Wanting to get an ARB front bumper – have many Q’s – would love some answers from people who have one on their rig

[LandLocked93]

Some good points address here should be highlighted:
Buy a winch ready ARB
Add recovery points: Trail Tailor makes a nice version that will fit
Different versions of the ARB exist such as Commercial vs standard. Do your research into what works best for you

I stressed the winch bumper too, but gave up a page or two ago.
And I think any off road bumper that *doesn't* come with tow points on the bumper is a bit of a slight to the customer. Kinda cheap, if we're honest.
But then, there is a reason there aren't any tow points on an ARB bumper (it's not strong enough for them perhaps)

 

[mrq]

I stressed the winch bumper too, but gave up a page or two ago.
And I think any off road bumper that *doesn't* come with tow points on the bumper is a bit of a slight to the customer. Kinda cheap, if we're honest.
But then, there is a reason there aren't any tow points on an ARB bumper (it's not strong enough for them perhaps)

I appreciate you guys trying to steer me to the winch version ARB bumper. And I appreciate all the advice you guys have given me — I really do! There are a few reasons why I don’t want it/can’t get it.
One is that I don’t like how it looks w/o a winch attached to it. I am not going to be putting a winch on my rig, so I don’t want to have a bumper that I don’t like the look of. Secondly, the winch version ARB is too big to fit in my garage. I park in my third car garage and the left side of my car is parked right up against a row a shelving/the wall. There is a work bench right in front of my rig in the garage — so the winch bumper is too long in the front to where it would block access to the work bench. Third, I am on a tight budget... And every $ that I can save counts. The winch ARB bumper is like $175 more than the non-winch.

Again, thank you to ALL of you for all the advice and information you have given me. I feel very informed now about this purchase.

Cheers!

– mrq

 

[LandLocked93]

I appreciate you guys trying to steer me to the winch version ARB bumper... But there is a few reasons why I don’t want it/can’t get it.
One is that I don’t like how it looks w/o a winch attached to it. I am not going to be putting a winch on my rig, so I don’t want to have a bumper that I don’t like the look of. Secondly, the winch version ARB is too big to fit in my garage. I park in my third car garage and the left side of my car is parked right up against a row a shelving/the wall. There is a work bench right in front of my rig in the garage — so the winch bumper is too long in the front to where it would block access to the work bench. Third, I am on a tight budget... And every $ that I can save counts. The winch ARB bumper is like $175 more than the non-winch.

It's all good. You've thought it through and know what will work for you. That's all that matters.

Above all, were you squawking about wanting a bullbar (different from a 'roobar of course)...that's just a bridge too far and we would not stop hounding you to rethink. lol

 

[unclegit]

Happy to help you install the bumper once you purchase it - I did mine in about an hour in the driveway.

It's a one job.

 

[mrq]

Happy to help you install the bumper once you purchase it - I did mine in about an hour in the driveway.

It's a one job.

That is so nice of you to offer! So you are in the PDX area? I’m across the river in East Vancouver. I was going to order the ARB from Land Cruiser NW in downtown PDX. They’re an ARB vendor. I was planning on having them do the install. I talked w/ the owner and he said that we’ll probably need to add coil spacers to the front end after the ARB goes on to bring it back up to stock height.

If you’re serious about being willing to help - that would be amazing... & I would really consider having you help. The ARB bumper is $860 +$240 shipping. Land Cruiser NW quoted me an estimated 3hr job @ $115/hr. The coil spacers that the owner talked about us having to install would be an additional $150 parts & labor. So I’d be looking at $500 on top of the bumper cost. That would be awesome if I could save $500.

Did the ARB you installed on your rig drop the front-end significantly? I’ve gotten mixed answers from people. Some have said their ARB dropped their front end, and others have said it didn’t.

That’s the main thing I’m concerned about. I don’t want my rig to droop and look weird. And I like the ride height how it is currently — 100% STOCK.

 

[AndrewInf]

Planning to install the winch ready ARB bumper on my rig tomorrow, I have the tired old stock springs in there right now so I'll measure front end droop before/after for you. Should give you an idea, anyway, the non-winch version is probably pretty close in weight. It's honestly not as heavy as it looks, I haven't pulled the stock bumper off yet for comparison but I don't think the difference is enormous.

I planned to get some new springs and a winch first but got a good deal on the bumper and I don't want it taking up space in the garage for the next few months.

 

[mrq]

Planning to install the winch ready ARB bumper on my rig tomorrow, I have the tired old stock springs in there right now so I'll measure front end droop before/after for you. Should give you an idea, anyway, the non-winch version is probably pretty close in weight. It's honestly not as heavy as it looks, I haven't pulled the stock bumper off yet for comparison but I don't think the difference is enormous.

I planned to get some new springs and a winch first but got a good deal on the bumper and I don't want it taking up space in the garage for the next few months.

That would be SO amazing if you could do that. I would very-much appreciate that! You could snap a few pictures if that would be easier for you. Thank you so much — I really appreciate that. I contacted ARB a few days ago & they said the non-winch bumper weight is 150lbs. A lot of people say they don’t think it weighs that much. Does your ARB seem like it’s that heavy?

Cheers!

 

[ChaseTruck]

...

Did the ARB you installed on your rig drop the front-end significantly? I’ve gotten mixed answers from people. Some have said their ARB dropped their front end, and others have said it didn’t.

That’s the main thing I’m concerned about. I don’t want my rig to droop and look weird. And I like the ride height how it is currently — 100% STOCK.

You simply get mixed answers because trucks that are still 'stock' nowadays are not necessarily comparable. The newest of these are 22 years old, and each one of them has seen individual levels of use or abuse, hence the springs are at different state of tiredness. Even your truck isn't 100% stock anymore compared to how it rolled off the boat from Japan many years ago.

You can ask the board endlessly (I've got no problem with that, by the way), search until your eyes get bleary, question whether ARB's own specs are right, and so on. In the end, if you like the ARB bumper, get it, measure how you truck stands with the stock bumper (distance between the center top of the front tire and the wheelwell/flare right above it, on even ground, both sides), put the ARB on your truck, measure again, drive it for a bit, and then decide whether you want spacers, or possibly replace the front springs - I would guess that OME stock height replacements might do the trick, but then you'd probably miss the ride of your well-worn & tired old 'stock' springs...

That's from someone who's really good at delaying decisions - after all, I've been mulling over buying a Jeep (before you Cruiser people get all riled up, it'll be a rock buggy victim, so I'm actually 'saving' a Cruiser...) for more than a year now, all with Excel spread sheets, cost-vs-mileage plots in several locations in the South and Southwest, including fly-and-drive costs, TJ or LJ, Rubicon or not, etc...

 

[greentruck]

ChaseTruck brings up an important point. If you're still running the stock coils, they are very tired and weary. Coil springs age and lose their mojo over time. The OME stock height coils solved that problem for me. Hard to say exactly what state yours are in. Personally, if I was going to do anything on the suspension related to the ARB, new coils are likely the first place to go.

Be aware that the OME stock height coils are an overload spring. This will raise your front end a little if you have just an ARB and not a winch, AUX battery, etc added, too. Again, wait until the ARB is on and you see how it sits and rides. There are some other options that may work.

Install is pretty easy for the fronts, basically drooping the axle by lifting the truck on its frame, more involved for the rears if you want them on at the same time.

As for that 150 lb weight, I'll bet that shipping weight and so maybe half cardboard, foam, plastic, etc that won't go on the truck. You can see how much packing there is in this pic. The big cardboard box the whole mess came in is already off here.

 

[ZackR]

If you are on old stock coils I'd plan to redo those at the same time as the bumper install. Now instead of a <$1k bumper you are closer to $2k for a suspension kit and bumper combined (nothing crazy but something that will work with the additional weight).

This isn't a bad thing but it points out how inter related each system is. Heck my front worn out coils barely even hold up the weight of the cruiser itself, a larger bumper would finish them off.

 

[FolsomTony]

The ARB bumper is $860 +$240 shipping. Land Cruiser NW quoted me an estimated 3hr job @ $115/hr. The coil spacers that the owner talked about us having to install would be an additional $150 parts & labor. So I’d be looking at $500 on top of the bumper cost. That would be awesome if I could save $500.

I'm close to buying some upgrades, bumper and new suspension. The only thing that stuck out for me reading this thread is that your shop is charging you shipping on the bumper. I've found a number of shops local to me don't have any shipping charges, as a free in-store pick-up. Even Amazon will do $0 shipping, but not sure if that's to a freight terminal, etc.. Since you mentioned you are watching the $, I'd continue looking for a retailer that doesn't add in that charge, and pick it up.

 

[z531519]

I'm close to buying some upgrades, bumper and new suspension. The only thing that stuck out for me reading this thread is that your shop is charging you shipping on the bumper. I've found a number of shops local to me don't have any shipping charges, as a free in-store pick-up. Even Amazon will do $0 shipping, but not sure if that's to a freight terminal, etc.. Since you mentioned you are watching the $, I'd continue looking for a retailer that doesn't add in that charge, and pick it up.

+1. Got mine from the "beloved" 4WP (10% off). Free shipping... If you are watching the $$$, buy a friend a drink to help you install it yourself but really it's not too heavy that you can't handle it yourself.

 

[FolsomTony]

+1. Got mine from the "beloved" 4WP (10% off). Free shipping... If you are watching the $$$, buy a friend a drink to help you install it yourself but really it's not too heavy that you can't handle it yourself.

4WP is the one I have on my screen now. I'm doing it all myself. If I get in over my head, I'm in a TLCA club that has awesome members.

 

[AndrewInf]

Pretty straightforward to install, and mine was a bit of a special case because a PO struck a deer 15 years ago or so and the passenger side front end has always been a little tweaked. It looks like the front end of my frame rails where the bumper mounts had been fiddled with and re-welded when they did that repair so the bumper sits about 3/8" higher on one side than the other.

I thought about ways to straighten her out, but I think I'm gonna just live with it, I already knew this rig wasn't destined for car show glory, so I'm gonna just do a few practical mods, maybe bedline it, wheel it, and enjoy it. Seeing the lack of straightness just further convinced me of that today. I didn't intend to get a bumper now but I knew one was in my future (with a winch) and I took the good deal on the bumper posted earlier in this thread.

Other than that, very easy job, you could easily do this install with (A) a set of sockets/ratchets up to 17mm, (B) a buddy, (C) the stock bottle jack and some chunks of 4x4 lumber. I did have to spread the ARB bumper frame rail tubes apart about 1/2" to make it fit, this was easy and did not require a scary amount of force from the bottle jack. Here's a pic of that:

If you're pretty ripped you could probably get this thing on by yourself. I'm not and my lady was able to help me maneuver it on no problem, there's no way this thing is 150 lb. I didn't have a scale handy, but I could easily move it around the garage by myself and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to move 150lb of plates around.

Here are the numbers before/after with my stock and fully tired OEM springs with 301,000 miles on em. I measured both sides from hub to flare edge with the stock bumper, with no bumper, and with the ARB bumper:

Stock bumper (DS/PS): 19.625"/19.875"
No bumper (DS/PS): 19.750"/20.000"
ARB Winch Bumper (DS/PS): 19.250"/19.500"

CAVEAT: I was eyeballing the center of the hub for the tape measure because I was doing this one handed so I could take a photo, so I would guess this is ±0.25" or so. The main takeaway here is that there is not that much of a difference in front height between stock and ARB bumper without a winch, so expect maybe a ~0.5" droop or less. Not too bad. I'm not gonna worry about it for now, I'm not expecting my suspension travel to be an issue around town between now and when I get a new spring kit. Probably gonna go for the OME stock height setup, will need to do some research on how my winch plans and weight of all my drawers and gear will affect my choice.

Practical goals side, it looks pretty sweet, in my opinion. The Mudder I bought it from shaved the roller fairlead mounts off so it looks pretty streamlined. I was planning to run synthetic anyway so this works out for me.

 

[unclegit]

That is so nice of you to offer! So you are in the PDX area? I’m across the river in East Vancouver. I was going to order the ARB from Land Cruiser NW in downtown PDX. They’re an ARB vendor. I was planning on having them do the install. I talked w/ the owner and he said that we’ll probably need to add coil spacers to the front end after the ARB goes on to bring it back up to stock height.

If you’re serious about being willing to help - that would be amazing... & I would really consider having you help. The ARB bumper is $860 +$240 shipping. Land Cruiser NW quoted me an estimated 3hr job @ $115/hr. The coil spacers that the owner talked about us having to install would be an additional $150 parts & labor. So I’d be looking at $500 on top of the bumper cost. That would be awesome if I could save $500.

Did the ARB you installed on your rig drop the front-end significantly? I’ve gotten mixed answers from people. Some have said their ARB dropped their front end, and others have said it didn’t.

That’s the main thing I’m concerned about. I don’t want my rig to droop and look weird. And I like the ride height how it is currently — 100% STOCK.

Yup - in close PDX and happy to help on the bumper - I ended up using a winch bumper with no winch, which I'm still getting around to doing 10 years later Don't think the weight difference was noticeable and def. no driving difference.

The guys at LCNW are top notch and also look after my truck for the bits I can't get time to do (which is most things these days).

If I remember right it's cake to install including lights.

 

[mrq]

Pretty straightforward to install, and mine was a bit of a special case because a PO struck a deer 15 years ago or so and the passenger side front end has always been a little tweaked. It looks like the front end of my frame rails where the bumper mounts had been fiddled with and re-welded when they did that repair so the bumper sits about 3/8" higher on one side than the other.

I thought about ways to straighten her out, but I think I'm gonna just live with it, I already knew this rig wasn't destined for car show glory, so I'm gonna just do a few practical mods, maybe bedline it, wheel it, and enjoy it. Seeing the lack of straightness just further convinced me of that today. I didn't intend to get a bumper now but I knew one was in my future (with a winch) and I took the good deal on the bumper posted earlier in this thread.

Other than that, very easy job, you could easily do this install with (A) a set of sockets/ratchets up to 17mm, (B) a buddy, (C) the stock bottle jack and some chunks of 4x4 lumber. I did have to spread the ARB bumper frame rail tubes apart about 1/2" to make it fit, this was easy and did not require a scary amount of force from the bottle jack. Here's a pic of that:

View attachment 2214266

If you're pretty ripped you could probably get this thing on by yourself. I'm not and my lady was able to help me maneuver it on no problem, there's no way this thing is 150 lb. I didn't have a scale handy, but I could easily move it around the garage by myself and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to move 150lb of plates around.

Here are the numbers before/after with my stock and fully tired OEM springs with 301,000 miles on em. I measured both sides from hub to flare edge with the stock bumper, with no bumper, and with the ARB bumper:

Stock bumper (DS/PS): 19.625"/19.875"
No bumper (DS/PS): 19.750"/20.000"
ARB Winch Bumper (DS/PS): 19.250"/19.500"

CAVEAT: I was eyeballing the center of the hub for the tape measure because I was doing this one handed so I could take a photo, so I would guess this is ±0.25" or so. The main takeaway here is that there is not that much of a difference in front height between stock and ARB bumper without a winch, so expect maybe a ~0.5" droop or less. Not too bad. I'm not gonna worry about it for now, I'm not expecting my suspension travel to be an issue around town between now and when I get a new spring kit. Probably gonna go for the OME stock height setup, will need to do some research on how my winch plans and weight of all my drawers and gear will affect my choice.

Practical goals side, it looks pretty sweet, in my opinion. The Mudder I bought it from shaved the roller fairlead mounts off so it looks pretty streamlined. I was planning to run synthetic anyway so this works out for me.


View attachment 2214291

Thank you so much for your answer and the info! I really appreciate it. The bumper looks sweet on your rig!

 

[mrq]

I'm close to buying some upgrades, bumper and new suspension. The only thing that stuck out for me reading this thread is that your shop is charging you shipping on the bumper. I've found a number of shops local to me don't have any shipping charges, as a free in-store pick-up. Even Amazon will do $0 shipping, but not sure if that's to a freight terminal, etc.. Since you mentioned you are watching the $, I'd continue looking for a retailer that doesn't add in that charge, and pick it up.

Thanks for the advice! I took it and ordered the bumper from 4wheelparts. It was $150 cheaper including shipping. So that was great to be able to save that. I had it shipped to their store that is local to me.

Cheers for your input/advice!

 

[mrq]

+1. Got mine from the "beloved" 4WP (10% off). Free shipping... If you are watching the $$$, buy a friend a drink to help you install it yourself but really it's not too heavy that you can't handle it yourself.

I just ordered the bumper from 4WheelParts. It was $850 + $120 shipping. I am curious how you were able to get free shipping. That is very lucky! The guy on the phone who I ordered it from said that basically everything East of the Mississippi River they have to charge shipping on. (I’m on the west coast – PNW).

 

[z531519]

I just ordered the bumper from 4WheelParts. It was $850 + $120 shipping. I am curious how you were able to get free shipping. That is very lucky! The guy on the phone who I ordered it from said that basically everything East of the Mississippi River they have to charge shipping on. (I’m on the west coast – PNW).

That's weird, you may want to check with them again. If you go online, it still shows as free shipping as long as you choose their standard R&L delivery option.

 

[mrq]

That's weird, you may want to check with them again. If you go online, it still shows as free shipping as long as you choose their standard R&L delivery option.

Yeah, it is weird! When I asked the guy over the phone yesterday and said that the website said “free shipping”, he said that “oh, we actually DO have to charge you shipping”. Hmm...

They definitely shouldn’t advertise free shipping if they actually can’t offer free shipping.