I would just like to say that when whoever made the actual purchase (your installer maybe?) sent an initial e-mail to customer service when the bumper was received (before it was even mounted) that we sensed they were already highly unsatisfied with the product. At that time we said, please don't mount it, we will give you a 100% refund, a label to ship it back, and they can order a bumper from another manufacturer that fits your needs better. We understand that you waited 3 months, and we can't give you that time back. For that, we apologize, but all we can do to make it right is offer you 100% of your money back and eat $500+ in shipping fees. At that time the installer or whoever made the order said, no we are going to mount it anyway and the customer (which is guess is you?) is going to review it on Ih8mud. Which is fine, and your right, but I'd like to say that based on the tone of those initial emails we realized the best thing for everyone would have been a refund and return shipment right then.
I can go over those issues (before it was mounted) and explain why they are the way they are, and why we knew it made the most sense for us to offer you a refund.
Metal thickness
7ga steel commonly referred to as 3/16" or .188 steel plate, has a nominal thickness of 0.1793" a max of 0.1883" and min of 0.1703" did you measure it with calipers at 5/32, or is that based on a tape measure?
Same as the flat plate we use for the d-rings. It's 3/4" nominal with variations, and we often take a slight amount off when we face them on the belt sander after cutting and machining. They are way overkill thickness and could be way thinner, but it's been a signature style aesthetic on our products since the beginning.
This was the beginning of the whole email chain, why it was thought we were somehow being disingenuous, and why we offered to initiate a return. We knew that if this was an issue, it wasn't going to get better, and the only way to resolve it was a refund.
Back face welds
The prototype bumper shown in the install video was welded on the back face seams, production ones are not because of a wing warpage issue. Even in the jig we were seeing warpage on the wings after doing full welds. So we do the top and bottom welds as shown and have had much better results with very level wings. We have not had issues with this from a structural standpoint. We stand behind our products, if there ever was an issue, we'd handle it with the customer. From a rust standpoint, open areas allow zinc primer and powder to flow inside, closed off areas do not.
Metric and standard bolts
We are a relatively low volume manufacture compared to OEs, so we can't really source custom hardware at these volumes. In America, there are TON more choices of SAE hardware than metric, so we ship our products with a mix. We also use grade 8 (or 10.8) hardware where required and grade 5 (or 8.8 hardware) where required. I don't understand your post about wrench sizes, was there one bolt in there that used us a 13mm wrench and one that used a 14mm? They are the same size bolt however I assume? I can check with our bolt supplier and see if there was a head diameter change and you got a mix in your bolt pack.
Install instructions
We made a specific 100 series install video with the necessary steps, then used a universal video (with a 4Runner to talk about the steps like installing the lights, winch, etc...) it's all the things that are exactly the same every time on the installs. If there is anything in the 100 series install you would like me to cover, I would be more than happy to look into it and add it to the video. Yes, the paper document uses screengrabs from the video.
Now on to the issue I'd like to apologize for
The photos on our website were of a prototype front bumper on our 100. Between that photo and production, we added more room for flex offroad and hit the middle of variations of LX and 100 front ends we've seen. It is 100% my fault for not updating those photos with a production bumper. I was not doing it to be nefarious, I just didn't make it a priority. The new gap on our 100 is about 0.25 - 0.35" more across the top. We will be updating these photos ASAP.
That said, in your photos of the bumper on your vehicle the gap looks excessive in the corners, I don't think it's 1.50" but it does look excessive. We had a meeting with engineering to discuss if it was a manufacturing issue or what and they are still looking into that I'm sure you or someone is already talking to customer service about this.
We stand behind our products, and will 100% make the gap issue right. All the other noted concerns from you or your installer will be the same as what you have, so we are still offering the refund as we have been.
The victory is $1700 if you get the tube work and powdercoat (i.e., same stuff that ARB, Ironman, etc. have).
