Busy weekend at Stumptaco's house!

[SEREvince]

We'll I made the 12 hour trip up from Italy for a big wrenching weekend at James' house!

As I'm sure you already realised from his rig, he knows what he's doing!

Anway here are a couple pics of the end result!

Installed my winch, solenoid gave us a serious migrane for a while.

Smittybuilt XR8 with 100' of OD green Viking Fireline.

Now for the main attraction a custom Stumptaco rear bumper! This thing is all beef. There is a hidden hitch behind the giant euro tag, plus some bling spiderweb gussets/chain hangers!

The Taco's in the German countryside.

 

[Willman]

Right on!

That's what friends are for!

 

[SOAZ]

So cool to actually see "American" tacos in Europe! I want to see more! :arabia:

 

[ckkone]

Awesome, next time I make it over to DE I'm going to look up James and get together. Is he anywhere near Auerbach I have some family there and usually visit once every 3 years.

 

[4Rescue]

Nice, I love that back bumper design, I remember when I saw stumptaco's build of his and I thought it looked very well thought out.

How rare are those rigs over there, and what are the laws for modified 4x4's like?

Cheers

Dave :safari-rig:

 

[Overland Hadley]

The Taco's in the German countryside.

Nice, those are good looking green Tacoma's.

 

[Dave Bennett]

Lookin' good!:coffeedrink:

 

[GroversYota]

I like the design of that rear bumper, plenty of meat in the rear for people who ride too close in street use, but still has the tubes for the 1/4 panels. Like a cross using the best bits from a warn and marlin bumper.

That is one huge license plate.

 

[StumpXJ]

Hey Guys, it was indeed a busy few days while Vince was here! Thanks for all of the compliments, both he and I were very happy with the end results. As most any fabrication project, a certain few things could have been done better/easier, but those little tidbits are for Vince and I to know. Overall, its a very capable and solid bumper. The design credit will have to go to Demello though, I just made a few small changes to suit our needs.

Before Vince made the trip, we had big plans for various other projects also, but a few "hitches" in finishing the bumper, and the solenoid problem only allowed us to get the rear bumper done, and the winch mounted. There is always next time!

Looking forward to heading down to Vinces area and doing some wheeling Italian style soon! Was great having you over Vince!


Ckkone, it looks like I am about 4 hours from the area you mentioned. I am in the Kaiserslautern area. If you (or anyone else) is ever in Germany around the area, by all means drop me an email before you come over so we can meet-up.

Dave, where im at is actually the largest concentration of Americans outside of the US. There are over 100,000 of us in the area. That means there are quite a few tacos that make it over here from the States. However, very few of them actually wheel. I could probably count on one or two hands how many taco owners would actually get their vehicles dirty out of the 40-50 or so that are in my area. The laws are kind of changing at the moment, when we first got here, if it was legal in the states, it was legal here because our vehicles are registered through the military, not through the German "TUV" (DMV kind of) system. They have changed it slightly to the effect of "if it didnt come from the factory, its not legal", but as you can tell by my vehicle, that rule doesnt get exercised much. The German guys I wheel with hate the fact that I can have all of the armor and stuff on my truck and still have it be street legal, as their TUV system will not allow it.

~James

 

[StumpXJ]

Couple more pictures of Vinces set-up


He decided to get rid of the solenoid "box" that comes on these winches and move the solenoid and wiring behind the bumper. I fabbed up a small bracket, welded it to the underside of the bumper, and Vince wired it all. It makes for a really neat set-up. Kind of a pain to get to the wiring, but we had a lot of practice because the solenoid was giving us a bit of trouble so it had to be installed/un-installed about a 1000times.

Couple more pictures of the bumper.

~James

 

[4Rescue]

Interesting, those are some neat trucks for sure.

 

[p1michaud]

Rear bumper

Excellent work on that rear bumper. Well done!