If you plan to take your Toyota Tacoma off-roading, you will push your vehicle to its limits. And, to be honest, the first limit you’ll probably encounter is the OEM bumper. The factory didn’t build a bumper that was made for withstanding the challenging conditions of serious off-roading. If you want to go farther and be bolder in your Tacoma, you will need to install an aftermarket bumper. Here’s why: protection and recovery.
Off-roading isn’t like regular city driving. When you’re out on the trail, you need superior front and rear bumpers to protect your vehicle and make it possible for you to get out of sticky situations. Let’s take a closer look.
Protection
Factory bumpers can’t take a lot of abuse. Your OEM bumpers were designed and built to withstand the impact of a traffic accident at average speeds. This is true even for your otherwise rugged Tacoma. While the chances of hitting another vehicle while off-roading is slim, you could hit a tree or slide into a giant boulder when navigating a steep incline. You might also drive through scratchy brush or over loose rocks. Tacoma aftermarket bumpers, on the other hand, were designed, engineered, and constructed to keep your vehicle safe in all these situations and more. With tough steel or aluminum front and rear bumpers mods, almost nothing will hurt your Tacoma on the trail.
Bumper mods also give you more options for mounting auxiliary lighting modifications. Adding light bars, spotlights, fog lights, and other mods give you more visibility, and better visibility means safer driving. Your best bet for protecting your Tacoma is to replace those stock factory OEM bumpers with aftermarket bumpers mods built for off-roading.
Recovery
If you’re off-roading, you’re going to be stuck. If you don’t get stuck on this adventure, you will be on the next. Getting into a jam is inevitable. Some might even say it’s part of the fun. When you’re stuck in a bog of mud, perched up on a large boulder, down in a ditch, or spinning out in the sand, sometimes the only options for recovery are to winch yourself out or be towed. And, when those are your options, you need a winch.
But your OEM Tacoma bumper won’t accommodate a winch. The material isn’t strong enough and isn’t mounted directly to the frame. But you can attach a winch to a frame-mounted steel or aluminum aftermarket bumper to get yourself or a friend out of trouble.
Are you convinced yet? You should be. Upgrade your Tacoma bumpers today.
