Question on front under-bumper?

S

swimmerdude1127

New member
Hey all,
Totally new to 4Runners/offroading and already posted a quick intro in the "new members" section. I know next to nothing about cars but am very interested in learning more.

I have an engineering background so I figure I should be able to pick it up okay.

Anyway, I have a quick question... the flimsy plastic piece under the front bumper (not even sure what to call it) ... I scraped mine up and bent the plastic hitting a medium size rock doing a little creek crossing today. It was dumb and I'm inexperienced, sure, but I was just wondering --- do most of y'all take off this piece? What's the practical purpose of having it?

Thanks for looking and for being patient as I learn!
 
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I assume you are talking about either an SR5 or Ltd and talking about the air dam. If so, a lot of people removed them to improve approach angle
 
Thanks for the quick response bro.

Yeah, that sounds like that could be it. I have an SR5. Is there any benefit to keeping them on at all? I've also noticed that if I had to rig for a tow from the front, this plastic piece would be in the way of the strap getting directly to the attachment point.
 
Unfortunately, I had too much time on my hands today, and decided to compare side by side trail vs sr5 vs fj entry angle. Trail 33 degrees vs sr5/limited 24 degrees. The problem is the lower bumper angle. That said, the air damn looks like you might shave 1-2 degrees. But I would think the plastic would be forgiving enough to flex in and out of place to be negligible.
 
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The one thing it does do if applicable to you, it prevents snow and ice from getting shoved up into the radiator compartment.
 
Yep, that would be useful in winter! Thanks for all the great responses. I'm considering a total front bumper upgrade but have no idea what would be a good choice.
 
It is installed for improved efficiency, in addition to the baby "mud flaps" in front of the rear wheels. They are also called "spats." You shouldn't miss much by removing it.
 
This is a very amateur question...

Any step-by-step or guidance from someone who's taken their's off before? I should probably clean all the mud and crap off first to get a better look at it... I'm just worried about messing up part of the actual bumper.
 
Perfect! Thanks to all you guys for the help.

I was looking around and saw the shrockworks 5th gen bumper on their site. Any opinions on it? I love the low profile look, winch capability, and added clearance it seems to offer.
 
swimmerdude1127 said:
Perfect! Thanks to all you guys for the help.

I was looking around and saw the shrockworks 5th gen bumper on their site. Any opinions on it? I love the low profile look, winch capability, and added clearance it seems to offer.
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Great setup. Install isn't too hard but requires extra hands to hang it on the truck. I used an engine hoist and two friends. As they say in there instructions, trimming the wheel well liners is tricky, almost an art form. The trim pieces that go under the headlights are also tricky to get right. If you don't fell confident, look for a shop that has install SW bumpers before. You'll definitely want to upgrade the suspension to handle the added weight of the bumper so I would recommend upgrading suspension and tires first.

A warning for dealing with Shrockworks, while they make great products (I have their bumper, rails and skids) they have a very long lead time, some people have reported up to 6 months. They're a small shop and people are lined up waiting for their stuff.
 
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swimmerdude1127 said:
Upgrading the suspension... Would that void my warranty?
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Obviously the parts you change wouldn't be covered but other than that, the law says they have to prove the change caused the failure. So if you're diff explodes they (dealer/Toyota) would have to provide an expert witness and engineering data to show your lift caused it. On the other hand, if you push chances are they would want to avoid the negative press and just cover it. There is also on last thing, like any business, the dealer can refuse to work on any vehicle, warrantied or not. If you use quality parts and the job is done right you probably won't get much grief unless your dealer is a jerk or it really is your fault.

This aspect of modding has been discussed to death, beaten with a large stick, resurrected and beaten for several more days here. I suggest searching Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act here and on the web in general to avoid rehashing it yet again.
 
swimmerdude1127 said:
Perfect! Thanks to all you guys for the help.

I was looking around and saw the shrockworks 5th gen bumper on their site. Any opinions on it? I love the low profile look, winch capability, and added clearance it seems to offer.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum! Be prepared to squander your savings on your truck like the rest of us have been doing, haha.

IMO, the Shrockworks bumper is the best looking one you can get for a 5th gen. Tons of guys on here run them, and I haven't heard of any issues.

As [MENTION=13878]GrantK[/MENTION] said though, be prepared to wait for it. I was told "up to a year" when I looked into one. Luckily, I have a buddy that is an extremely skilled fabricator - as soon as I have the extra disposable $$, we're going to just custom build one for my truck. Then he plans on taking orders and mass producing them after he's done mine as a prototype.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. Yeah... I can see this getting expensive quick.

I think my first upgrade will be tires and wheels. I'm really digging black wheels but know nothing on sizes or what-not (both wheel and tire-wise). What size wheels/tires could I run without having to first get a lift or do any modifications?
 
Removed it this past weekend. Here are some pictures I took. Hopefully this helps other people who are new to this (like me) in doing the same thing if they so choose.

Here's a before picture. You can see in the yellow circle where the vertical plastic stabilizer has broken off. The red circle shows the permanent plastic deformation when it bent on the rock... so off it goes.


Here's a shot from underneath toward the middle of the vehicle, looking up and slightly forward. The red circle shows where the bumper mount is. You don't need to take this off until the end because the air dam has a closed loop piece of plastic around these two mounts (other one is just a few feet away on the other side of the vehicle). The yellow circle is what you have to remove, but you have to bend your hand around the surrounding plastic with an 11mm hex wrench. I had to push up on the surrounding plastic to get it out of the way enough for my wrench to fit.


More pics on the way.
 
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