Who's got wings with their viper cut?

Does anyone here have metal wings with their viper cut? The kind that mount to the front bumper. If so, please post pics.

Curious if anyone has experience with these in offroading situations. I'm trying to decide if wings will be a help or a hindrance. Do they offer any kind of protection or are they just another thing that's going to get bent/damaged.

 

I'm also interested in first-hand experience. If perfectly cut, they seem to provide some structural rigidity to the bumper plastic, but none of these are buttressed to take a hard landing on a rock. If they fold upwards, they hit metal-on-metal into the fender.

 

That was my thinking as well. It seems like more damage could occur with wings.

 

I have the C4 LoPro front bumper with the high clearance additions and I can tell you they are solid and if you hit something hard enough to bend them it would have meant the plastic bumper, and aluminum crash bar behind it, would have been toast! The only downside that I have experienced is that you have to cut away so much of the plastic bumper in the install process that you lose some of the structural integrity of the plastic bits that do remain. The first time I had mine over 80mph the air got behind the bumper and it started making this bumping noise as some of the plastic was cavitating. I quickly came up with a solution using foam pipe wrap from home depot, think pool noodle, and I cut some pieces to support the back of the bumper and the noises have stopped. I have no regrets and personally feel better knowing they are there.

 

It seems like less than a week since people roasted a guy with metal wings for the fit of his initial viper cut.

 

Thanks for sharing. Definately something to consider regarding the liner.

 

That was me. It looked hideous.

 

I'm not sure how I missed it. Can you link it so I can learn.....thanks.

 

Okay man, you asked for it. Warning! It will make you cringe. If you have small children or pets nearby, cover their eyes:

https://www.4runners.com/threads/wh...h-gen-4runner-today.2261/page-981#post-549131

 

Lol, thanks for the warning. Ugh, disappointing results everywhere on that. But then again, I've always learned more from examples of what not to do......Thanks!

 

To be fair, this particular case is not just the viper cut but the whole front bumper lol

 

The problem was that he didn't have the wings until after he did the cut. He might not even have decided to put on wings yet. So who knows what sort of template he had?

 

There's no support behind the "wing". If you drop the truck's weight on it, it will bend up and hit the fender. Even on full-width plate bumpers, usually the wings aren't strong enough to take the truck's weight. The stronger bumpers are the "hybrid" type with tubing on the side, usually the same size and thickness tubing as rock sliders:

 

I think I'll go with a standard viper cut with flexible trim on the edge. I don't mind bending/damaging the plastic part but the potential to damage the metal part of the fender is my concern. That's the reason I posted this thread. Thanks for your input!