Feedback from owners with steel bumpers and/or swingouts

[TacoBirdinNW]

Hey all,

About to pull the trigger on the RCI rear bumper + swingout. My full size spare barely fits by a hair under the truck, I need a couple hundred more constant pounds on my rear springs to bring rear lift down, and, let's be honest, it looks super frickin' cool + I like the utility of the molle on the swingout.

@Pappy has a workaround for the camera situation, so not worried about that. My one hesitation is that everytime I see older tacomas with aftermarket steel parts they seem to have plenty of rust spots. Not sure if that's a brand to brand thing or if it's just par for the course.

Those of you that have run steel bumpers, what's your experience with longevity been ? And do you just touch up as needed to stop rust ? Also curious about how much a PIA the swingout is when you're doing pavement princess stuff (city parking, groceries, etc).

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[tgrneal]

I’m actively looking for swing-out bumpers. I don’t see many options available.
-Victory4x4
-RCI
Rig’d (kinda)
Any other options? Dual swing/single swing doesn’t matter to me.
I have heard about the rust being an issue on older Tacos. Perhaps you could pay extra to have it powder coated, in addition to the manufacturer’s, for extra extra protection? For that reason I’ve considered doing the bed liner route. Works for rust and trail damage.

 

[Wife bought my 24 TRD]

The rust issues are exactly why? I'm waiting on backwards adventure to finish their rear hybrid bumper for the 24. I currently have their front hybrid bumper and absolutely love it for several reasons. 1, the rust factor will be little to none since it's a hybrid aluminum steel bumper. 2, The weight as the bumper still allows my king's suspension to perform. 3, saves on gas mileage, again weight savings.
Backwards is supposed to be releasing their rear bumper with a second receiver so you can have the option to remove your dual swing out and have the versatility of both. After talking with them about why they're not making it a complete combo, they want people to have the ability to put the dual swing on something else in the future, or in other vehicle they own currently
You pull the trigger on it. Keep me posted, because i'm getting tired of waiting.And I'd love to see what you think about the r c I bumper.

 

[TacoBirdinNW]

I’m actively looking for swing-out bumpers. I don’t see many options available.
-Victory4x4
-RCI
Rig’d (kinda)
Any other options? Dual swing/single swing doesn’t matter to me.
I have heard about the rust being an issue on older Tacos. Perhaps you could pay extra to have it powder coated, in addition to the manufacturer’s, for extra extra protection? For that reason I’ve considered doing the bed liner route. Works for rust and trail damage.

Those are pretty much the options I looked at. Considered the Wilco hitch gate X as well, can get it through JEGs for $1,079. But for just over $2k you can get the whole RCI setup including the bumper + swingout with that large molle panel. Victory is super nice too. I can't say if it's nice enough to pay almost double for the setup though. Someone else could speak to that.

Maybe some other folks around here have had steel bumpers on their older rigs ? Bedliner might be a good move ! But I do like the black satin finish that comes on the bumper.

My only other concerns are making my long bed even longer and inconvenience when doing dad/grocery getter stuff.

 

[TacoBirdinNW]

The rust issues are exactly why? I'm waiting on backwards adventure to finish their rear hybrid bumper for the 24. I currently have their front hybrid bumper and absolutely love it for several reasons. 1, the rust factor will be little to none since it's a hybrid aluminum steel bumper. 2, The weight as the bumper still allows my king's suspension to perform. 3, saves on gas mileage, again weight savings.
Backwards is supposed to be releasing their rear bumper with a second receiver so you can have the option to remove your dual swing out and have the versatility of both. After talking with them about why they're not making it a complete combo, they want people to have the ability to put the dual swing on something else in the future, or in other vehicle they own currently
You pull the trigger on it. Keep me posted, because i'm getting tired of waiting.And I'd love to see what you think about the r c I bumper.

The rust issues are: it looks like a hunk of shit when it's covered in rust

Will definitely post up a review when I get the RCI!

 

[gofastdan]

I have a bit different use case since I'm not trying to house the spare tire on my swing-out, but I can talk about the inconvenience of having the rack on my truck. I have a Rak-Attach with my Alta bike rack on it. I think it's all in your mindset but honestly for me, it's not a problem. It literally takes a few seconds to swing the rack out of the way so I can get at the tailgate and after a couple of weeks it was muscle memory and I don't even think about it. I love how I can swing the rack 180 degrees and get it completely out of the way when I'm camped.

I did look at Rig'd but their products didn't really fit my use case but before I came to that conclusion I looked at used Rig'd products and they all had rust on them that I didn't want to deal with even if it had been what I was looking for... I really would like the Victory bumper but it's just soooo expensive. I can't justify it.

All that said, my only issue with any hitch mounted solution is how it absolutely destroys your departure angle. In the case of the attached photo I had to remove the bike to avoid hitting it and this wasn't a particularly deep wash. I'm not ever intending to wheel so it's not an issue very often but I'm always thinking about it whenever I cross drainage ditches or the like. There are some stacked hitch solutions that would raise the rack up a bit, but every additional component added is another point that will be bouncing around and increases the leverage hanging off the back.

Since this photo I bought a lower portion for the Alta rack that brings the bike in quite a bit closer to the truck, but that actually makes the departure angle even worse than in the picture because the rear wheel of my bike is now a couple of inches lower.

 

[TacoBirdinNW]

I have a bit different use case since I'm not trying to house the spare tire on my swing-out, but I can talk about the inconvenience of having the rack on my truck. I have a Rak-Attach with my Alta bike rack on it. I think it's all in your mindset but honestly for me, it's not a problem. It literally takes a few seconds to swing the rack out of the way so I can get at the tailgate and after a couple of weeks it was muscle memory and I don't even think about it. I love how I can swing the rack 180 degrees and get it completely out of the way when I'm camped.

I did look at Rig'd but their products didn't really fit my use case but before I came to that conclusion I looked at used Rig'd products and they all had rust on them that I didn't want to deal with even if it had been what I was looking for... I really would like the Victory bumper but it's just soooo expensive. I can't justify it.

All that said, my only issue with any hitch mounted solution is how it absolutely destroys your departure angle. In the case of the attached photo I had to remove the bike to avoid hitting it and this wasn't a particularly deep wash. I'm not ever intending to wheel so it's not an issue very often but I'm always thinking about it whenever I cross drainage ditches or the like. There are some stacked hitch solutions that would raise the rack up a bit, but every additional component added is another point that will be bouncing around and increases the leverage hanging off the back.

Since this photo I bought a lower portion for the Alta rack that brings the bike in quite a bit closer to the truck, but that actually makes the departure angle even worse than in the picture because the rear wheel of my bike is now a couple of inches lower.

Thanks for this dude!
Your setup is so cool. I'm probably overthinking the "inconvenience" part, but I'm definitely wishing I didn't sell my bike rack rn haha

And yea every used Rig'd system I've seen is rusted to shit. That + the $2K price ruled those out for me.

RCI looks nice and is reasonably priced, just wondering about longevity.

Cool rig man!

 

[Aeneiad]

I had a rear swing out bumper on my 3g and being the truck was primarily an adventure rig, I did like having it on there. I would mall crawl with it a few times a month and I hated parking with it or even having to open it in the parking lot because it was so big. As for rust, I installed the bumper in October and got stuck in a December MN snowstorm on my way to UT. Once I was out of the storm, I sprayed the bumper off with the rest of the truck to get rid of the salt. Those 4 hours were the only snow the bumper saw and a month later it was covered in rust. I contacted the manufacturer, sent them some pictures, and a few weeks later I had a replacement bumper. Once I swapped out the bumpers, I contacted them again and they coordinated for the rusty bumper to be picked up and shipped back to them.

For my 4g, I’ve been looking at the Expedition One bumpers. They are spendy but I like that I can have multiple configurations for the bumper. I’ve had some other Expedition One products and I’ve been impressed.

 

[TacoBirdinNW]

Thanks for the feedback brother !
After complaining about the rig'd prices I found one in great condition with a table for $1100. Gonna try it out. Figured I can resell if it doesn't workout. They never last long on marketplace if they're in good condition.

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