295/70r17
Removed front mudflaps and had to do a little heat gun work on the front liners but it was minimal.
What's your Ironman 4x4 bumper experience? (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter mulebarn
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295/70r17
Removed front mudflaps and had to do a little heat gun work on the front liners but it was minimal.
I took some measurements and the rough dimensions are in red below. I wouldn't fabricate based on these, but they should get you close. The frame hole is about 3/4" tall and a hair under 1.25" wide; however the frame hole is also slightly rounded in the corners so you'll either need to use a slightly smaller block (like I measure below) or else grind the corners of the hole to square it up.
I measured because I'm thinking about making my own and needed to know what size blocks of steel or aluminum I'd want to start with. Steel is probably better for this but aluminum is so much easier to grind and tap.
SO........, it looks like a smoking deal on a Bull Bar bumper until you consider adding a REQUIRED upgrade to the suspension to handle the weight increase of all that steal and a winch...... suddenly the savings seem to evaporate. I'd appreciate some advice from those who are running an Ironman Bull Bar bumper. Did you upgrade your suspension, or are you running heavy (squatting) with the OEM? Thanks for the guidance!
gray rider
SILVER Star
I have the premium bumper on order with the "free" 12,000# winch. Total weight seems to be right at 200#.
With an Ironman front bumper, winch, more power puller (winch), sliders, arb rear bumper, Wilco hitch swing, roof basket, full load out of tools, hilift (and more) plus 7500 lb boat attached, the lx doesn’t squat at all.
The hydraulic suspension has a surprising amount of flexibility in its carrying and damping capacity.
That being said: after adding all this weight, I did add rubbershox to all the coils, coil spacers in the rear, and swapped the rear left coil for a rear right one (slightly taller and stronger)…to sort of “tune” it and give it just a bit of help. Dunno if it did anything, but placebo effect is real…it does sort of struggle just a bit getting into low mode…which could be an indication that my inexpensive/easy coil spring helper mods may have worked…or it could just be that I did the sensor lift mod and the suspension doesn’t think it’s getting as low as it would like.
With just an Ironman bumper, though, you likely wouldn’t notice the effects on the suspension.
Hey, did you ever get around to making these? I think most folks with bumpers other than ARB/TJM/Ironman could be interested in one.
ARB can supply replacement for like $200 shipped (and 6+ month wait). TJM will absolutely not. Trying to see if Ironman would sell them.
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turbo8
Supporting Vendor
I didn't get around to making any. I'll look into more next week, when I get back home.
Has anyone seen how an Ironman bumper holds up in an accident? Obviously I know each accident has a million factors. I just see TJM and ARB mention accidents and crash testing and don’t really see much for Ironman.
I think they’re crash tested/rated…it’s been a long time but I think I read that to be sold in Australia, they have been tested…meaning I think airbags still function.
The main purpose of them, I think, is to provide a bit of extra protection in the event of an animal strike. They are, after all, modeled after arb (a [kanga]roo bar)
I'm considering the no hoop 16+ IM bumper. I realize this thread has been going a while.
Can anyone confirm if the mounting instructions are any better than they used to be?
Can anyone confirm if the mounting instructions are any better than they used to be?
Yeah, I figure they are because Australia, and that’s what I’m looking for because of deer, but then they don’t mention it anywhere in their site or anywhere online. Both ARB and TJM have not only mentions but even videos about their designs and being built to follow factory crumple zones and allow for airbags and what not.
Last two bullets in the description.
Nice. Thank you.
Wonder if anyone has had an fender benders with these to show how they've held up.
Just saw this which looks very promising -
IMO, I would lean toward OZ bumpers (ARB/Ironman) that do have crash safety as part of their design. There's a lot more that goes into survivability, though, than just a crumple test. The thing I do like about them is that it tries to account for the airbag timing. Efficacy of airbag protection is in milliseconds. The airbag needs to be in it's deflation cycle as your body makes contact. If contact is made early and it's still inflating you've compounded the force on your body. The crumple zones of the 'crash tested' bumpers, in theory, get the timing close to OEM. I'm not sure if a bumper like MetalTech, Slee, or Dissent does the same. My guess is the aluminum version is better in this regard than steel, but I have zero empirical evidence to back up that assumption. Without the crumple zone the force is going immediately to the frame. How that propogates into the passenger compartment is an unknown, but I can only assume it makes it faster.
Crash safety, however, has a lot more factors than just airbag timing. A high-cut bumper, for example, may lead to the impact becoming a ramp for the truck resulting in a rollover. Destroying a bunch of Land Cruisers to determine the overall change in vehicle safety just isn't in the cards for these manufacturers.
Crash safety, however, has a lot more factors than just airbag timing. A high-cut bumper, for example, may lead to the impact becoming a ramp for the truck resulting in a rollover. Destroying a bunch of Land Cruisers to determine the overall change in vehicle safety just isn't in the cards for these manufacturers.
