Any aftermarket bumpers compatible with BSM + RCTA?

I'm looking forward to seeing future offerings compatible with BSM.

This was the thread.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/road-armor-50-off.74219/

 

The only thing that concerns me with the Steelcraft is the mount for the sensor orientation. There was a change in the sensors in late 2017 (I think) so unless the mount can accommodate both the pre 2017s and 2018+ it looks like only the newer sensors are supported. Referencing page 8 of SC install guide:
https://steelcraftautomotive.com/pdf/184831

They start discussing the sensors here:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/road-armor-50-off.74219/page-2#post-2121234

 

For those with 2018+, that’s not an issue. There are a lot of changes in 2018+ trucks - primarily associated with the TSS but that propagates to ECU and that then propagates out to other systems. Not sure if just putting the 2018+ BSM sensors in a pre ‘18 would work, or even if just changing the sensor orientation would work or not. But for my 21, the Steelcraft setup does match the orientation of my sensors (according to their instructions) and they are mounted out at the corners like the factory ones.

 

Doesn’t look like the ICI does anything the factory bumper doesn’t already do. CBI needs to get their asses in gear.

 

Actually, Road Armor did not pull that bumper. Yes, the OP in reference was issued a refund, however they did not pull it off their website. To this day it is offered for sale.

 

They did shortly after. It wasn't up on their site for some time after that post. Interesting. They put it back up but only for the 2014-2017.

 

I thought so too but checked several times Over a period of time after that thread was discussed. Every time I looked, the bumper was still listed. Not sure if they made any changes to it.

 

Its best to offer a different mount to accommodate the older sensors. Changing the sensor orientation wont work for the pre2018s sensor, the radar coverage area isn't symmetrical along the sensor's center line axis, its a flat (~5ft height) and wide arc (140 degree). The shape of the detection area also changes based on what mode it is in; RCTA vs BSM.

I'm primarily interested in how sensor calibration is done on this product. The Toyota calibration procedure requires access to the sensor mounting points to make adjustments. Also once adjusted, how well does proper calibration hold? Is the single bolt attaching the bracket to the bumper (Fig 19) the only thing holding your calibration? Or does the sensor nest into the plastic cover (Fig 16) to help keep the radar at zero? It doesn't look like the later is the case based on the bracket.

 

The first one I ever saw that said it was compatible was the Magnum bumper, but ICI had rust issues. See here https://www.tundras.com/threads/magnum-ici-bumper-not-pretty.40454/

Then their BSM bumper was forever out of stock. Well now they have their "Alumilite" bumpers that are 5052 aluminum. Bit of research shows that it's commonly used in marine applications due to it's high corrosion resistance. The next question would be the one @Saltyhero13 is asking on all the bumpers; How well are the sensors going to work? That I don't have an answer to, and I haven't been able to find much info or reviews for the bumpers.

https://www.icionline.com/product-page/2014-2020-toyota-tundra-alumilite-rear-bumper




Not the prettiest things or the highest clearance, BUT if they are light weight, strong, and keep the BSM/RCTA functionality they might just be the best bet.

 

The only calibration you can do on the factory setup is to add shims to the studs that the sensors are bolted to…there’s not much adjustment even possible when you actually slide the sensor over the three posts. I did the install on my truck and if you can get more than 1* in any direction I’d be surprised. It literally was bolt in and plug in and done, and the sensors had no wiggle when slid onto mount posts.

 

Right. That's great for a DIYer with the proper equipment and space. I've seen your helpful wiring posts, do you have a write up for the procedures you followed for calibration? Lessons learned?

Unfortunately the rest of the customer base will need to use calibration services that won't touch a design that greatly deviates from OEM procedures.

I think this misses the greater point; a manufacturer who's design forgot to account for two different sensor models nor accounts for a common use case such as sensor calibration, tells me they probably haven't thought through their design nor tested it rigorously. The majority of these manufacturers go by "no yellow blinky" = "worky worky" and that's not necessarily the case in replicating and maintaining OEM sensor coverage and performance.

I think the bumper affords the radar sensors great protection from direct impact. From a "shock and vibe" perspective (off-roading) I don't see zero point calibration nor the radar sensor holding up long term without rubber washers/standoffs included in the mounting solution. There may be some environmental considerations that are overlooked here too but probably easily mitigated.

 

Too bad ARB doesn’t make a rear bumper for the Tundra. I have a pretty good feeling they’d get it right.

 

I didn’t calibrate them at all. Crawled under two trucks, confirmed the brackets were bolted direct to the bumper frame and that the sensors were bolted direct to the bracket without any shims. I’m sure they aren’t putting each truck on a calibration rig at the factory.

Then proceeded to buy the needed parts and do the same in my truck. in doing the install, I really do not see much opportunity to “calibrate” or adjust the factory mounts at all.

once wired up, I went for a drive and confirmed that I was getting the lights on and off in the expected “zones of coverage” from both sides… both for when I was passing and when I was being passed on both left and right side (pissed a few people of going slow in the left lane). Then went to a parking lot with a friend and farted around testing the RCTA range and function. It was enough to satisfy my confirmation.

Even after my recent bumper hit (backed into a tree), the driver’s side is still behaving exactly as it did, despite being shifted forward and slightly off angle.

The sensors themselves have a metal bushing inside the plastic mount points that the nut tightens to, creating the vibration isolation you are referring to. In a factory bumper they’ll be just as apt to be bounced around as in an aftermarket situation.

i think that the design of these systems is to use a potentially high accuracy tool in a very low-accuracy setting, where the system will “warn” at even the lower levels of sensing something - applying the most conservative judgement if you will. i have seen both false positives and negatives in factory trucks as well - sometimes the adjacent vehicle just doesn’t register, etc.

As long as the sensors are placed at an angle and orientation that closely matches factory placement, then the sensor “calibration” will not be an issue, provided that the bumper has an adequate aperture that does not prohibit or interfere. This is what is critical, and where I think the Road Armor design got into trouble. The ICI and SC design has the sensor close behind a plastic panel that is right at the outside edge of the bumper, much more like the factory design. The ICI has a much larger window than the SC, but if the sensor is close enough to the opening, that shouldn’t be an issue.

As far as getting the angle and location to match, that is fairly easy to do for a manufacturer using 3D scanning technology of a sample vehicle and 3D CAD to design the new bumper. It’s obvious SC designed the bumper in 3D CAD given how their instruction manual is made, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they used a scanner to confirm the design fitment (I would of making bumpers for as many vehicles as they do).

I guess to a certain extent, I’m in the “don’t overthink it” camp based on my personal experience installing it in a factory truck that didn’t come with it originally and seeing how the system all fits inside the factory bumper.

 

I do agree that not accounting for the different orientation and configuration for the 16-17 vs 18-21 sensors is poor form and if not acknowledged somewhere in their documentation is definitely not cool

 

This is an interesting thread and appreciate everyone’ s input. After the last thread with the issues with the Road Armor rear bumper, I put replacing the rear bumper on ice. Was hoping that CBI would save the day. Spoke with them last December, nearly a year ago, and was told that they we’re in the final stages and would release it in March. Well, we’re 7 months past that date so my hopes are not high they will actually be releasing a BSM rear bumper for the Tundra.

 

I’ll start a gofundme and be a guinea pig… who’s in?

 

Yes. I'll echo the sentiment, thank you for sharing your experience with the install @RainMan_PNW. A lot to unpack and a few areas I disagree with your conclusions. Tone is hard to convey over text so don't take any of my comments as a personal attack to you or your post.

Did the ECU detect the BSM sensors or was an ECU flash required?

---

For starters I look at aftermarket parts as an upgrade or at minimum an equivalent replacement; for others it may be a downgrade which is an acceptable tradeoff. With this premise, does the new part perform all the functions of the old part and does it enable and support the same activities? No to any means a downgrade or at minimum a sidegrade (if it adds new functions/supports new activities; tradeoffs). For upgrades it should preserve all the core functions and bring new functionality/support new activities. Tow hook or additional lighting are examples of what I consider upgrades given it preserves the baseline functions.

In your experience not performing BSM calibration was acceptable. I recognize for many folks it may be acceptable to slap the sensor on and call it good. If that's the level of support the manufacturer intends to provide, the manufacturer should be up front about it in their documentation; the installation instructions for this product don't even talk to cal at all and the design makes cal more difficult to perform as stated in the Toyota manual.

Personally I think calibration is an OEM feature an aftermarket manufacture should support properly if they claim to be sensor compatible. If calibration isn't necessary at all, Toyota wouldn't have published a manual dedicated to calibration of BSM. Folks that don't want to calibrate can always assume the risk and opt out while those that do have the option to do so properly.

As far as mounting the sensor without cal and not throwing errors. You preformed the install on an OEM bumper using all OEM parts. Toyota's QA is good enough to eliminate the slop out of OEM parts; not sure I would count on a third party manufacturer's QA to ensure the same "return to zero" you may have experienced using all Toyota parts. These bumper companies focus on making products that don't break when you bang them around off road (easier to design for), integrating sensors (more difficult to design for) is an afterthought consideration. All the designs I've seen are basically retrofits on existing designs, and the SC is design is included in that category.

As far as mounting and retaining "return to zero" properties, one difference I see is Toyota uses a three post system for mounting the sensors vs SC uses a slotted bracket with +/- ~1/2 inch adjustment on the "X"Axis and the "L" bracket affixes to the bumper via a single bolt. Hard to tell how they join up but this mounting system may allow additional rotation around the "Y" axis and possibly some +/- flex/vibration on the "Z" axis towards the lower part of the bracket. These design choices deviate from OEM significantly enough where I would expect a difficulty in retaining "zero point" on the sensors or throwing codes on rough roads and trails. The good news is these issues can probably be easily mitigated with some additional hardware such as rubber washers/shim, bump stops and rubber mats etc; basically adopt a vibration dampening strategy.

Pulling the bracket off to preform cal is an absolute deal breaker for me; out of the box this requires the calibrator to reset the sensor position every time you try to zero it. The design also over complicates this by introducing additional degrees of freedom (lateral position on the X, possible rotation on the Y, flex/vibration on the Z. The best solution is to configure it where the adjustment can be made without separating the sensor mount from the bumper. From what I can tell the provided hardware doesn't support making "X" "Y" "Z" adjustments out of the box. Issue can probably be "Macgyver"ed to work and support cal...maybe.

As far as the sensor surviving the impact of your accident, the composition of the two bumpers varies by a large degree. Bang you Tundra bumper with a mallet and it will make a thunk as it dissipates most of the energy through the shell. Yielding to impact is what the OEM bumper is designed to do. Bang a solid steel bumper and you'll get it to ring; the energy will resonating through the bumper and through the bracket. Personally I would opt to protect the sensor with extra dampening if I went with the SC, especially off roading. The sensors are fairly robust but they still house an IC board inside. Besides moisture and EMF/EMI, shock and vibration destroy (or degrade) electronics easily, even hardened sensors like this BSM radar.

Regarding the aperture size on Steelcraft, if clipping is occurring it wont necessarily throw a code even if the signal is returned (reflected) or blocked. The sensor is tuned to reject objects that are close to the truck or below a certain size; I think worse case you may get a slightly smaller detection zone or detect some objects a little bit later. Its hard to tell how much space actually sits between the sensor and aperture but it looks like the is an air gap between the shell and sensor face. If its recessed too far back, raising the sensor off the bracket face would bring the sensor closer to the surface of the bumper reducing any issues created by clipping.

---

Here is a vid talking about the importance of calibrating. I think BSM on Tundra provides driver indications and not does not activate any other systems i.e. such as pretensioning belts during collision detection. Worst case no calibration can become a liability issue; something I take into consideration.:
https://youtu.be/PuxakGWxGMQ

(Incomplete) Example of BSM calibration. This doesn't show the setup procedure; focused on the final steps. Tundra's sensor angles are closer to this than a Tacoma:
https://youtu.be/_RPCYwpN6YE

Technician's overview of BSM; basic theory of operation and basic calibration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF6HV6MnVfI

 

Based on the thread where the guy bent his frame in a T-bone accident I think one of the underappreciated qualities of ARB (taking the comment at face value) is they take into account support for crumple zones. Its a quality I'm looking out for on a non aluminum bumper. It the "attention to detail" that tells me they would get it right.

 

I haven’t read your whole post yet - but wanted to answer this:

As soon as all the wires were connected, they turned in automatically. I didn’t even have to initially turn them on in the gage cluster settings - they came on by default.

I’ll try to catch up the rest of your post tomorrow

 

This thread has re-sparked my itch for an aftermarket rear bumper. Since I have the BSM system, we all know that options are limited. I continued my research this week and have the following input.

• CBI - I called CBI to get an update on their supposed BSM compatible rear bumper. The guy I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about and put me on hold to refer to a long time employee for comment. Their reply was, we have no idea when it will be released. Personally I don't think they are going to release it and are just stringing us along.
• Road Armor - Spoke with Road Armor and specifically asked about the BSM issue that was reported earlier. The guy I spoke with had no idea of any issue and had no productive input. Again, my personal opinion is they probably did not change a thing and just put the bumper back on the market as it. But I have no facts to base this on.
• Westin - I did not speak with Westin, but did a fairly deep dive in their website. I noticed that their rear bumper has a significant lip/tab at the top rear of the bumper that sticks up. I have an under tailgate brake/turn signal light strip and this lip is tall enough that it will cover mot of the light strip. I like the looks of this bumper, but is not practical for me with that raised lip.
• Steelcraft - I looked at the Steelcraft Fortis rear bumper and while it looks attractive, it definitely the largest bumper and actually decreases the departure angle. Would be OK for a mall crawler, but not any actual off reading.
• ICI - The rep at ICI was friendly and informative on their products. I came out of this conversation feeling the best out of all the calls and actually like their bumper. My only complaint with the ICI bumper is there are no recovery points. Also, not sure of the license plate lighting. They don't use the traditional lighting spots on both sides, but it appears they use an over plate led. I can't get a clear enough picture to really get a good look at this.

 

Damn, that's a shame.

 

I would email CBI. It took them a while but they said "soon" in their response recently.....but they've been saying soon just like every other time. Will it make it to market? I think so but supply chains/sourcing is rapidly going to crap right now.

 

Maybe, but they’ve lost credibility. As you mentioned, they’ve been saying soon for over a year now and patience has run out. Yes, supply chains are difficult now but this is not what’s holding this bumper up. Others are able to make their bumpers. Something else is at play here..

 

Yes. R&D and Testing on an item like this shouldn't take this long. Labs and custom fab shops can turn items like this around in weeks and the "prototype" exhibited in the video is at least a year old.

At this point I really want a high clearance bumper set with sensors that tuck up/stow away for offroad use; no one is going to make this.

If tow hooks are holding you back from ICI they may accommodate you and add them "special order". A reinforced insert may work if they come with the rear facing lighting holes (not the parking sensor holes); the aluminum may not be able to handle the stress. The $2K price tag is keeping me away for now, but I agree that seems to be the best candidate bumper so far including their choice of material.

 

They said "soon" to Salty, but then in the recent email to me they said they had "no plans"

ICI might be the only candidate for me.

 

I agree. I wanted a high clearance bumper with all the correct sensor support but it seems that it’s just a dream now and won’t actually happen.

The tow hooks, or lack there of, is not really a Hangup for me. It would be nice but not mandatory.

I also agree that the ICI price is a bit high. I think they realize they have one of the only that supports the BSM and using that to their advantage.

I agree with Rainman and that the ICI is really the best choice out of the group.

@RainMan_PNW Did you rule out the Steelcraft?

 

Not entirely, other than the mild loss of departure angle. I feel reasonably confident I could make their BSM mounting brackets work to my satisfaction (even if it meant modifications of my own to do so), but the size of their “opening” is considerably smaller than the ICI offering and that’s not something easily modified if they don’t work.

 

I remember seeing others in the past who installed the Steelcraft bumper. Does anyone know if anyone here installed one with the BSM sensors? @Saltyhero13 do you know of anyone that installed the sensor version?