Builds Travis’s PNW LX570 (4 Viewers)

[TheLCProject]

Good work on the LS430. I've got an '02 with 95k miles that I hope can bring five figures by the time I'm ready to sell it.


I missed in your thread what you did with your dark gray Tundra alloys? EDIT: Found it! Builds - Travis’s PNW LX570 - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/traviss-pnw-lx570.1010267/post-13875090

 

[grinchy]

No bumper pics here?

 

[tbisaacs]

No bumper pics here?

Soon!

 

[tbisaacs]

I wrapped up some much needed holiday time off with 5 days in a cold garage installing a Dissent offroad bumper from @benc and his merry men and women. And actually, I fully installed it twice. Stay tuned and I'll explain!

This bumper is absolutely over the top in terms of engineering and quality - and I have full confidence in it's ruggedness despite being mostly aluminum. Here's my experience.

Ordering​

I ordered September 15th - the process is a bit old school but fine—you fill out a form and Cole emails you with pricing. I paid a deposit and was quoted approx 18 weeks lead time. They actually came slightly ahead of schedule and got me the bumper mid December. The bumper shipped via fedex freight to my nearest terminal via a cardboard pallet (which is way easier to dispose of than old school wooden ones).

Everything was well packed in foam and wrapped, bags were labeled but no overall parts list other than the instructions that @radman originally put together.

Process, gotchas, and lessons learned​

The first challenge in this install was simply logistics. My garage is small, unheated, and we had below normal temps and lotsa snow on the ground:

So I patiently waited for the truck to thaw:

The challenge that this created was a filthy, slushy garage. Second challenge - rust remediation in below freezing temps. This process was straightforward just took some patience. After taking off the bumper skin I went over the affected areas of the hitch with an abrasive pad and wire wheel (it was honestly not as bad as I expected):

I laid down two coats of rust reformer in satin black and cranked up my Mr Buddy propane header.

Make note of those extra brackets on the cross member, those will be important later

The center section and wings are really straightforward to install—but this took the better part of the day dealing gotchas 1 and 2.

Gotcha 1: 3 years ago I installed some Trail Tailor rear recovery hooks - but I made a critical mistake and didn't use any anti-seize. 2 turns and one of the bolts snapped. I was able to cut the head off and fish out he captive nut and remainder of the bolt:

I don't know why Toyota doesn't put more drain holes in the frame. In fishing this out I got a hand full of silt. Anyways - i thought I would be fine and be able to drop a bolt in from the inside of the frame (I could) and tighten it, but the access hole is just too small to get a wrench or socket in there. This is really unfortunate and my only option it trust that there is redundancy in the amount of attache points on the driver side (1 through frame, 2 in wheel well, 4 on bottom of frame, and finally tied into center section).

Second gotcha: The AHC pump is suspended on rubber isolators with a pin on one side and a threaded rod on the other. It works because it's basically pressure fit between the bracket. Removing the bracket is easy and sliding in Dissent's bracket is also easy - but I spent a long time with those isolators. Mine were just grimy (as was the pump). No pictures, sorry.

 

[tbisaacs]

Next I trimmed the bumper skin. This is very easy with a multi-tool. Measure 4-5 times and take a little off at a time:

Notice that everything is filthy

After this step, I hit my stride and got the swing arms done, both sides:

Pictured here is gotcha number 3 - parking sensors. There are many different size parking sensors across 200 series LC/LX model years. The holes laser-cut into the bumper and the included grommets are too small by ~ 10 millimeters. A step bit makes quick work of the aluminum skin to enlarge the holes, but the problem is that the aluminum is very thick - thicker than each gradation of my step bit. This means that the the outside of the hole is slightly too big while the inside is just right. I'm really not happy with fitment. I don't know what to do about it if I'm being honest. Had I known, I wouldn't have transferred them over and just 3d-printed some plugs.

Next step, tackling electrical. The tried and true method is to tap the trailer plug and splice in a Curt 2-wire to 3-wire converter. This honestly broke my brain. I read and read the instructions, texted @radman and @grinchy, searched old posts, and I could not make sense of it - so I made my own:

Finally, I was ready to make a harness. This was gotcha number 4 - and the start of a big setback.

Remember that crossmember bracket in the beginning? Turns out it's not there on later model years. This causes major interference with the trailer plug — which I didn't find out until after everything was mounted and aligned:

There is zero % chance this will work (also note the scotchlock connectors - I decided against these and used low-temp solder joints instead). You have to notch out the bracket. Had I known this - I would have done it first step and it would have been a thousand percent easier. So I took my grinder with a cut off wheel and abrasive wheel and just started hogging it out until I could get it to fit. After my first pass, things started looking better:

I didn't take a "final" photo but ended up going in two more times to take out more material and cleaning up. Also more paint.

This is where things started to suck. When I pulled off the center section, I could not get it to align properly again. There are some captive nut plates that tie everything together and they just weren't having it.

Upon further investigation - I realized I didn't torque down the through bolt on the driver side wing stiffener. Once the weight of the spare was on it, everything was tweaked. So I had no choice, I completely took everything off the truck - both swing arms, the center section, the wings. All of it except the AHC bracket and wing stiffener. This was a 3-4 hour setback

Once I got alignment sorted, and wing stiffener torqued - I got the tail lights in:

@radman 's careful eye pointed out - I have them flipped. Turn signals go on the outsides - will save that for another day. Once I verified everything fit and lights worked, she went back together for hopefully the last time:

To do - and do over in better weather​

• I have not relocated the camera yet
• I will probably buy another trailer harness and do over the light wiring. It's not pretty and has too many splices
• I installed the plate bracket but not the light. I may never relocate - the spare has 6-10" of adjustment left or right. If you move it left, plate is clearly visible
• I haven't installed hi-lift jack yet
• Need to get an exhaust tip welded on to hide my ugly chop
• More rust cleanup inside the spare tire area and backside of the hitch (note there is so much room there with the tire out of the way. Wow!)

Closing thoughts​

This is a serious undertaking. I spent 5 solid days in the garage on this. If I had more room, a heated garage with a drain, and better instructions, I'm sure I could do it again in 2 days.

There are no remarkable driving changes. I literally dont notice it other than I can't see out the back window.

And not to take away with how over the moon I am - but it's pretty ridiculous that this doesn't come with proper instructions other than those that radman provided. This is an almost $5000 bumper. There are also design changes since his install - and as I discovered, critical model year issues that greatly impact the install.

@radman - sincere shout out to you for the help. Y'all dont know but I literally texted him 50 times while he was with his fam in big bend. He's a legend!

 

[grinchy]

Consider a breakout box for the trailer plug?

Here’s an example.

Makes light installs easy.

 

[grinchy]

This is an almost $5000 bumper.

 

[tbisaacs]

Consider a breakout box for the trailer plug?

Here’s an example.

Makes light installs easy.

Oh yes. I this way better.

 

[grinchy]

there is so much room there with the tire out of the way.

A fuel tank fits right in there. So convenient.

 

[radman]

@radman - sincere shout out to you for the help. Y'all dont know but I literally texted him 50 times while he was with his fam in big bend.

Weboost FTW, and glad i could help!

 

[tbisaacs]

Here is something interesting - I have a Diode Dynamics Smartap relay for one touch passing flashers. With the road vision lights, turn signals work normally but flashers light up the tail lights and very faintly light up the turn signals.



The lock and unlock behavior is also different. The turn signals light up on the truck.l but the tail lights on the road vision lights

 

[grinchy]

The 2 to 3 is interpreting any input that is on both turn signal lines as a brake signal.

 

[DenverLX]

Nice Job, I still have not bothered to hook up my lights on my rear bumper. when I finished getting that bumper on I just didn’t feel like doing any more. Maybe someday Ill hook them up.

 

[tbisaacs]

Nice Job, I still have not bothered to hook up my lights on my rear bumper. when I finished getting that bumper on I just didn’t feel like doing any more. Maybe someday Ill hook them up.

Lol I totally get it. I’ve got a list of stuff I’m trying to get psyched up to address

 

[tbisaacs]

The 2 to 3 is interpreting any input that is on both turn signal lines as a brake signal.

Ah yea. It’s just weird how dim the turn signals are when flashing

 

[LXGus]

There is so much good info here. Thanks for taking the time to document everything so well!! I recently purchased a 2015 and my first upgrade was wheels and tires + AHC lift. Super impressed with my Wildpeak's so far. I've been driving all over Oregon in the worst snow we've seen in a minute with zero issues. Loads of inspiration here so thanks again!

 

[tbisaacs]

There is so much good info here. Thanks for taking the time to document everything so well!! I recently purchased a 2015 and my first upgrade was wheels and tires + AHC lift. Super impressed with my Wildpeak's so far. I've been driving all over Oregon in the worst snow we've seen in a minute with zero issues. Loads of inspiration here so thanks again!

View attachment 2885501

Thanks so much! Your truck looks awesome!

 

[LCT]

@tbisaacs Curious why you have to relocate the license plate and the camera? Tire doesn't seem to be blocking it.

 

[tbisaacs]

@tbisaacs Curious why you have to relocate the license plate and the camera? Tire doesn't seem to be blocking it.

The camera is very blocked - it’s offset toward driver side and very wide angle.


The plate is optional. The tire carrier has a lot of left and right adjustment. I can move tire all the way toward drivers side and plate is visible but spare hangs out pretty far.

 

[LCT]

The camera is very blocked - it’s offset toward driver side and very wide angle.


The plate is optional. The tire carrier has a lot of left and right adjustment. I can move tire all the way toward drivers side and plate is visible but spare hangs out pretty far.

Did you go with far right (towards passenger side) adjustment, like in the instructions?