I tried searching on this but couldn't find the posts...

I want to get either a ARB or TJM winch bumper for my '85 pickup which has a 3" body lift. These bumpers don't have height adjustment for body lifts, but if I recall correctly it was "doable" on both bumpers with drilling/welding(but one brand was more difficult than the other?). There was a post about this several years back on this board, but I can't find it.

I have a TJM T-17 on my '90 4Runner that has a 2" body lift and it was pretty easy to move the bumper on that one, but the frame bracket is probably very different than the '84-'85 frame bracket because of how differently the bumpers mount. I have not seen a TJM or ARB for the '84-'85 up close so I have no idea what I'm up against....

For some ideas, see:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Docs/BumperBrackets/index.html

I have a series of writeups/pictures of various bumper bracket modifications for body lifts. Mostly later model vehicles, but adding more all the time.

If you plan to winch with the bumper I would skip both and buy or fab something. Trying to raise either will greatly compromise the mount strength. You can get away with a 1" BL with either and still clear the headlights and the gap does not look too funny.

ARB or TJM don't offer mounting kits for lifted vehicles?
have you asked the supplier?

Kev

ARB is a one piece design, TJM a two piece. Neither company offers a kit for vehicles w/ body lifts. The only person that I'm aware of that does offer such a bumper is Brian @ frontrangeoffroadfab.com. It's a very nice bumper and built to order.

To make an ARB work, you'll have to cut it all apart and start from scratch w/ the mounting. You'll essentially end up with only the shell being "factory." TJM has a little more lee-way in that you can just rebuild the subframe and mount the bumper to your new subframe.

Does anyone happen to have pictures of the mounting brackets fo the TJM and ARB? I'd love to see what I'd be up against as far as cutting/welding. I do have a welder, so that is not a problem. As much as I like other custom from winch bumpers besides ARB or TJM, they are all very low profile (good for rock crawling, bad for street legal). This truck has to be my daily driver, and most of these other custom bumpers I've seen will put me over the bumper height limit. Another downside to the low profile bumpers is they expose so much of the frame and inner paneling that those things start rusting fast. Just leaving my stock front bumper's lower valance panel off was bad enough (and rubberized undercoating didn't help). The TJM and ARB are tall enough that I don't have to worry about it. With having a lifted truck, I already stick out and don't need valid reasons to get pulled over and get tickets (and a relative of mine is in law enforcement).

I don't have enough time to fab an entire bumper, but I do have enough time to fuss with some mounts, get the thing sand blasted and Linex'd. I just did this with my '90 4Runner's T-17 and it turned out excellent. The T-17 doesn't have the upper grill gaurd tubing, so I fabbed my own to be bolt-on and easily removable w/o having to take the whole bumper off to get to the grill.

Ideally I'd just like to get another T-17 and build another upper guard for it, but I don't think TJM makes a T-17 for the 84-85 pickups. Their website only lists the T-13. I don't mind the T-13, but I'd end up redoing the upper guard because I don't care for how far it sticks up and leans forward.