BrushGuard

[pbkid]

just my 2cents on the subject as i did serious research on the subject when i bought my bumper...

1. Most shops have LONG waiting lists for something quality to be made.

2. Consider shipping on a 150+ lb bumper is gonna cost you a pretty penny.

3. if your going to spend enough money to have one custom made, look into the following shops, they make great products. When i bought mine, i found that your looking at 1k plus shipping... which brings it up to around 1,200.

I paid 1,250 for a local shop to make it and they had it done in a week. (all the other shops had 6 month to 2 year waiting lists)

look at-
Armorology (thats where i had mine built, its of the highest quality, looks great, and is definately functional)

shrockworks- they are highly recommended by a lot of people in the toyota offroad community.

and of course ARB...(they wont custom fab anything, but you make be able to make a trooper bumper work)

i dont have any personal experience with joe darlington, nor am i saying his work is bad.... just presenting other ideas and sharing what i've found.
in fact, what i have seen from him, is all top quality.

[JAMAS]

One note of caution:

I was just reading some articles and information about brush guards and there is some concern about whether or not they could prevent the airbag from being deployed.

[tom4bren]

Interesting. I always assumed that the air bag sensors were accelerometer based. If they are actually crush switches, then it may be true. Does anyone know for sure?

[etlsport]

Interesting. I always assumed that the air bag sensors were accelerometer based. If they are actually crush switches, then it may be true. Does anyone know for sure?

The sensor for the vx air bag is behind the glove box iirc.. Which would make it acceleration based for sure

[tom4bren]

Aaaaaall righty then. JAMAS' bunk is now officially de-bunked. Sorry dude

[deermagnet]

Our ABS G-Sensor is under the rear part of the center console.

Mark

[WormGod]

2. Consider shipping on a 150+ lb bumper is gonna cost you a pretty penny.

And consider that added 150+lb on your vehicle, with whatever fluff you may already have on it. (sorry, i am all about keeping a light load).

[DeepSilentComplete]

Looking for a bumper/grille guard for my VX. Something simple but has mounted lights. Any ideas?

[vt_maverick]

Looking for a bumper/grille guard for my VX. Something simple but has mounted lights. Any ideas?

There's about three conflicting ideas in that sentence (VX, simple, mounted lights). This topic has been heavily discussed, but since you're a Foxfire brother I'll spare you the "use the damn search engine" comment.

If you're strictly looking for off-the-shelf there's nothing out there. Generally speaking, catalogs/websites for the major manufacturers don't even list an option for the VX, so you're kind of guessing at which model will fit. (Those that got their push bar from Tone may have the number though.) If you figure that out you'll need to fabricate custom mounting brackets for the bar, as well as run the wiring and switch for the lights.

Food for thought... brush guards may look cool, but depending upon the closeness of the fit and the degree to which it wraps around the front, even a low speed impact can result in much more extensive damage since the force would be distributed across the cladding, grill, hood, headlights, etc. If I was serious about doing this I would look at a push bar rather than a brush guard, since the smaller/lower stature means that an impact would likely only affect the cladding/bumper (which would be damaged anyway). Hiredgoon's home-made model is pretty sweet - now if we could only get him to post a pic of it after he painted it black. Ahem...

Link to Hiredgoon's Push Bar Thread

[JAMAS]

I wonder if the "Super Bumper" guy could make a brush guard with the same technology. Absorb some percentage of front end impacts.

[VX KAT]

One note of caution:

I was just reading some articles and information about brush guards and there is some concern about whether or not they could prevent the airbag from being deployed.

Was also told that, but don't actually know where the sensor is on the FJ. So we went with a certain brush guard for the FJ that didn't stick out further or have bars over the bumper.
I know, very illogical...

[wekilled]

You can do guard and lights but I would never put a winch on it. You'll rip it off in 5 seconds unless someone builds a full custom one. I'd go with the hidden winch where my license plate is located. http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...s/PA270320.JPG

[vt_maverick]

Larger version of Doug's pic...