Images and Text by Pete (mountainpete on the portal forum)


Overview

Bumpers are a crucial part of any vehicle, whether it is destined for adventures at the far corners of the globe or a simple trip to the local supermarket. The primary purpose of a vehicle bumper is crash protection and vehicle manufacturers spend countless hours and dollars designing and testing the safety they provide. However, for expedition travel, there are additional factors which need to be considered.

As expedition travel takes you and your vehicle to more remote locations, the terrain which needs to be traveled can become increasingly difficult. In these circumstances, a bumper must protect the rear end of the vehicle, not just from rear end collisions, but also from scrapes, rocks and other impacts that may otherwise cause permanent damage to the vehicle.

The factory bumper on a Toyota Tacoma is a typical chrome plated or color matched steel bumper. While it does provide some level of protection, it covers only a limited amount of space directly at the rear of the truck. When called upon to provide protection for the truck it can easily sustain damage in the form of dents, scrapes and bends. Since the stock bumper also has a fairly long overhang, it is often brought into situations where it interferes with the departure angle of the truck – sometimes resulting in complete removal due to impact with an object on the trail.

As the terrain becomes more difficult, we inherently have occasions where the vehicle is simply stuck and requires a recovery. The factory rear Toyota bumper has no provisions to attach straps or winch cables to it. Without an optional trailer hitch, there are very few ways to safely recover a Tacoma from the rear. There is a tow ball attachment on the bumper, however it is only rated for minimal towing use and certainly should not be used for recovery.

Lastly, without specialized attachments, there is no safe way to raise the rear of a Tacoma using a Hi-Lift jack. This is critical as vehicle repairs, high-center recovery and other situations often require the vehicle to be lifted directly from the rear.

Due to the combination of these conditions, many Toyota owners look into replacing their bumper with an aftermarket product. When choosing a bumper, many options are available including tire carriers, jack and fuel can mounts, antenna mounts and auxiliary lighting options. However not everyone can simply afford to purchase the “full meal” bumper. As a result, this review will focus on a basic expedition bumper.

Review

Demello Off-Road has a strong reputation with Toyota owners for building solid, reliable products. Many Toyota owners have used and abused their products with great success and when I was looking for a replacement bumper Demello was at the top of the list.

Demello Off-Road offers two main types of replacement bumpers for the 96 – 04 Tacoma. These include a full tube or hybrid tube/box steel style. I choose the hybrid design primarily because I do not like the looks of full tube bumpers and they are more difficult to stand on when required. The bumper itself retails for USD $650.00 plus $85.00 for black powder coating. The price does put it at the high end of the scale compared to competing vendors. Other options are available for the bumper which can be added at the time of purchase, or if sent back to Demello, added in the future.

One of the biggest benefits of the Demello design is the side panel protection it provides. I have a bad habit of scraping this area of the truck and it was a big selling feature for me. Not only does the design protect the area with two solid tubes, it can also hold the entire weight of the vehicle due to a side connection to the frame. This means that it will both prevent crush damage in the area plus provide a stable side jacking point. The entire bumper also takes up much less space then the stock bumper and hitch, therefore improving the departure angle considerably.

Upon shipment, my first impression was this bumper is beefy! While I didn’t have an opportunity to weigh it prior to install, I would personally estimate it at a similar weight of the stock bumper and Class III trailer hitch combined or just slightly heavier. The welds on the product are excellent and with the exception of some damage which occurred during shipping, the powder coating is strong. The bumper incorporates a 2” receiver behind the license plate which is rated for off-road use only as Demello Off-Road is not government certified for making trailer hitches (an expensive process).

Although an instruction sheet would have been handy to start the process, the overall installation wasn’t very difficult and can be done with standard hand tools – air tools make the job easier. In a nutshell, the process starts by removing the stock bumper, trailer hitch (if installed) and brackets which hold the bumper to the frame. All of the bolts and nuts are 19 mm so if they aren’t rusted you should be able to get them all off with a ratchet and wrench. Take the spare tire out to make access easier.

The Demello bumper includes new mounting brackets which must be first attached to the frame of the Tacoma and then the bumper is attached to the brackets. The brackets are much stronger and thicker than the factory ones and attach with no less than 4 bolts per side. It’s a good idea to loosely attach the bolts first and then tighten everything down once the bumper is on and aligned.

Once the brackets are mounted, the bumper can be attached. This will prove to be very tricky and heavy for a one person install, so get a buddy or two to help if available. With that said, I was able to install the bumper solo using a combination of saw horses, time and patience (hence the lack of pictures during the process!). If you have access to a garage and the ceiling isn’t finished you can use ropes or ratchet straps to hang the bumper in place. The biggest challenge to setting the bumper in place is the frame connection tubes which extend from the wrap around side protection. I found removal of the exhaust hanger made the process much easier.

Once the bumper was in place and all of the bolts are loosely tightened, take the opportunity to check the clearance of the spare tire winch tool and overall alignment before tightening things up. This is where a helper comes in handy. Have them lift the bumper into the right spot while you tighten up the bolts. All of the bolts were easy to access with the exception of the ones which fasten the side protection to the frame – they use the existing holes which are right in the middle of the rear cross member. A wobble style long extension makes it much easier tighten things up.

 

Once the bumper is installed, there are still two important items left: the license plate lights and the plate itself. The plate is easy, however my installation kit did not include the required nuts to attach the plate. A quick trip to Home Depot and two stainless steel acorn nuts make quick work of it. The lights were not so quick…

 

The Demello bumper reuses the license plate lights from the factory bumper for a clean look. The bumper includes a sized hole at the front for the light housing and a second hole at the rear where the wiring is fed through. Unfortunately this presented two issues. The front of the bumper had a hole for the light housing, but not for the screws to attach it and the rear hole was too small to feed the bulb assembly through. To accommodate this I first cut the light wiring, fed it through again from the bumper side and reattached it with connectors and heat shrink tubing. I then filled the remaining part of the hole with silicone for a water tight seal. After drilling holes for the light assembly screws, the lights were attached and functioning. I was disappointed that I had to drill holes in a new bumper in order to attach the lights, but it really wasn’t a big deal.

The rear of the bumper features two shackle mounting points. Although the bumper was packed and protected well for transport, the shipping company must have dragged it around a number of times as the shackle brackets had the powder coating scraped right off. Flat black rust paint and some rubberized coating made for a quick repair. I installed shackles on the back but for regular driving I found they rattled too much (yes, I am picky). I attached some easy to remove zip ties to stop the rattles.

To first test the bumper I used a Hi-lift jack to raise the rear. It proved to be completely solid. Even by jumping on the side protection tubes you cannot bend or move this bumper. At this time I have not yet towed or have performed a recovery from the rear, however I have full confidence that this bumper will perform well.

 

Summary

The Demello hybrid rear bumper fits all of the basic criteria of a good expedition bumper. It protects the vehicle, provides a solid point for recovery, towing and jacking and improves the rear departure angle compared to stock. An excellent choice for the adventurous Toyota owner.

I will update this review in the future with information on how the bumper stands the test of time – including the corrosion of a Canadian winter.

 

Contacting Demello Off-Road:
1210 E. 6th Street Units F-G
Corona, CA 92879
Phone: 951.735.4417
Fax: 951.735.4644

http://www.demello-offroad.com

 
 
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