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:
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
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:
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:
If you are following along - we're here:
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:
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:
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:
Dry fit
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.
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:
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
- 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:
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:
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:
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
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.