Installing ARB Winch Bull Bar

Any good videos out there showing this process on a 2003?

 

Not really. I installed mine last week. Nothing needs to be CUT on 2001-2004 Trucks so don't look at YouTube videos of people installing on 4Runners and 2000 and earlier trucks.

Step one remove stock bumper
Step two remove bumper reinforcement bar with 4 bolts
Remove crush cans and front skid plate support with 2 bolts total inside the crush cans (1) bolt per side
Remove front skid plate bolts (3)
Discard what was just taken off. FYI I found the crush cans and bumper bar to be worth $35 on eBay if you need to recoup some cash
Install the flat ARB plate with the flange and three square punched hole between the next part. The flange needs to face towards the engine or your skid plate will have nothing to mount to. This part is sandwiched between the frame extension blocks.
Install the 2x4x4 frame extension blocks from ARB they have a window in the side make sure the window is facing in
Remove stock tow hooks
Install ARB bumper brackets
Mount bumper

In terms of hardware placement the instructions pretty much suck. So I don't have any advice there. Just remember the big cage nuts go on the bumper brackets and the small ones are from the splash pan and skid plate

Don't be scared if you end up with a shit tonne of left over hardware. If you have a winch mount it before you mount the bumper

 

^^^ GREAT info @Itchyfeet! Thanks man. Got any pics of yours. I got a Smittybuilt XRC 9.5 Gen 2 winch for mine. Any advice there?

 

Did you get the powder coat version or the rough textured one?

 

No advice on the winch. I have yet to wire mine, the bumper will likely have to come back off when I do. I ran out of nice weather and just needed it on the truck. Mine is powder coat.

 

Looks good. Is your truck black or green? Hard to tell from the pic.

 

I haven't used any videos, but I will say that the photocopied instructions suck big time. Fortunately, ARB posts the .pdf on their website and all of the pictures are in color:

http://store.arbusa.com/Assets/PDF/3423020i.pdf

I will mention that if you're still running your stock front suspension you will likely have issues with the truck "porpoising" over bumps at speed after the bumper and winch is in. Also, if you're putting a winch in, I recommend doing the endcap mod. It's easier to do before installing the bumper, but you can do it later as well, you just have to take the bumper off again. I didn't have any issues til I started playing in snow, then I noticed that my endcaps were bent and cracking from the stress of winching (you can see them with the bumper on, so you will be able to monitor it).

Install the winch into the bumper before installing the bumper onto the truck. You *might* be able to do it after the bumper is on, but it's so much easier with the bumper off, and it gives you a chance to make sure that you can activate the freespool lever on the winch. I know that the Warn winches need the housing partially disassembled and rotated so that you can reach the lever.

If you have access to an engine hoist it makes the job of lifting the bumper onto the bumper horns much easier. The two antenna mounts on the top of the bumper are almost exactly over the bumpers center of gravity. I've run eye bolts into them and then used a short section of chain on the engine hoist hook. Here's how I did it on my 2nd gen, I did it the same way on my 1st gen:

 

I'm not sure about the 2nd Gen instructions, but the first gen ARB instructions are terrible and vague. They don't even show what some parts are for. For how much this item costs one would think they would have done a better job

 

I think vague instructions are ARB's trademark FWIW, I do think that installing the ARB on my 1st gen was much less involved than installing one on my 2nd gen. I recommend grabbing a tall glass of ice tea and taking a few sips between each step while you compare the instructions with what you're seeing on your truck and what parts are left in the pile.

 

Whatever you do make sure the flat piece the arb skid plate bolts to is put on first and facing the right direction. That was either omitted or missed in the instructions and I assumed it went on last so I had the lovely experience of taking the entire thing back off when I thought I was 95% finished.

I also had to put a bottle jack and block of wood between the ARB brackets to spread them enough to slide the bumper in. Good news is once you get that far, the bumper will sit on the brackets while you crawl under it and bolt it up, hopefully without knocking it off on yourself.

I did mine completely by myself, took me the better part of a day including the time to beef up the end caps, going slow, and basically installing it twice, but it always takes me forever to do stuff like that.

 

Great summary. Did you have to drill into the ARB mounts/crush cans? Was going thru the install and looks like one of the drill points are offset on the frame with other point going thru the only the ARB extension block and ARB crush can.