
What would you like to see changed? And I'm not sure on the air bag sensors. What year is your 100? And do you have any pics of the sensor location? Both 100s iv done so far were 2000 with no sensors in the bumper
Thanks for the reply. I do under stand your concerns. But while this is my first bumper for the 100 series it is not my first bumper build. There is a very fine line in strong enough and over built. Also a fine line in giving the protection needed for these bigger vehicles and not. There are several reasons for the wings to stick out like they do, (about 2") I built this bumper right before a trail run I did back in August. There was one tight spot where if the bumper was not where it was my fender would have been trashed. Also I wanted the grill guard to rap around like it does. I do also plan on adding a tube around the front fenders so it sets me up well for that. I will certainly see if I have room to tuck it tighter and still get the protection I feel is needed. As for the shackle mounts, I'm not sure if you can tell from the pics but there is 1/4 wall dom sleeve welded through and then the strap that raps the grill guard is rapped around the sleeve. That being said I will have to change the design to accommodate the bumper with or without the grill guard. My bumper was designed around the grill guard. I'm planing on using 3/8 for the main bracket coming off the frame and that will go through the front for the shackle mounts. Here are a few pics of other stuff I have built just so you know this isn't my first.Hi, My truck is a 06. No truck came with sensors in the bumpers, they sit up in the engine bay and what they do is monitor deceleration of the vehicle. I went reading a bit more about it and came to the conclusion that by mounting any bumper (certified or not) you'll be changing only a very small fraction of the reaction sensitivity for the air bag system. And yes, it is crazy down in Australia in regards to mounting one up!
I like the idea of getting it raw then you can mess with it if wanted/needed.
Also really like the contour you gave the tube for the grill guard. I sure would like to see the wing end finishing tighter to the body. I think it sticks out tooooo much.
The D ring mount looks very fragile in my opinion. Just for comparison, Slee's blubbery has a 3/4" thick D ring mount integrated to the frame mount brackets . If you do a side pull on 3/16 steel it's probably just gonna bend to hell.
Did you use the same 3/16 plate for the frame mounts? if so, I think it needs a bit more than that.
IM NOT TRYING TO BASH YOUR BUMPER AT ALL! Just sharing concerns before spending $1000 on something. I do love the look of it. It's exactly what I was waiting to find! I don't like the bar shooting forward like many prefer. I like it hugging the body.
(having trouble w the pics)