Review: 4xInnovations Rear Bumper and Tire Carrier

[traxman25]

Thanks for all your feedback and sharing pictures!

I just rattle canned mine, if you wheel fairly hard you're going to drag it every once in a while, and even powder coat is going to come off. Ince that happens, it's far easier to touch up rattle can paint.

I've had the rear bumper for 2 years, no issues whatsoever with it. Added a front bumper this year, it's great too.

This is the biggest reason we really shy away from offering powder coat on bumpers. I really prefer POR 15 to powder coat. It is a epoxy based paint that is very hard, much harder than powder coat and can be touched up easily. The only drawbacks are that it is a system that requires attention to detail to work with and is not cheap.

 

[Scramble]

Thanks for all your feedback and sharing pictures!



This is the biggest reason we really shy away from offering powder coat on bumpers. I really prefer POR 15 to powder coat. It is a epoxy based paint that is very hard, much harder than powder coat and can be touched up easily. The only drawbacks are that it is a system that requires attention to detail to work with and is not cheap.

POR15 is great if you follow all of the pre prep. Eastwood products are just as good with a little less prep work. I just did my rear sway bar as a test for the rust converter & it's rock hard.

Eastwood - Auto Body Repair Tools | MIG Welder | TIG Welder | Plasma Cutter | Auto Body Supplies & Accessories

 

[Sup41]

I got mine mounted up yesterday. I will try to get some photos of the fold down table when I get off work. I just need to clean up the wiring by sheathing them up and anchoring them down.

Awesome!!

Everything fit ok?

 

[Road Bull]

Awesome!!

Everything fit ok?

Everything fit Great! Adam and 4X Innovations were great to deal with. A couple of the table latches got bent in shipping, but they still work. Have a strong friend and a V8 The day you fit it, and it should be smooth sailing.

I got a deal on the powder coating, but if I was to do it again, I would go the POR-15 /paint route. There are a few small imperfections in the powder coating, nothing big, but everything can get scraped away. And if that is the case you might as well just use the POR 15 and paint. But scrapes come with the territory, so it doesn't bother me that much.

Also, the powder coater was running a week late, said it was going to be ready this Monday at 0900. I called to confirm it was done as I was heading out the door at 1100. It's about an hour drive. It wasn't done. I thinker they rushed it because they didn't remove the latches and a couple items we talked about and just painted over them, so we'll see how well it holds up.

 

[Sup41]

Everything fit Great! Adam and 4X Innovations were great to deal with. A couple of the table latches got bent in shipping, but they still work. Have a strong friend and a V8 The day you fit it, and it should be smooth sailing.

I got a deal on the powder coating, but if I was to do it again, I would go the POR-15 /paint route. There are a few small imperfections in the powder coating, nothing big, but everything can get scraped away. And if that is the case you might as well just use the POR 15 and paint. But scrapes come with the territory, so it doesn't bother me that much.

Also, the powder coater was running a week late, said it was going to be ready this Monday at 0900. I called to confirm it was done as I was heading out the door at 1100. It's about an hour drive. It wasn't done. I thinker they rushed it because they didn't remove the latches and a couple items we talked about and just painted over them, so we'll see how well it holds up.

Wow. It looks so good. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger.

How much sag did you notice in the rear? Did you have a lift prior? And if so, what kind?

 

[Road Bull]

Wow. It looks so good. I think I'm gonna pull the trigger.

How much sag did you notice in the rear? Did you have a lift prior? And if so, what kind?

Thanks man.

Before I installed the bumper, I had a Sonoran Steel 1.2 rear lift with 7 wrap LC coils. A few people on here run this swing out with those coils and seem to like it, but I wanted to make sure I still maintained a good rake with the new bumper and additional weight that I would be loading.

LC rear coils with stock bumper and no skids yielded about 24.5" in the rear.

I added full Savage skids and didn't get a post installation measurement because I knew I was going to make some changes. I got 285s and once I decided to pull the trigger on a rear bumper, and did a lot of research, I knew that I would need to swap out the stock rear body mounts with Sonoran Steel rear body mounts to keep the new heavy bumper from flexing the rear frame. (our 3rd gen rear frames are not super sturdy on their own. Without the solid body mounts, the additional weight of the bumper, combined with a slightly flexy frame allows the bumper to collide with the body causing damage. Ask [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] and many others with rear bumpers. Some say that the 861s are a bit stiff without weight, but I didn't find them overly harsh without any weight whatsoever driving about 2 weeks. But the 861s are the most common spring to run with swing outs. Just check out member's builds on the build page.

The ARB / OME 861 (listed as ARB 2861 when you look to buy), are one of the few options that maintain at least a 3" lift with all the extra weight that we pile on. So I installed the 861s with the isolation cones, and SS rear solid body mounts.

https://www.amazon.com/ARB-2861-Old...=UTF8&qid=1501651941&sr=1-1&keywords=arb+2861

Rear 4Runner Polyurethane Body Mounts (Pair) - $75.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

 

[Sup41]

Thanks man.

Before I installed the bumper, I had a Sonoran Steel 1.2 rear lift with 7 wrap LC coils. A few people on here run this swing out with those coils and seem to like it, but I wanted to make sure I still maintained a good rake with the new bumper and additional weight that I would be loading.

LC rear coils with stock bumper and no skids yielded about 24.5" in the rear.

I added full Savage skids and didn't get a post installation measurement because I knew I was going to make some changes. I got 285s and once I decided to pull the trigger on a rear bumper, and did a lot of research, I knew that I would need to swap out the stock rear body mounts with Sonoran Steel rear body mounts to keep the new heavy bumper from flexing the rear frame. (our 3rd gen rear frames are not super sturdy on their own. Without the solid body mounts, the additional weight of the bumper, combined with a slightly flexy frame allows the bumper to collide with the body causing damage. Ask [MENTION=129084]Flemster[/MENTION] and many others with rear bumpers. Some say that the 861s are a bit stiff without weight, but I didn't find them overly harsh without any weight whatsoever driving about 2 weeks. But the 861s are the most common spring to run with swing outs. Just check out member's builds on the build page.

The ARB / OME 861 (listed as ARB 2861 when you look to buy), are one of the few options that maintain at least a 3" lift with all the extra weight that we pile on. So I installed the 861s with the isolation cones, and SS rear solid body mounts.

https://www.amazon.com/ARB-2861-Old...=UTF8&qid=1501651941&sr=1-1&keywords=arb+2861

Rear 4Runner Polyurethane Body Mounts (Pair) - $75.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

Wait so is this to say without a body mount the frame can / will get damaged? What part of the frame? How bad?

 

[Road Bull]

Wait so is this to say without a body mount the frame can / will get damaged? What part of the frame? How bad?

This is pretty much true with ANY rear offroad bumper. It has more to do with the rear frame having a fair amount of flex.

The stock bumper is mounted to the body itself, and is fairly worthless. This is why the rear receiver tow hitch is VERY important if you are running a stock bumper. The trailer hitch is mounted to the frame, can take a fair amount of abuse, (other people running into it, or dragging it offroad).

When you mount an aftermarket bumper, you are mounting it to the frame and not the body. It is highly suggested that you swap out the rear body mounts for the solid polyurethane body mounts by SS. This firms up the rear end making it solid. The stock ones, especially older ones, are weak and allow the body to rock as the vehicle pitches back and forth and the frame flexes and can slam into the rear bumper now mounted to the frame.

Just do it first as it is cheap insurance compared to the body damage that you risk without.

 

[Sup41]

This is pretty much true with ANY rear offroad bumper. It has more to do with the rear frame having a fair amount of flex.

The stock bumper is mounted to the body itself, and is fairly worthless. This is why the rear receiver tow hitch is VERY important if you are running a stock bumper. The trailer hitch is mounted to the frame, can take a fair amount of abuse, (other people running into it, or dragging it offroad).

When you mount an aftermarket bumper, you are mounting it to the frame and not the body. It is highly suggested that you swap out the rear body mounts for the solid polyurethane body mounts by SS. This firms up the rear end making it solid. The stock ones, especially older ones, are weak and allow the body to rock as the vehicle pitches back and forth and the frame flexes and can slam into the rear bumper now mounted to the frame.

Just do it first as it is cheap insurance compared to the body damage that you risk without.

Wow alright. Well again, super helpful stuff. Now I'm starting to get a bit off topic but could I just ask..was installing that particular body lift hard? Do you have to do the steering rack adjustment stuff with a rear lift?

 

[JohnMc]

We never got body damage before we replaced our rear mounts - just noticed that the spare was jiggling around more than you'd think it should on bumpy roads. At first I suspected the tire mount arm, or the bumper was flexing. But after wiggling it by hand and watching it was clear that the bumper itself was rock solid, but the frame was flexing.

Put these replacement mounts on the rear: Rear 4Runner Polyurethane Body Mounts (Pair) - $75.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

And now I suppose it's the body helping stiffen and support the rear section of the frame. Which is perhaps a little backward from the way it should be, but it works.

Even with the stiffer mounts, you should install the bumper with a good vertical gap between it and the body. The stiffer mounts will still give and flex some when the bumper gets shoved around hard by rocks/ledges/whatever.

 

[OffRoadGuy]

Had my bumper going on 3 years. Overall I'm still very happy with it. Only downside I wish it was a little lighter. I'm going to recommend checking the bearings and seals every year. I should have checked it last year to re-grease the bearings and change the seals if needed.

 

[MOYotas]

Had my bumper going on 3 years. Overall I'm still very happy with it. Only downside I wish it was a little lighter. I'm going to recommend checking the bearings and seals every year. I should have checked it last year to re-grease the bearings and change the seals if needed.

I appreciate all the questions/answers in this post. This bumper is definitely on my build list. Just a quick question I'm assuming those are the bearings for the swing out?

 

[Twan]

Waiting to hear back from Adam about a couple of questions, but I should be pulling the trigger on one of these with almost all the trimmings soon. Waiting on my SS rear body mounts and a body lift to arrive so I can take care of that first.

 

[Road Bull]

Fold down table question.

Do any of you who have the fold-down table option have an issue with it when it's in the stowed position clanging back and forth? I thought at first that I had somehow screwed up listen or and steel body mounts and I was having a bigger issue however I believe it's just the table rocking just a few centimeters back and forth and clanging that make it sound like something is loose in the back. If so, what do you do to secure it so that it's not pivoting back and forth? I am about to start to engineer something that will keep it quiet and wedged to prevent movement. The two little butterfly latches, while they keep it stowed in the up position they don't prevent it from moving back and forth a fair amount and making noise.

 

[Sup41]

We never got body damage before we replaced our rear mounts - just noticed that the spare was jiggling around more than you'd think it should on bumpy roads. At first I suspected the tire mount arm, or the bumper was flexing. But after wiggling it by hand and watching it was clear that the bumper itself was rock solid, but the frame was flexing.

Put these replacement mounts on the rear: Rear 4Runner Polyurethane Body Mounts (Pair) - $75.00 : Sonoran Steel, Sonoran Steel Custom Metal Fabrication L.L.C. Custom Toyota Truck Parts

And now I suppose it's the body helping stiffen and support the rear section of the frame. Which is perhaps a little backward from the way it should be, but it works.

Even with the stiffer mounts, you should install the bumper with a good vertical gap between it and the body. The stiffer mounts will still give and flex some when the bumper gets shoved around hard by rocks/ledges/whatever.

This might be a silly question but I got my body mounts in the mail. I'm wondering..They are connected with a zip tie..should I cut the zip tie or leave them on?

Thanks!!

 

[Road Bull]

This might be a silly question but I got my body mounts in the mail. I'm wondering..They are connected with a zip tie..should I cut the zip tie or leave them on?

Thanks!!

You will cut them. Before you do, look at them. One side has "Top" written on them. Keep track of what side is what and how they fit together.

 

[MattJakobs]

So I bought my bumper Monday. It shipped Wednesday. And it’ll be here Saturday.

 

[Scramble]

So I bought my bumper Monday. It shipped Wednesday. And it’ll be here Saturday.

Nice! That was quick service!

I'm thinking about ordering too with the holiday sale since they don't do group buys. If I wait for the Shrockworks spring group buy I might not get it until Aug. LOL

 

[meRockboost]

Do it!

 

[MattJakobs]

Nice! That was quick service!

I'm thinking about ordering too with the holiday sale since they don't do group buys. If I wait for the Shrockworks spring group buy I might not get it until Aug. LOL

I was hoping for a little more of a discount so I PMed him on TacomaWorld. The listed discount was all he could do but he did offer shipping that week. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I’d rather get it fast instead of saving a few bucks and waiting months