seth_js said:
I'm not a fan of armor style bumpers. I think they are big, heavy, ugly, and generally have crappy approach angles. I agree with what cruiseroutfit said about the lack of protection with tube bumpers, but I can't think of a time when I was ever in danger of a branch going into my radiator. I vote CBI minus the stinger.
Arizona might be a bit different than Utah's trails?
Moab's river district in the spring (Tamerisk) or breaking snow in Uintahs is going to inevitably have you breaking through downed trees, etc.
Not likely? Well many of the things we incorporate into our vehicles are to protect against very unlikely events. I bet many snorkel owners are more likely to take some front end damage on the trail than they are to actually submerge their vehicle. But, having been on the repair side of things for the past 8 year I think about it a little differently... "Could I fix a radiator on the trail", not too easily.
Sure the ARB bumper sacrafices a small amount of approach angle (not too much when compared to other winch integrated designs). However I have done plenty of "rockcrawling" in my Tacoma, 4 rated trails in Moab with nothing more than a scrape or two to my bumper. Tacoma's are not a rockcrawlers, so many people compain about the approach angle... ever looked at the departure angle? Equally as important to me.
You need to build a vehicle for its intended purposes. Are you building an expedition rig, or a rockcrawler? It is virtually impossible to build one that performs ideally at both. All this talk of approach angle, etc is purely academic unless the user actually wants to go "rock crawling" with his/her rig...
