Anyone out there have one, and really wheeled with it ?
How did it stand up ?
Cause any leaking around the pumpkin? Did the front mount stay solid and not loosen up ?
Any other comments ?

I already have Buds TC x-member and love it.

http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...B11&Number=694167&Forum=,f11,&Words=budbuilt&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Main=694167&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=0&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post694167

I saw that thread. I was looking for someone
who had done some serious rock-crawling with it.
Interested in any durability issues.

I haven't wheeled it hard yet, but here's my opinion on it's strength.

The bar and brackets are extremely well made, overbuilt and designed and durable. However, I'm not 100% confident in the mounting design. I think for my application it will be OK. I don't expect to be doing too much in the way of severe rock crawling. My problem is that I was only able to use 3 of the front mounting bolts and 5 of the 6 diff bolts due to clearance issues.

The bar itself is designed with ground clearance in mind, unlike the vast majority of traction bars out there. If your driveshaft is safe, the traction bar is safe. If you hit the front of your rear diff on rocks on a regular basis, then you could have a problem, but it bolts on to the diff up midway and high, so the bracket is not likely to hit any rocks.

Personally, I think the best route is to go with Budbuilt's weld on mounts and have the best of all worlds and no worries.

BTW, the traction bar does work and it works well.

Thanx for the response, Brian. Good comments.
Checked out your site, love what you've done to your rig.

Do you have a body lift? Is that your clearance issue that you mentioned ?

Thanks.

No, no body lift. The clearance problem I had was the the horsecollar that I had to bolt the bracket too was too close to body and I couldn't get both top bolts to work. I also had to modify the bracket to make it fit. If I had even just an inch bodylift, it never would have been an issue. It could be a problem with my model year or with shortbed, single cab trucks in general, where the horsecollar is under the cab and clearance is tight. If long wheelbase trucks have the horsecollar under the bed, this wouldn't be an issue. I'll probably tack weld that bracket in place later on, just to make sure it doesn't come loose.

I forgot to mention, I also had to grind off my exhaust bracket that was on the horse collar. But I just simply added another $2 exhaust bracket that was out of the way to replace it. Again this issue might only affect a few select trucks, like mine.

With the diff, the casting didn't allow me to use one of the bolts. Bud might have different brackets for different years. My rear diff casting came from a wrecking yard and I'm not positive what year it is, so it's not his fault.

His kit is designed to fit a number of different applications and Toyota didn't design all trucks, 4runners and diff castings the same over 20 years, so there will be some variations. I didn't bother Bud, because I think it should work just fine the way it is, but I'm sure he would have been willing to try to fix the problem, if I so desired. He's always been extremely helpful and accomodating.