I'm going to buy a TJM bumper that came off a 94 pickup. Will it fit my 88 4Runner? Will I have to make new mounts?

Yes, it will fit. You might have to fabricate some brackets for it. That's what I did and it turned out stronger than the original ones that came with the TJM. I have a Tacoma's TJM T15 on my '85 4Runner:

Yes, you will need to make new brackets to mount the TJM. The 89-95 trucks bumpers mount to the side of each frame rail, while the older IFS(not sure about SA) bumpers mount to the front of the frame x-member.

I got it today, and it's going to fit just fine. If my truck were stock, it would bolt right up. The TJM bumper bracket sub frame bolts to the tow hook mounts on top and bottom on the front frame crossmember. Since I did an SAS and have a new drop crossmember bolted to the bottom, I will have to cut the bottom portion of the bracket off and drill some holes through the top and bottom of the sub frame to the stock crossmember.

Hope this makes sense!

Ha! No way in hell the bracket from the 90's truck will work. So I fabbed up some brackets. Basically, I took some 2.5" square tube I had laying around (canibalized my old stock trailer hitch) and welded 2 peices together at a 90 degree angle, drilled some holes on the outsides, welded nuts to the inside, welded the new brackets to the front crossmember and SAS spring hanger, and bolted the bumper to the brackets. It turned out better than I expected! I was expecting it to be crooked or something since this is really my first time fabbing anything like this. But it is very straight! There is a gap in between the bumper and the body, but I can drill out the holes in the bumper to move it up higher, or leave it like it is. If I mount the bumper up too high, and I slam it on something, the bumper could come in contact with the body. Don't want that.


Do you think the gap looks OK? Should I move it up some? Sorry for the crappy picture quality, it was getting dark. I'll get more tomorrow.


Now I just have to mount my PIAA lights. And maybe make some sort of grill guard to mount on top.


Making the brackets

Looks good but do you plan on mounting a winch in there someday? If you do you will need to put some tension braceing in there. From the top of those mounts that you welded on the frame you need some type of braceing going towards the engine compartment. If not the first time you winch you will bend those mounts. I hope that that square tube is at least .125 wall, .250 would be better.

The reason I am telling you this is because after I built my new bumper Erik B came over and was looking it over and said I hope you are not done with these mounts and explained to me what needed to be done. I ran some 1 x .250 wall tube back and welde it to the frame. After a lot of winching it has not ripped off yet!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I do not plan on winching any time soon. Someday down the road I will, and at that time I will modify it as nessesary. It should hold up just fine for the type of wheeling in my area. Trees are my biggest enemy.

And the tubing is both .120 and .250. The bottom half from my trailer hitch is .120 and the top half from some scrap from my square drive shaft is .250.

do you have pics of the mounting brackets that came with the bumper? There really should be no reason why it wouldn't bolt up - I mounted a 3rd gen ARB directly to my 86 before I rebuilt the front spring hanger. The only thing that wasn't bolted up were the side "body mount" brackets. i would guess that it was your SAS that prevented the ability to bolt the bumper directly in place??

There were a few reasons why it wouldn't work. First off, my SAS spring hanger was in the way. But that could be fixed easily by cutting off the lower lip of the bracket, and finding some other mounting point on the bottom, As shown by the red line in this picture




The main problem was the large gap when the modified bracket was bolted up to the frame, as drawn by the arrows




Apparently the 89-95 trucks have a more protruding front cross member.

what kind of brakets did you make to mount your bumper. I also have a t15 bumper of a tacoma I'm trying to mount to my 85 4runner. mines aluminum though so the brackets will have to bolt to the bumper.

ps what size are those dick cepeks in the picture. about how much lift do you have.