Trail Standard TRD Pro Grill versus Cartrimhome versus Taco Vinyl

[JAXJeremy]

Back in April I jumped on the bandwagon and purchased the Chinese Cartrimhome TRD grill replacement with the LED lights..Great price at $156 for everything..Like several others on the thread I decided to paint the cover, hoping it would keep it from fading (in hindsight, not a good idea). Fast forward several months and the paint had started to show signs of wearing..in addition, I was never really happy with gaps that were at each corner of the cover. In the one thread it mentions how on the factory trim there is also a gap, but to me it just didn't fit well.

I looked around and decided to purchase the Trail Standard cover. Since I already had the grill piece, I only needed the cover and the letters. Wound up paying $229 for that, you can buy the entire kit for $380 (less the LED lights).

Fitment on the TSO grill cover is 100% better, the material used is not as thick as the cartrimhome unit, so it seats better and the best part is there aren't any gaps at the corners..

It was a b**ch removing the 3m tape from the grill, but I took the time because I wanted a clean surface for the new cover. Ultimately, I should have gone with this one in the first place, would have spent more $$ up front, but I would have been happy with the result.

 

[snowpeak]

How thin are we talking on the grill garnish? I know it's thermoformed plastic vs the Cartrimhome is ABS, but there have been reports the Cartrimhome garnish is not compatible with 2020 4 Runners with the TSS sensor sitting directly below it, it's too thick to slip in there. $380 is better than the OEM $600+

 

[baldrik78]

It takes 5 minutes with a dremel to notch around the TSS sensor.

 

[RedRunner_87]

Love my TSO Grill. No complaints here.

Untitled by redrunner87, on Flickr

 

[DigitalRJH]

Honestly it's just all about your personal opinions on these. Both options are better than OEM when it comes to price, but for me, it was all about price. $380 for the TSO grill, to me, just doesn't seem worth it to possibly eliminate a 1/8-1/4 inch gap on each side of the garnish that you'd have to get real close up to see. Again, that's just my opinion but for $125 for the cartrim version those tiny gaps are nothing to get worked up about, especially considering the OEM has gaps well. Most of us that have done the replacement have posted pics of the grilles, standard shots of the front of our vehicles. With that same camera shot, be it a TSO, Cartrimhome, or OEM, you cannot tell a difference. And I don't know if I've seen where any of the garnishes have faded? Someone had said they heard they fade so that started a lot of SEM trim black painting of the garnishes. I even bought a can and strongly considered doing it but then I just didn't feel like going through the hassle of it. Glad I didn't since now I'm seeing posts of the paint not staying. Also with how cheap just the garnish and letters are if it ever does fade you just purchase another. But bottom line it's whatever you feel comfortable with and want to spend. It's a great mod for that pro look without the pro price.

 

[Banzai]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone ever posted that they went to a junk yard and found a virtually new TRD Pro and got the grille piece from there cheap?

 

[DigitalRJH]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone ever posted that they went to a junk yard and found a virtually new TRD Pro and got the grille piece from there cheap?

No but that’s an idea for the bumper valances.

 

[snowpeak]

It takes 5 minutes with a dremel to notch around the TSS sensor.

Pics or it didn’t happen. Prove it.

 

[zw470]

Pics or it didn’t happen. Prove it.

You need photographic evidence that you can trim thin plastic with a Dremel tool?

 

[baldrik78]

Pics or it didn’t happen. Prove it.

Do you see the truck under my name? Taking a dremel to the plastic on my truck is practically a hobby by now.

 

[snowpeak]

Trail Standard TRD Pro Grill versus Cartrimhome

Do you see the truck under my name? Taking a dremel to the plastic on my truck is practically a hobby by now.

You need photographic evidence that you can trim thin plastic with a Dremel tool?

Apparently I should have been more clear with you rather than joking around. My mistake. Let’s try this again. You seem to know from experience that trimming around the TSS sensor takes “5 minutes.” So I’d like to see a picture of your install. Don’t have a 2020? Don’t speculate.

Yes, clearly trimming plastic with a dremel cutting wheel is easy. I’d like to see what the quality is after trimming the thermoformed plastic TSO grill is, sanding required (etc) to make it look good.

Yikes guys. Calm down

 

[nb rob]

I have the oem one, and there’s gaps.

Hey, for the price of buying two because the gaps were bothersome, you could have had the original with a trd pro gap.

 

[Nctrd]

Has anyone heard of or used a grill from roughbadger.com? They have the pro grill for 90 right now. Don't know if it's cheaper and bad fitting or just trying to get rid of last year's model's.

 

[Matze]

Apparently I should have been more clear with you rather than joking around. My mistake. Let’s try this again. You seem to know from experience that trimming around the TSS sensor takes “5 minutes.” So I’d like to see a picture of your install. Don’t have a 2020? Don’t speculate.

Yes, clearly trimming plastic with a dremel cutting wheel is easy. I’d like to see what the quality is after trimming the thermoformed plastic TSO grill is, sanding required (etc) to make it look good.

Yikes guys. Calm down

He isn’t totally wrong, the actual cutting shouldn’t take longer than that but preparation will need more time but that wouldn’t help anyways since the upper grill isn’t the same on a 2020, so there is more modification needed. So for right now there is no other option than OEM at least imo since I don’t think half a$$ work shouldn’t be done to a pretty new vehicle.

 

[JAXJeremy]

Hard to imagine I've had this grill for over two years. Anyway, I wanted to post an update on how the grill is holding up..

You can see from the pic that it looks looks like the coating, maybe they put a clear finish on it or something, is starting to delaminate in places. Could be the result of rock strikes, I live in Florida so that doesn't happen too often. Or maybe just the UV doing it's thing..Either way, I'm thinking it's time for a new one..

 

[djdaves]

Hard to imagine I've had this grill for over two years. Anyway, I wanted to post an update on how the grill is holding up..

You can see from the pic that it looks looks like the coating, maybe they put a clear finish on it or something, is starting to delaminate in places. Could be the result of rock strikes, I live in Florida so that doesn't happen too often. Or maybe just the UV doing it's thing..Either way, I'm thinking it's time for a new one..

NM i found my own answer

 

[JAXJeremy]

Installed the Taco Vinyl version of this grill back in May, price with grill lights was $237. That included a $24 discount. The letters mount using small screws, so you don't have the same issues with alignment that you do with the other ones. Fitment is good but I did need to do some trimming around the areas where the locking tabs from the grill go in..that was disappointing..The lights also seem better in that they use screws and a mount to hold them in place from the back as opposed to the clip style fasteners on the others. I'll post up some pics and will let you know how it holds up.