Toyotie, part 8: Front bumper & Winch Install

I knew early on that I wanted to go with the ARB Deluxe (winch) front bumper for the Land Cruiser. It had an excellent reputation overall, and I loved the looks and functionality of the bumper. By ordering the bumper from Man-A-Fre at the same time as the auxiliary fuel tank, they could bundle them together and save me a good chunk of money on the freight cost. I placed my order and several days later they were in my garage.

Around that time I’d been making my mind up on the winch specifics. I opted for a Warn winch, because I was familiar with them and their quality, having their x8000i on the Jeep. While I’d originally planned to swap that winch over to Toyotie, I realized that the 8,000lb rating really wasn’t adequate for the new beast. After researching options, I settled on a VR12000, a powerful winch designed with some economy-minded components for those of us that don’t use the winch frequently. It’s still backed by Warn’s full warranty though, and I’d not been able to find anyone that had one fail them.

I also decided that I wanted to use synthetic winch line, having done my research there as well and being familiar with the many pros and cons vs. traditional steel cable… Too many to get into in detail here!

One factor I will mention though is weight, with the synthetic line saving roughly 23 pounds. On top of that is another ten pounds of saving by using a 2lb. aluminum Hawse fairlead instead of the standard Warn 12lb. steel roller fairlead. The new bumper & winch were adding enough weight as it was, so 33 fewer pounds was a welcome reduction.

So finally one weekend I had time to get it all installed. It took a lot longer than I expected, mainly due to challenges of getting the winch mounted to the bumper. Some of that was absolutely my fault, but not all of it.

The directions were wretched: ARB makes a fine bumper but their directions are about as useful as a bright green spy, to use a Jeremy Clarkson line. Getting past the typos and incorrect references, the main instruction for ARB’s bumper and the spacer kit do not contain a single photo or illustration! The sub-kit for the bumper turn signals do have them, thankfully, but for the rest you’re on your own.

Well, not completely on your own, thanks to the internet. I was able to make good use of a couple of online resources, thanks to people that had installed the bumper on their Land Cruisers and thankfully documented the process. The one I relied on most was this very helpful post at PNW Backroads Adventures and the related Flickr gallery. (I should note that while that page says “It’s a lot easier to wire in the turn indicator pig tail before the bull bar is installed,” I personally did not find that to be the case.)

While I had a lot of challenges and some frustration, I should also mention that I did this install completely solo! I wouldn’t recommend it, but I wanted to see if it was possible. With a bit of strength and a little creativity when needed, I proved that it can be done by one stupid person.

It did feel good to overcome the challenges and get it done, and by myself to boot. The bumper turn indicator lights were a straightforward install, as was getting the winch power hooked up to the battery and controller box. Getting the Viking synthetic line installed on the winch was a breeze, and then I was done.

I didn’t feel the need to completely document the process since it had been covered pretty well elsewhere, but I did take photos along the way and they’re in this gallery.