How do you make a good product even better? By listening to your customers. This is what All Pro Off Road did with their front bumper for the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

I have been running the original All Pro Front Bumper on my FJ Cruiser for the last 3 years and I have been very happy with it. There were some problems but I was able to modify the bumper to fix them. At the FJ Summit this last summer I had a chance to discuss the front bumper issues with All Pro and I was please to find out that a next generation front bumper was on its way.

I received one of these bumper from All Pro Off Road for an evaluation last month and I am very happy with what I see. All Pro Off Road has stayed with the minimalist design yet they have enhanced the bumper to address the concerns customers had with the original.

Just looking at the bumper I could tell this was an evolution of something good to something even better. The powder coat looks flawless and the welds are all clean.

To understand this evolution I need to discuss the problem with the original.

All Pro had considerable problems with the powder coat on the original bumper. To fix this they have worked to develop a much better finish using a high quality 3 step process. The new finish has an orange peel texture which goes well with the black plastic FJ trim.

The Toyota FJ Cruiser front bumper mounts are not very strong and are not designed to be used to pull the FJ as when winching. This last summer I bent these mounts using my winch and the original bumper. To address this issue All Pro Off Road has, for some time, been shipping bumpers with a reinforcement bracket that tie the bumper to the sides of the frame. The next generation bumper includes a very strong reinforcement bracket. With the design of the All Pro Bumper the winch is placed as high as possible. The winch pull is not in line with the frame and when being used it tends to use the bumper as a lever on the mounting plates. The bracket moves this force from the mounting plates to stronger frame mount points.

With the original bumper the top was tucked under the grill and body work. This caused a problem with the bumper contacting the bodywork and grill when the frame was flexing. People were having problems with the bumper causing damage to the grill clips. The next generation bumper addresses this issue by cleanly contouring the top of the bumper to the lines of the grill and body work.

The bumper installation requires the hood latch brace to be replaced. The original All Pro Solution had the brace attached to the bumper. This caused stress to the hood latch when the bumper moved due to frame flex. The next generation bumper includes a redesigned bracket that now attaches to a body work cross member so the latch is now isolated from the bumper.

In addition to fixing the noted problems All Pro Off Road took the opportunity to modify the replaceable bumper wings to be stronger. The end of the wing is now boxed in and will be less prone to bending.

So what hasn’t changed:

• The same great All Pro Off Road customer support
• The best front approach angle of all the bumpers out there.
• Install and fit was perfect.
• Light weight. On My FJ Cruiser the All Pro Off Road Bumper, winch and synthetic line weigh only 100 lb. more than the original factory bumper.
• Replaceable bumper wings that provide very good approach clearance for the front tires.
• Optional light bars.
• The 3 part design allows the bumper to be shipped UPS which brings shipping costs way down.

Installation Notes

For this review I mounted the bumper wings after mounting the bumper to the FJ so I could get better photos of the mount. For a normal installation the bumper wings are installed prior to the bumper being fitted to the FJ.  The installation does require the plastic fender liners to be trimmed. When installing a winch in the bumper the solenoid needs to be removed from the winch and All Pro includes a bracket for mounting the solenoid inside the bumper.

For One again All Pro Off Road delivers a quality product at a reasonable price.