8 or 9 years ago, my buddy Jason and I took an angle grinder and clearanced our ARBs by trimming off much of the plate along the bottom that was getting caught up on rocks. I ended up taking about 3” off the sides, 1” at the outer corners, and almost 2” by the bottom center. We then welded some angle iron along the inside of the bottom edges to reinforce it, and it has held up nicely since.

A couple days ago, I chopped off the hoops around the headlights. I’ve always thought they made my truck look like it’s wearing glasses... as my niece said, “now it got contacts”, lol. I like it way more now. The hoops actually go through the plate, so it left holes there. I thought about welding some plate over them and grinding it flat, but at the end of the day I don’t care, so I just re-painted and called it done. Maybe I’ll use them as fishing pole holders. Anyway, the new and improved ARB...

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Man, what happened to this place? It’s like a ghost town now, haha.

I've always felt that if one doesn't drive much in the outback where large animal collisions are a real threat, the hoops and other superstructure are superfluous. For that reason, I will probably get a plate bumper, like the TJM T-17, that doesn't come with those 'extras'

Probably a combination of excessive spam and the direction the 3rd gen market is going. Nice bumper. I always thought ARB's hoop design was always a little basic. How has all that trimming affected the structure?

Won't really know that one until the bumper meets a large, heavy object! I can't imagine it making it stronger but at least it's a bit more narrow and lighter.

I trimmed the bottom of it off almost a decade ago. It has met plenty of large heavy objects since then and no damage to it. I mentioned that we welded angle iron all along the inside bottom edge to reinforce it. I’ve had the full weight of the front end come down on the bumper several times over the years so it has held up very well.

Really liking the change Brian.

Personal preference but I am not a fan of the headlight hoops on any aftermarket bumper. Always stuck with the single center hoop / Stinger look.

3rd Gen owners are increasingly millennial (as the beater 3rd Gens are cheap for kids), and they're all on the 3rd Gen Mafia Facebook page. Social media killed forums for the most part, unfortunately.

Nah.... look at what Reddit (basically a forum) just did to the Gamespot and AMC stocks! Forums aren’t dead yet! It’s amazing how valuable the forums are compared to Facebook groups. You can actually search shit and despite the average forum interface being quite dated, they typically function so much more logically than facebooks chaotic interface. I literally can’t stand being on Facebook. Maybe I’m alone in these thoughts... just gotta keep posting and encouraging people to get back over here ;)

BTW @brian2sun I dig the chop. Do you remember Erwins hacked up, open-top ARB from back in the day? (Forget his username.... blktpgsr? Or something)

I do remember him. He had a bad ass black runner!

I completely agree. Searching for anything on social media that has any substance other than a single post of info is futile. Being able to read through build threads on T4R has opened my eyes over the years to a ton of new ideas and approaches to everything on my 4runner. It also gives you some level of excitement and anticipation when you can live vicariously through others and their builds and join in the satisfaction of how a build progresses even if its only from the sidelines. Both yours and Brian's build threads have inspired my build over the years as well as countless other 3rd gen owners. You just can't get that from other platforms like Facebook or Instagram.

For me I took a hiatus from T4r as family took priority with a new born and the demands that come with that. Plus when Photobucket dumped/killed storage limits, I lost all my pictures that were tied to my build threads. It was going to be so much work to re post everything that I gave up I guess.

I'm slowly venturing back into the forums and looking through old threads for ideas and new threads to see how the all of the new builds are progressing.

Keep posting you guys. I always enjoy the read.

I completely agree about forums being so much better than social media groups. The info on all the FB groups and Instagram, etc... is so scattered and unorganized. It’s hard to actually get any knowledge. It’s mostly glamour shots and douchey kids trying to be cool online. T4R was a tight knit community for those few years where we all learned from each other and it was fun and engaging. I’m glad to see some old schoolers like you guys are still here!

Absolutely. Its all glamour shots these days and no content of how it got there. I prefer the journey not just the destination.

Also, I can't being to express the head shaking that goes on with all the "What is the largest tire I can fit" and "How do I fit 35's" posts I see. I have a '17 F150 and an '07 GX as well and their facebook pages are no better save a few posts...

I wanted to ask since ARB I think put out one of the first 3rd gen offroad bumpers. Do you know how heavy yours was before the mods? Curious how it compares to other offerings these days.

I think mine was about 100 lbs. before my mods. I remember I could lift it on/off myself without really straining, so I can’t imagine it weighed any more than that. It’s probably around 85 lb. now.

I'm relatively new to the scene, picked up my 2000 SR5 the day of my HS graduation as my first car five years ago. And I'll second what Rickashay said, this forum is still awesome. I visit it practically every day. I'm in multiple 3rd gen groups on FB and they're "cool and new", but I would say the real knowledge is on here and in other forums. IFS Offroad is awesome too. Plus, there's a lot of douchery on FB. I've found that forum guys like the folks in this thread to be more friendly, helpful, and less judgemental.
Back to the ARB, that's a refreshing new look! Mine was my 4Runner's first modification (yes, even before decent ATs, how silly!) and has saved me many times. I'd like to trim the bottom edges of mine this summer.