P&P Engineering Titus Winch Bumper Installation

I've previously written about my 2018 Tundra, the Wundra Tundra.

One of the first mods on the truck was a set of P&P Engineering rock rails. It also has a TRD Pro aluminum front skid, RCI transmission and transfer case skids, RCI fuel tank skids, P&P engineering shock skids, Victory 4x4 lower control arm skids (don't get me started on my bad experience with those) and Victory 4x4 rear differential skid.

I wanted to do a hidden winch mount up front, with a 10-12k Warn winch. While I'd have preferred to get a regular Zeon (with manual freespool control), I ran into an offer I couldn't refuse on a Warn Zeon Platinum 10-S. With Southern States Offroad having dropped their integrated winch bumper, I looked at the available brands, and then reached out to the guys at P&P. They had their Titus winch bumper proposed, but it was not designed to accommodate the Zeon Platinum. Mac from P&P offered to pick up my winch and redesign their bumper insert to fit it. As always, amazing customer service from P&P.

I opted for their black bedlined coating, with an integrated LED light bar. So as to have flexibility for future needs, I also opted for openings to allow use with a manual freespool lever, if ever helpful in the future. I installed this with the Platinum Zeon, with Warn's extended length solenoid relocation kit. Here it is:

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And another view:

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With my previously installed, behind-the-grill LED and the new, in-the-bumper LED, light is not a problem.

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Install took the better part of 6 hours, but it would go faster the next time. I did the install by myself. Tools needed:

10, 12, 14, 17mm sockets and wrenches.
3/4 and 13/16" sockets
3/8" and 1/2" ratchets.
Impact drivers (will make your life much easier)
Flat-tip screwdriver
Floor Jack (for lifting bumper)
14mm ratcheting wrench.

As many Tundra bumpers are different, here's mine:

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As far as install goes, I'm skipping assembly of the winch / wiring relocation kit, and some of the basic truck disassembly steps. In essence,

1) Remove grill. (requires flat-tip screwdriver to pop out 2 plastic push rivets, and 10mm socket to remove bolts at top of grill. Then, open Tundra access hatch at top, unplug TSS sensor. Then, pull slightly up and out on grill sides until it pops out).

This is what my previous LED installation looks like:

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2) Remove covers on rear of bumper. Take your 10mm and 14mm sockets and flat-tip screwdriver, and remove the plugs, push-rivets and bolts holding the rear plastic on the bumper.

3) Unplug the fog light wiring from the fog-light, and pop the wiring harness retention plug off of the bumper.

4) Unhook the plastic lower bumper cover from the stock or TRD skid plate (pop out plastic rivets).

5) Remove the bumper assembly. To do so, take your 14mm ratcheting wrench, and loosen the 4 bolts holding the bumper on both sides. You can access 3 of the bolts from the outside of the frame, and the 4th bolt on each side from the bottom. The ratcheting wrench is a life saver for these. You can see 3 of the bolts on the outside, looking in from the wheel-well, here:

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When you've loosened those, the bumper will be ready to fall off...be careful!

6) Slide the bumper off. It isn't terribly heavy, and should pull right off.

7) Disassemble the bumper. You want to remove the steel 'wings' from the bumper, as well as removing the chrome bumper ends. All should be separate pieces. Retain the hardware. You'll get it disassembled down to this:

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8) Take the black steel wings and attach them to the bumper, with the nuts finger-tight. They are held on by 3 studs on each side.

9) I had to trim the chrome bumper caps in one spot (photo shown below) to allow them to clear the bumper properly. A sheetmetal cutter or tin snip works perfectly for this.

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I had to also bend the 'inside' edge of the bumper cap back a bit to fit. You can see what it looks like assembled, here:

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Where you did the relief cut above, you will find the bumper cap goes on the OUTSIDE of the winch bumper, and the metal that you bent back goes on the INSIDE of the bumper.

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At this point, I took a small hammer and body dolly and bent the bumper cap back to the bumper, to close up the gap.

10) If you haven't already done so, route your winch power lines down to the area where the winch will mount, on the truck, and evaluate solenoid mounting locations.

11) Remember the 4 bolts on each side that you removed to take the bumper off? We're back to them. Take out the 2 bolts on the underside of the frame rail, that hold the skid plate, tow hooks. They are 17mm. These beefy brackets bolt on there:

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They capture the bumper mounds and skid plate/tow hook mounts. I mounted mine UNDER the skid plate, directly to the frame. I put mine on loosely at this point. After these were taken, I decided to reinstall the factory tow points, too.

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12) Stare adoringly at winch bumper beef.

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13) Bring winch over to truck, and do preliminary wiring on winch.

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14) Raise winch to install. There are 3 large standard bolts per side that hold the winch on. If you have 2 extra sets of hands to help, great. If not, what I did was balance the winch on my floor jack and raise it up. When I had one set of holes aligned, I stuck in an alignment punch on both sides, and got it better aligned...then inserted one bolt and a nut (finger-tight), then used the jack to lift the bumper into position to get the rest of the bolts in.

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15) Adjust the bolts to align bumper spacing. I did minor tweaks by hand, and with the jack, to get it level and properly aligned.

16) Tighten the bolts holding the mounts to the frame, then tighten the bolts holding the bumper to the mounts. TIGHT. Then tighter.

17) Complete solenoid and wiring install. My solenoid is temporarily mounted to the junction panel at the rear passenger side of the engine bay. Final location TBD.

18) At this point, I ran the winch rope through the fairlead, and installed it on the winch. I had a heck of a time getting the rope on the winch, as the 'winch rope installation wire' provided by Warn broke. Being able to run the winch and fine-tune the angle of the spool helped greatly. I ended up using 550 cord to pull the winch rope through the spool, and inserted the keeper.

19) I hooked the winch rope to my wife's Durango, and backed up (slowly) until the rope was taught. With the parking brake on in the Durango, and the parking brake slightly on in the Tundra, Tundra in neutral, I winched in the rope under tension.

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Preliminary feedback: it's super beefy and looks great. There is a bit of a gap between the bumper and end caps that is apparent from 12", but invisible from 5'. The winch is well-protected, and the anchor points are pure beef (and fit a 3/4" shackle perfectly). I'm switching to a Factor 55 attachment point in lieu of the Warn hook, but the winch is amazing thus far. Just need to take her out and get her buried soon, to really test things out! Another great product from P&P Engineering!

 

Thanks, @mac11