Removing plastic on TSS?
 

Just got a 21 trail edition and I want to put in a led bar behind bumper and know that cali raised allows for it. But question specifically is about the tss. The top half is the radar and the bottom half appears to just be plastic. Is the bottom part functional? Has anyone tried removed this bottom portion? I don't like the idea of the light bar living and being blocked out by some useless plastic.

Attaching some pics for reference. Notice how the 2021 trd pro does not have the plastic underneath the sensor, which leads me to believe it can be removed.

The Pro has it too.

It's not removable...it's part of the grill itself. I assume it's there to provide more rigidity and stability for the TSS sensor.

I also don't like the idea of the sensor blocking a full width lightbar. The best solution would be two individual lights or bars either side of the sensor with nothing behind it, but nobody really makes a complete kit at this time to the best of my knowledge.

The best solution I've been able to find is the N-Fab mount which would allow mounting whatever lights you wanted either side of the sensor.

LBM Bumper Light Mounts | Light Mounting - N-FAB | N-FAB

Yeah just confirmed it is molded in as part of the grill. That said there is nothing behind it... which makes me think it must be something structural.

Ehhhh, structure, who needs it?! Useless plastic <> meet Dremel!

Have a few new dremel attachments coming in tomorrow for some fine sanding and also got some black touch up. I'll be taking my chances here, dremeling out the plastic directly under the TSS to accommodate my full width light bar with no Interference.

Will post pics when done!

Success! Mostly...

I am not much of a craftsman and get a little trigger happy with electric tools... here was my process:

Used wireless dremel with the skinny drill bit cutting/engraving attachment and just went to town clearing out all the excess plastic below the TSS. From there used some files I had to make it as flush and cohesive as possible. Next used flat black touch up paint to paint over all sanded sections to match the color of the grill.

Up close and personal, you can see spots where I got a bit wayward with the dremel. But far and away it was a massive success. Can confirm nothing behind it and tss is snug as a bug. Really no clue why this plastic was there in the first place.

Light bar installed in a few days will post another pic.

Pic attached.

Looks good! Also interested to see how it looks after the light bar install.

Huge success. Great mod with a clean look!

Nicely done!! I was going to do that till I found out I could add a 20 inch led bajadesigns light bar in my upper grille part. Gives me another option if I decide to add another light bar. For now I will stay with just the one.

Nice work man!!!

For sure the plastic is to add rigidity to the TSS. perhaps at high speed the grill defects enough to throw it off. I have it off most of the time.

bracket with light pods is the best solution so far.
The rago bracket has more ability to fine tune the mount depending on the size of pod you get. I would say BD LP6 would be pushing the max size, LP4's look like optimal size pod.

Any feedback since this post on how the TSS has been working with the plastic removed?

Also is this a 30-32” bar? What mounts did you use?

Really hoping to make the 32” bar I have laying around work on my ‘22.

Seems another solution would be just get a 2019 replacement lower grille, then relocate the TSS monitor to the upper grill with C4 relocation bracket?