Louise gets a face lift 2008 LX570 TJM T13 Install (1 Viewer)

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bwell

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Sep 8, 2010
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Location
Wamego, KS
Bamber's big sister jumped out in front of our 2008 LX570 returning home from Thanksgiving 10 miles from home. The doe was about 150 lbs, maybe 1 1/2 years old or so, not a large deer but she kissed the front bumper cover at about 45, I got slowed down from 55'ish mph and she darted right last second. Shot the deer about 50 ' from impact. A couple of inches higher, and further to the center and my insurance damage totals could have been significantly higher, I'm glad they weren't, and nothing significant really happened. I wish it would have been colder out, as she would have tasted nice, cleaned and in the deep freezer, but it was already 10 at night I wasn't field cleaning a deer on top of unloading a full car with three kids in tow.

Some of my jargon might not be correct in terms used to describe the install on my LX570, but I'll do my best to answer any questions other LX owners have if they want to install a TJM T13 onto their Lexus.

Honestly my first choice was to have Jason at Trail Tailor build me a bumper, and he was all about it, but he had to many things going on and wouldn't be able to get started until mid January due to other business and personal stuff going on. I wanted a more permanent solution to living in the middle of critter ville sooner than later.

So, against the recommendation of Christo at SLEE, I purchased a TJM T13 from him, and it arrived approximately one week later.
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I am only going to address specific issues I noticed, and touch on a couple of things already addressed in another thread created previously for the installation of a T13.

I was impressed with the overall engineering and quality of the bumper itself. I feel it is very well thought out and generally the instructions only left me wondering what to do one time and that was on trimming the airflow directors as I believe TJM refers to them.
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The upper bumper support must be completely removed on a 1st gen LX570. Due to differences in the headlight shape between the actual LC200 and LX, this item interferes with the T13 and cannot be retained.

The next issue I had was with the chassis mount block that is fitted into a hole in the frame and adds an additional weight distribution/mounting point for the bumper frame horn adapter plates. This has been addressed before- square peg roundish hole. Quick push with a flapper disc, creating approximately a 1/8" chamfer to the four long edges fits perfectly.

The major issue with these blocks- I believe they're cast and one had significantly not straight threaded hole. Luckily I have a full mac tools metric tap and die set. One required a serious amount of force to cut and clean up. The long threaded m12 x 1.75 bolt wouldn't even go half way in initially. The other block required some clean up also, but wasn't cast/machined as poorly. One of the m12 x 1.75 x 280 mm threaded rods need cleaned up but likely due to packaging.
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At this point I mounted the bumper without the oem bumper cover remnant. Kind of adjusted it as far up and forward leaning so that it looked aligned. Then traced the rear mounting horn onto winch cradle- this is a user drilled hole.
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At this point I started using some of the soft closed cell foam packaging and cardboard to make a pattern to trace onto the oem bumper cover. Then lots of measuring, and lots more trying to make it symmetrical on both sides. Then some more measuring, admittedly I wasted more time than I care to admit. I found a replacement bumper cover that was fairly beat up, but not in the areas I would be retaining on flea bay since I was cutting most of it off and missing the drivers side third off my original. I didn't want to buy a second one.
I still ended up cutting 3/4" more off all the way around after I spent way to much time making templates, and patterns trying to remain symmetrical around the front while trying to maintain clearance above the bumper itself.
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In the picture above I thought I had trimmed enough, you'll notice I already installed some edging trim. The red dashes are approximately where the bumper is at now in its final cut. That line was continued around the whole cover with some painters tape to maintain some symmetry and evenness.
 
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On the wing support too frame horn adapters no matter how you try to install them they can only go one way and the top bolt holes do not line up properly as shown in the install instructions so you can either go two bolts on the vertical surface or one on top.

Another not so big issue for me, but maybe others. There's only about 1" of clearance when the hood is closed to the top of the bar. I can get the hood open, if you have small hands and or dont know exactly where to reach underhood access might be hard.
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Between the hood access, and the upper bumper support piece. Some might be discouraged by this. The upper bumper support piece is also used as a forward support for the headlights. There isn't any noticeable headlight movement at night on the highway or rough washboard roads.

I think they have some QC issues going on based on a few issues I had, and another recent customer didn't receive half the install hardware I believe.

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In this picture above you can see I barely had any gap at all. Off it came again...

This is how it sits now, not perfect but I like it and hopefully will prevent anymore serious animal issues.
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I chose to not install the sensors, not sure if I ever will.

After winter passes I'm going pull it off and cut some half circles into where the headlight washers would fit to clearance and reinstall them. They are best used for other drivers who like to tailgate.

Also, I hope you deadlift game is on point! Due to the shape, not much is conducive to raising and lowering it other than your own crusty mits. Unless you have a helper, helping that would help.
 
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Love it. Did you weigh it? Fit a winch? How is the driving dynamic?
 
Looks great, and glad to see another T13. :)

Just one thought—
**You might want a little more space between the top, rearward wing and the fender.

I watched a fellow mudder whack his left front TJM in Ouray a couple years back, and without enough room for normal movement...it pushed right back into his fender...crumpled it enough to become an expensive fix.

Movement there is normal, even just on washboard roads. You can see this while driving on bumpy stuff by looking at the top of your bull bar in relation to the top of your hood. It moves a good bit as it is expected to.

Maybe you’re OK, but I’d probably create a bigger gap there.

Here is my gap for comparison...though the pieces are slightly different on your 570...

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Just under an inch of space on mine.
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Not saying it’s wrong on yours.
Just think you might want to consider adding a bit more wiggle room there. It’s surprising how much that spot moves around even without an impact.

Perhaps @sleeoffroad or @cruiseroutfit might chime in here. I’m no authority on that gap... Just thinkin... They may see it and think it’s fine.
 
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Love it. Did you weigh it? Fit a winch? How is the driving dynamic?

I didn't weigh it.

I would say without a winch the whole thing is in the 150lbs area.

When ever I retire my 100 series and or pry it away from my wife's cold fingers I will install a winch and do some other stuff to the vehicle at that point.

Honestly, the driving experience is largely unchanged IMO. The AHC is good at what it does. I can tell a little bit, but this thing only has 66k miles. Did lose about 1 mpg as of now, and there's a really slight whistle at hwy speed.
 
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Looks great, and glad to see another T13. :)

Just one thought—
**You might want a little more space between the top, rearward wing and the fender.

I watched a fellow mudder whack his left front TJM in Ouray a couple years back, and without enough room for normal movement...it pushed right back into his fender...crumpled it enough to become an expensive fix.

Movement there is normal, even just on washboard roads. You can see this while driving on bumpy stuff by looking at the top of your bull bar in relation to the top of your hood. It moves a good bit as it is expected to.

Maybe you’re OK, but I’d probably create a bigger gap there.

Here is my gap for comparison...though the pieces are slightly different on your 570...

View attachment 1853976

Just under an inch of space on mine.
View attachment 1853977

Not saying it’s wrong on yours.
Just think you might want to consider adding a bit more wiggle room there. It’s surprising how much that spot moves around even without an impact.

Perhaps @sleeoffroad or @cruiseroutfit might chime in here. I’m no authority on that gap... Just thinkin... They may see it and think it’s fine.

You technically are 100% correct. TJM specs at least 30mm gap along all seems so just under 1.25."

The hood gap, yes it is not ideal... But the front of these trucks are different enough I dont believe you'll see anyone else get much more clearance than what I achieved.... I'm 6'2" 240lbs, one DNA strand away from being a certified cave dweller. On my back doing basically a inverted squat with the front of the truck, feet up and pressing the hoop up as far as possible then balancing a few extensions and tightening it all down. Had my wife been watching I'm sure she'd of taken a few pictures laughing her a$$ off at me.

The angle of the last few pictures doesn't show it that great, but I have a solid .5" gap between the corners out on the wings. Not the most ideal, I'm going to see how it does over time. Honestly after clipping and un clipping the bumper cover so many times that plastic is pretty resilient but I probably won't trim anymore off until it becomes my driver.
 
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That looks really good. The bull bar support angles aren’t exact like on tlc, but still fit the general shape of the front imo.

Nice work on the trimming.
Thank you. I really like it. The above shots aren't perfectly straight on.

I did end up trimming the a plastic piece under the front bumper cover at the corners where the front fenders meet to provide more clearance for the bumper and provide some more adjustment.

Honestly haven't had any problems with anything since I put it on, just don't think most would be comfortable with the lack of clearance between the hood and upper portion of the bull bar.
 
Would you happen to have pics of the “recovery point” area of the bumper? I’m wondering whether arb recovery points would fit with this bumper.
 

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