C4 Fabrication vs. Other Brands

Howdy all! I'm planning on purchasing a lowpro front bumper and rock rails within the next month or so. I've narrowed it down to products from C4 Fabrication, Body Armor, and Barricade (the latter two of which I can purchase from Extreme Terrain, who is getting most of my money at the moment). The order the companies are listed in above is also the order in which I prefer their products. However, the C4 Fabrication products are significantly more expensive than the alternatives. Are C4's products worth the extra expense? This expense also includes having to powder coat the products after receiving them, which they don't offer (a business decision I'll never understand). Any other good lowpro bumper options out there that are compatible with the TRD skid plate? I'd appreciate any input folks can provide.

Also, if anyone has any pics of their truck with a lowpro number and big round lights mounted on top of the bumper's bar, I would appreciate seeing them. I think it's the setup I want to run, but need a sample size larger than "small."

 

SSO Slimline or SOS Lopro bumpers are pretty similar. Personally I would recommend buying from whichever fabricator is somewhat local (if there is one) where you could actually pick up the stuff and avoid paying shipping.

 

Some producers don’t offer powder coat because it gets scratched and dinged in shipping. Major customer affair with which some don’t want to deal.

 

I've got a C4 bumper and it's definitely well made, no complaints there. However the long lead time, relatively high price, and no powder coating option would lead me to buy from another company if I were doing it over today.

Also the packaging was terrible - the bumper was hardly wrapped and falling off the wee pallet it was attached to. In contrast I got the Victory 4x4 Strike II rear bumper, which is huge, and it came perfectly wrapped and solidly attached to its pallet. I realize I'm nitpicking here but it could be indicative of how things are being run.

 

There are extensive threads here on Body Armour. Have a read on them. A number of quality issues some people can look past. But none the less I did not have a great experience with it (twice).
Packaging was inconsistent, first bumper was horrendously welded and finished, both the first and second bumper had a twist in it from the welding process. If I had to guess their jigging process is inadequate. In the first picture where you see the tack it’s actually missing a weld. Or at least some of the other bumpers we checked had welds there in store.
The ones I checked had a twist to them when square checking the brackets. I had to check this because mine was sitting slightly low on the drivers side, enough that I could see it but my wife couldn’t, relative to the bumper facia with no adjustment left to correct. Coating issues as well for me. I’ve heard guys say they lived on the east coast and after a couple east coast winters they had to have the bumper resprayed. I asked about this and BA said their bumper coatings were not salt spray tested. So really there’s no telling or guarantee how long it’ll last. Glad I do very little highway driving and off-roading or I’d probably have it properly powder coated.
I was one of the unfortunate ones to have multiple frustrating problems with their Slim Line bumper.
I think it’s one of the best looking but based on all the issues I had I would not recommend nor go that route again.
Just my two cents……..

 

Body Armor and Barricade are larger-scale operations made in China, hence the lower price.

 

Those welds look as good as the Toyota OEM welds on your truck's frame, just sayin'

 

Thank you all very much for the feedback and taking the time to post some pictures. I'm going to visit an outfitter here in town that I haven't been to before. I'm going to ask them if they do powder coating, see what they have in stock (they're a large shop), and take a look at the quality of some of the products. What's the general consensus about the Barricade products? I like the look of their front low profile bumper and I actually do like their rear bumper as well (opinions seem to be split on it), though apparently it has terrible lighting and isn't compatible with the Toyota safety systems. At any rate, I would love to hear more opinions!

 

Lol Not on my Taco
I’d be a little worried if that’s the case

 

I have the Body Armor Desert Series, not what you are looking for, and I have been satisfied with the quality. The shipping was quick and the bumper showed up wrapped in bubble wrap and styrofoam in the heavy duty box. The bumper had a nice powder coat and was around 800 bucks with shipping, I did buy it through Amazon Prime. I love the looks of that C4 bumper and don't think you could go wrong with that.