Plate Bumpers after impact with pics?

I got into a fight with a minivan. No visual damage to my ARB but the impact obsorbers are compromised so I ordered new ones. Held up very well.

 

Sub'd because awesome

 

I have never seen an accident where all you have to do is replace the bumper, that is like a 2mph parking lot oopsy.. these guys are showing you picture evidence that life threatening and truck totaling accidents can be rendered virtually harmless with a $1200 bumper..

even just a 15 mph impact can cost many thousands of dollars, bumper fenders headlights grill hood, you can also easily bend your center support and damage A/C and radiator, paint alone will cost more than one of these bumpers...

 

For me it was simple. If i rear-end somebody with a stock taco, chances are the bill from the body shop will be way more than the $1000 for a plate bumper. Plus I off-road on rocky tree-lined trails that have mud, compost or clay on top.

Last trip, Homertaco bumped a tree pretty hard with his newest hybrid style bumper, with no apparent damage.

 

Agreed on it costing less. My wife tapped the back of a cooper in her T4R and it was almost $6k. My bumper was somewhere around $1200.

 

My deductible is less than the cost of the bumper. So it doesn't really matter how much the total damages are past that number.

I also have to say that while it does appear these bumpers do significantly dampen the damage and injury risk to the driver, one can never really be sure without some scientific study on it. Can we really say that one would have been seriously harmed if not killed in an accident if the bumper wasn't there? Not really. We can only speculate, but we don't know for sure.

For example I don't think anyone has posted pictures of a square hit to the front center of the bumper (like hitting a tree or having someone come directly at you). Who knows, the bumper reinforcing the front end could cause more structural damage because of how the energy of the hit dissipates throughout the truck rather than the front taking all the force and crumpling (the intent of the design).

I love the way they look, and they surely prevent a lot of off road damage and have great benefits there. But to purchase them just for accident protection (which is what I was thinking when looking them up) is a bit too costly for me.

 

This

 

I'm all for upgraded bumpers, I even want to build my own one day, but while a few members are laughing at "Which car won" let us remember that these bumpers are meant for very low speed impacts (i.e. rock crawling) not wrecks. The factory crumple zones are there for a reason and it's so you and your passengers (or the other party's) don't snap your necks upon a 15mph impact. I'm not discrediting the bumpers, they have saved lots of people lots of money by protecting body parts, but it's not a joke when another vehicle gets rammed by pure steel with no energy dissipation, whether it be their fault or not (We know Tacoma drivers are the best drivers!)

 

You gotta pay to play brotha....

 

I'll play this one but sadly don't have pictures...
Anyways, I got rear ended by a civic who ( while I was backing into a parking spot) decided he was going to try to shove his car into the spot real quick and caught my rear bumper with the rear door all the way through the trunk of his car. Caved in the door, crushed the gas door in, destroyed his tail light and looked to have sealed his trunk shut. (He had to have been flying, but tried to tell me that he was only going "Like 3 mph bruh") not a scratch on my All-pro rear bumper. He agreed it was his fault and didn't want to file a report because he didn't have insurance. It was pretty funny to me.

 

Tube bumper vs heep

 

Plate bumpers are only as strong as what they are attached to. Tacoma and all modern frames have dimples in the frames which make the frame crumple or collapse like a soda can. Virtually every offroad plate bumper that gets pushed in has some frame damage. The FJ hitting the tree offroad I read had some frame damage. On a Tacoma you can see these dimples by looking at them through the wheel well. ARB 1st Gen Tacoma bumpers had collapseable crush mounts. 2nd Gen. ARB Tacoma bumpers had no crush mounts. I have seen attorney websites that offer legal services for people who have had accidents on public roads with trucks that have offroad bumpers. These attorneys will probably try to acquire money in a law suit to cover physical harm, medical expenses and to raise the total case settlement above and beyong of what damage would have been caused if the truck had a stock soft front end. Big question is will your insurance company stand by you or deny you coverage. Insurance companies have in the past denied coverage to people who were rear ended while having tinted tail lights. Think about that for a minute. For having tinted tail lighs and you get rear ended you will have to pay for your vehicle, the other vehicle, medical expenses, lost wages, car rentals and a law suit. Some insurance company declarations state if you have Non factory Non OEM HID's you will be denied coverage in an accident. Accidents can happen to anyone but what happens if you hit a pedestrian (your fault or not) with an offroad bumper and the pedestrian flies apart like when a deer is hit. The lawyers will have a hayday with that person in court. I'm not condoning or condoning the use of offroad plate bumpers on public roads. I'm just throwing some ideas out there so everyone can make their own decision. Stranger stuff happens all the time in court rooms where people have their paychecks garnished sometimes for a lifetime

 

^^ worry much?

 

Just on this alone, file that insurance claim and pay that "low" deductible and I bet you my front bumper you will pay more in premium hikes in the next year than my bumper cost lol

Not discrediting anything just stating we all know the stupid insurance companies love raising those rates when we make claims. I just try to do it less often by having a little stronger protection for those "Knicks and bumps".

 

So do we need to start another thread for pics of plate bumper damage now? Hehe. Just saying it's getting a little off topic in here and I came for the pics

 

Sorry for your loss, was your Tacoma "totaled" by your insurance company?

 

In a collision, the main threat to humans are the G forces, assuming the passenger compartment is not compromised.

Calculating G forces is simple math, any HS physics student can do it. Here is a calculator you can play with.

A typical 25 MPH collision with something immovable (i.e. Brick Wall) will result in ~12G of deceleration in the worst case (~100 milliseconds). Crumple zones exist to make the collision take longer - the better the car crumples, the longer the collision takes to finish. Just adding 200 milliseconds to the time it takes a car to decelerate from 25 to 0 decreases the forces to about 4G. That goes from possible broken neck to walking away.

To put it another way - given the same mass, would you rather get hit in the head with billiard ball or a foam ball ? It follows then, that to whatever extent the steel bumper diminishes the ability of the truck to crumple, you are increasing the risk of passenger injury.

That said, against soft obstacles, like an animal strike, the lack of deformation can be the difference between driving home and walking home. So, with the added risk, there is some benefit.

I'll be adding one to my truck for that very reason. But I have no doubt that it will make certain types of collisions far worse than stock. It's right there in the math.

 

So much win here!

 

Ohhh yeah haha the frame was twisted and bent. The whole bed was deformed and the floor of the cab was pushed up. Front end was destroyed as well because I got launched into the car stopped in front of me.

 

I work at a law firm and half my family works in the insurance business lol. So this is how I see it.
I do wonder what the insurance company can do or what lawyers can do to fight against modifications like these. To your example if a pedestrian was hit or if the Tacoma driver was 100% at fault and did serious damage to a vehicle and a person in a crash.

I think this is where law comes in. If there are no state or federal laws against modifying bumpers in this manner, then there is very little I think a lawyer or insurance company could argue. This is why we have seat belt laws. It is for insurance litigation purposes, not because the government really cares whether or not you strap yourself in. There are tinting and vehicle light laws. So those people can get nailed. Not sure about the bumpers. Now, you hit a person, you probably will be facing civil suits. Especially if the hit is the fault of the driver.
Motorcycle collisions may be another civil lawsuit risk as well. Any time a person is hurt, things get a little more dicey and lawyers have a lot of room to argue a case.

If you have one of these bumpers, don't ever hit a bicyclist, motorcycle, or person lol.