(The sound of machinery is heard in the background)

Nolan: Alright, let's get started on this project. We're going to modify our front bumper to give it a more aggressive look.

Aaron: I love it. Instead of having separate pieces, we'll have one bar. It's gonna be small and short from here, just a quick bend all the way and then down to this section, and then an additional bar. We're gonna weld that bar to this one so it'll layer like this.

Zach: I love it. Let's try it. Let's do it.

(Cut to the sound of grinding and hammering)

Nolan: Dude, it looks awesome.

Aaron: We cut our front skid plate piece. Now it fits a lot better between our bumper tabs here. We'll move on to the next piece that comes down and then work our way back.

Zach: This is a spinoff of high-low. It's called high-low master fab.

(Welding sounds)

Nolan: So the way this kit's made is the front diff and oil pan cover has no support to the frame at all. So we have to hold that up entirely with either jack stands or floor jacks. And once it's held up, we're gonna shift it around, align it, and then we're gonna weld it in place.

Aaron: Don't let it wiggle too much.

(Welding sounds)

Nolan: While Aaron's working on the front, I've come back to the back for the rear bumper. Hey, I've got my shop hand, Jimmy with me right now. I've got the stock brackets back on. I'm thinking we just drop some rectangular tubing onto it, which will give us a little bit more departure angle.

Jimmy: It's not gonna be the most glamorous solution in the world, but that is for sure. But in the interest of time, I think this is the best we can do.

Nolan: We're moving on to the top bar. We took a large piece of cardboard, CAD, and cardboard aided design. I just traced Hi Team's OEM bumper on a piece of cardboard, did some measurements.

Zach: Hey, thank you, Zach, for doing the math.

(Welding sounds)

Nolan: First impressions, it looks like it's got fish lips on there. It's pretty funny. But otherwise, made a lot of progress in the last couple hours, so I'm stoked.

Aaron: Okay, next step, we'll take the entire bumper assembly off, finish welding it up, get it nice and solid, finish up some loose ends.

Nolan: And we're back bright and early at the Inglewood Propulsion Laboratory, and we're ready to finish up our armor.

(Welding sounds)

Zach: So the skid plate is under the car, currently all tacked up. The fit is really good. For such a complicated thing, it was actually relatively easy to do.

Nolan: And now we're gonna drop it back down, hopefully maintaining the shape and not breaking any of the tack welds, and then we're gonna hand it off to Adam, and he's gonna finish welding while we move onto other stuff.

(Cut to the sound of music)

Nolan: We're just gonna body these things, dude. We're just gonna boom on boulders. It's gonna be sick.

(Bell dings)

Nolan: Alright, skid plates are officially on. Yeah, I think so.

Zach: Cool.

Nolan: Onto the sliders. These things are sweet, man, some aftermarket sliders.

Aaron: Westin's, dude. I think Westin also makes cowboy boots.

Nolan: Oh, Lord. It's important, with a busy shoot schedule, to get your reps in, okay? Just 'cause you're working on the body of a truck, doesn't mean you can forget about your body.

Zach: So I want you to respond to this video down in the comments, #GetYourRepsIn. Go on Instagram, tag me, tag me in a video of you getting your reps in, #GettingMyRepsIn.

Nolan: You get low... and then you get high. You don't have to live your life as Team Low. Some day, you too could be Team Hi.

Aaron: I don't know that anyone has moved the bar with that much weight.

Nolan: Times like this, I default to some very important advice I received from one of my mentors, Mike Porter.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- $4,000 prefabricated armor.- Versus $800 do it yourself armor.- Does more expensive mean more better?- Let's find out.Ow.(upbeat music)A huge thank you to eBay Motorsfor sponsoring today's video.You all know by now thateBay Motors is the best placeto buy or sell cars and parts online.It's where bought these Tacomasand a ton of parts for them.One of the things we likemost about eBay Motorsis that their automotivemarketplace has partsfor any budget.Whether you've got ahigh budget like James(upbeat hip hop music)or a low budget like me,(somber music)(farting)I can guarantee that you'll find the caror the part you need allwithin your price range.Get started today bydownloading the eBay Motors app,or just click the linkin description below.Now let's get High and Low.(bright music)We bought two nearlyidentical Toyota Tacomas,and we've been modifyingthem to be fun daily driversthat you can take literally anywhere.- Except for the inside of a volcano.One Tacoma gets expensiveparts, and one gets cheap parts.- Then we test themto see which componentsare worth spending yourhard earned dollars on.- Now, beefing up yourbumpers, adding skid platesand rock sliders not onlygives you more confidenceto conquer more difficultobstacles, but the extra clearancefrom the new front and rear bumperscan also improve yourapproach and departure angles.Basically, it's how steepan obstacle you can climbor descend without dragginganything like your bumper.Hi Truck is getting an ARB front bumper,Coastal Offroad rearbumper and skid plates,and 4x Innovations rock sliders,all together with a combinedcost of just over $4,000for parts that we're gonna run into rocks.- Wow.- Yeah.- Low Truck, on the otherhand, is getting a bunchof steel tubes and plates.(James chuckles)It'll be up to us to measure, cut, bendand weld all thesecomponents onto our truck.All together, we spentaround $800 on supplies,and I am nervous.- But there's always achance that you are betterthan professionalengineers and fabricatorswith years and yearsand years of experiencein market research.- I'm ready to give it a whirl.(driving, prcussive music)- It's armor day, the onlyday that we're welding,and wouldn't you knowit, Zach showed sick.But luckily, my friendBrandon is helping me out.- Shoot, I've been doing thissince I was in high school.When I was 15, I bought a drift car,and trucks were a naturalkinda transition from that.- First thing's first,we're gonna take all the oldstuff off and then hopefully,start putting the new stuff back on.- Pull harder, harder.- Before we gettoo deep into the install,it's important to understand the purposeof each component we're installingand the different challengeseach team might face.Custom front and rear bumpersnot only offer protection,but will affect your approachand departure angles.These are the angles foundby drawing a line tangentto the outside of yourtire and the lowest sectionof your bumper.The more you lift andtuck in your bumpers,the greater the angle becomes,allowing you to take onbigger and steeper obstacleswithout making contact thatcould damage your truck,the trail or both.- Dude, we're scratching the chrome, bro.- I might reuse this.- If we didn't use this OEM piece here,we'd just have a giant voidacross the front of the car,and it would be like Pac-Manwith a bunch of exposed,disgusting looking stuff,which is why we gottakeep this chrome niceand clean and unscratched.- We're alsoinstalling skid platesand rock sliders.While these componentsoffer great protection,mounting them too low could resultin a compromised break over angle.This is just like yourapproach or departure anglebut for the center of your truck,determining whichobstacles you can roll overor which will leave youstranded high center.While Hi team has the luxuryof completely prefabricatedfront bumper and rock sliders,our rear bumper and skidplate came in a bunchof little pieces that we'llhave to weld together ourselves.Luckily, those pieceswere designed by a teamof professionals and machinecut with extreme precisionto fit together perfectly,as long as we follow theinstructions correctly.On Low Team, they not onlyhave to fabricate and weld allof their upgrades, theyalso have to come upwith the design themselves,which can sometimes be the hardest part.- $1,150 for this bumper,and they're gonna have to build their own?- This is my design.I just took a picture of the truckand used markup on the iPhone.- We don't know how manydays it's gonna take themto build their own.- Yeah, how much is theirtime worth by the hour?- I also madeone for the side too.- I'd pay the $1,000 for the ARB.(grinder rasping)(metal clanging)(drill blatting)- One more.- Ow.- You okay?- F-B-O-O, front bumper officially on,and it looks sick.You guys aren't listening.- Instead of having the separatepieces, we'll have one bar.It's gonna be small and short from here,a quick bend all the way andthen down to this section,and then an additional bar.We're gonna weld that bar to this oneso it'll layer like this.- I love it.Let's yeah, I think,let's try it. Let's do it.- Cool.(grinder rasping)(funky music)(grinder rasping)(hammer banging)(weld zapping)- Dude, it looks awesome.- We cut our front skid plate piece.Now it fits a lot betterbetween our bumper tabs here.We'll move on to the nextpiece that comes downand then work our way back.- This is a spinoff of high-low.It's called high-low master fab.(weld zapping)Tacked.(funky music)- So the way this kit'smade is the front diffand oil pan cover has nosupport to the frame at all.So we have to hold that upentirely with either jack standsor floor jacks.And once it's held up,we're gonna shift it around,align it, and then we'regonna weld it in place.Don't let it wiggle too much.(weld zapping)- God!(Nolan groans)While Aaron's working onthe front, I've come backto the back for the rear bumper.Here, I've got my shop hand,Jimmy with me right now.I've got the stock brackets back on.I'm thinking we just drop somerectangular tubing onto it,which will give us a littlebit more a departure angle.It's not gonna be the mostglamorous solution in the world.That is for sure.But, in the interest of time,I think this is the best we can do.- We're moving on to the top bar.We took a large piece of cardboard, CAD,cardboard aided design.- I just traced Hi Team'sOEM bumper on a pieceof cardboard, did some measurements.I know we got a 6 1/2-inchradius fender here,and that's the only di that we have,so I've made everythingbased off of that diameter.- Hey, thank you, Zach,for doing the math.(weld sizzling)Woo!First impressions, it lookslike it's got fish lipson there. (laughs)It's pretty funny.But I mean, otherwise,made a lotta progressin the last couple hours, so I'm stoked.All right, next step,we'll take the entire bumper assembly off,finish welding it up,get it nice and solid,finish up some loose ends.- Okay.- But we're gonna do that tomorrow.- Tomorrow.(bright music)(grinder rasping)- And we're back bright and earlyat the Inglewood Propulsion Laboratory,and we're ready to finish up our armor.(bright music)(weld zapping)- So the skid plate is under the car,currently all tacked up.The fit is really good.For such a complicated thing,it was actually relatively easy to do.And now we're gonna drop it back down,hopefully maintaining the shapeand not breaking any of the tack welds,and then we're gonna hand it off to Adam,and he's gonna finishwelding while we move onto other stuff.(weld sizzles)(bright music)We're just gonna body these things, dude.We're just gonna boom on boulders.It's gonna be sick.All right, skid plates are officially on.Yeah, I think so.Cool.(bell dings)Onto the sliders.- These things are sweet, man,some aftermarket sliders.- Westin's, dude.I think Westin also makes cowboy boots.Oh, Lord.It's important, witha busy shoot schedule,to get your reps in, okay?Just 'cause you're workingon the body of a truck,doesn't mean you canforget about your body.So I want you to respond tothis video down in the comments,#GetYourRepsIn.Go on Instagram, tag me, tag me in a videoof you getting your repsin, #GettingMyRepsIn.You get low, (groans)and then you get high.You don't have to liveyour life as Team Low.Someday, you too could be Team Hi.- I don't know that anyonehas moved the bar with that much weight.- Times like this, I defaultto some very important advice I receivedfrom one of my mentors, Mike Porter.I was like, "Mike, I don't know howto do any of this stuff."And he's like, "Just (bleep) with it."So let's see what happens.(weld zapping)Nope.(weld zapping)Ah (bleep), burned a hole.But it's not a bad hole.(weld zapping)Ah, no.(weld zapping)It's pretty bad, but I'll grind it down.All right, bumper's on.All that's left to do for meis put on the rock sliders,which we're stealingfrom Hi Team, sort of.(cheerful music)(bell dings)- This is so serious.- So, about an inch ofclearance, you think?Is that enough?- No, less than an inch will be all right.I'm gonna read the instructionsand see what we can get away with.- Read the instructions?That's a good idea.- Yeah, go right there.Yeah, that's good.(grinder rasping)- (exhales) Moment of truth.(cheerful music)Not too bad.(cheerful music)(weld grinding)- Rock sliders are done.- Wow, this thing actually...- Got some movement to her.But they are on, and I don'tthink they're ever coming off.(bell dings)- No.- Hi Truck has some very,very beefy rock slidersgoing on their truck.And we kinda ran out oftime to make our own.We gotta get started on thenext modification tomorrow.So I opted to steal thesliders that Hi Truck hadbecause they actually didpretty well on our testing day.Looking underneath, there aresome decent scratches on herefrom being functional.So I feel good using these,and they're pretty easy to bolt on.They just go right on the truck.(buzzer buzzing)(crowd booing)- Aw, hand me down pants,those are gonna look good on here.- Thank you, man.- They'll fit the truck.- Oh!- One of the main thingswe were running intowhen we were out in thedesert is the rear overhang.That kinda limits our departure angle.- So it looks likewe've cut the whole sideof the truck bed.It's gonna be interesting.No stock bumper after this one.(saw buzzing)(wrench banging)Like a glove.(grinder whirs)(weld zapping)Drop it a little bit.(quirky music)Woo, we got dimes down there.- Stacking up somedimes, a little (buzzes).- How's your stuff covered?- Yeah, ya know, uh.I really think best course of action is toretain the skid plate that we have.- Oh!- We'll see what happens.I think that's the move.We don't have a break at the shop,a metal brake to bend sheet metal,so we'd have to cut channelsin it with a grinding wheeland then kinda bend it (muffled speaking).(buzzer buzzing)I think it can handlewhatever we can throw at it.- So the bumper's tack welded together.We're going to probablytake it off at this pointso we can weld it, and Ithink for sake of time,we're just gonna keep it as it is'cause we could go throughwith a measuring tapeand probably fine tuneeverything if we wanted.- That's not the life we're living today.- Right.- Let's keep trucking, baby.(drill blatting)(suspenseful hip hop music)(weld buzzing)(suspenseful hip hop music)(grinder whirring)(weld grinding)- And a bumper appearsbefore our very eyes.(bell dings)(weld buzzing)- Okay.(bright, upbeat music)All right.(wrench cranks)All right, the front bumper is done.And honestly, I'm really, really excitedwith how it came out.I think it looks really great.All things considered, I'm ecstatic.This thing looks really great.(bell dinging)- I think we salvaged an almost disaster.(bright, upbeat music)- All right, we've got both trucks backto our testing location, and it's timeto retest our approachand departure angles.Now, we did this test before,but with stock wheels and tires.We've now got bigger wheels and tires,but both trucks have the same size tire.So while we've both gaineda little ground clearancefrom the last time that we did this test,we've gained the same amount.So really, the differencecomes down to the bumpers.- So it's fair.Fair is square.- Super fair.- So I don't want anyonein the comments saying,"Hey, it's not fair," 'cause guess what.It's fair!Okay?We thought of it, and it is fair!- Yeah.- This feels like a Disney ride.(men laugh)Huh?- Hah?- Dang, dude, 400pounds of dude back here.That was great, man.Give it the beans.Back off the beans.- Hold on, hold on, hold on.Rear bumper, rear bumper.- Yes!- What?- That was great.I don't think we hit anything.- They gained a lottaclearance in the back.When we had the stock bumpers on,we would just scrape all theway down both of the hills,but now with this thing,I guess moving it up,it was quiet.We could sneak aroundlike ninjas out here,like desert ninjas.- Hear that?He called us desert ninjas,the sickest nickname ever.- (groans) Okay, so that's our skid plate.- Skid plate, doing its job down there.- Didn't feelanything on the rear bump.- No drag there.Drag that plate, baby.(upbeat music)Front bumper, good, no contact.Yeah, that is a beefy truck.You can call this thing the Tankoma.We have added a lotta weight,and you can definitely feel it.- Yeah, I'm really happy with it.We didn't scrape the rear at all.Departure angle improved.I think approach angle, notreally affected too bad.- Heavy truck, though.- It is so much heavier now.- Very heavy.- It takes so much more to get it goingand so much more to get it to stop.The amount of input that youhave to put in with your feetis way different, bothaccelerating and braking, so.- Big beef.- But I think that's sometimeswhat you want in a truck.(upbeat, driving music)- All right, so we'rerunning the course backwardsthis time around becausewe were able to complete itin the second episode.So I think that it's goodthat we're doing itthe opposite direction.Mechanically, grip-wise,not much has changed.There is more weight on the truck,so that might actuallygive them a little bitof a mechanical grip advantage.- Personally, I think the extra weight'sreally gonna help 'em.- But, because we'rerunning the opposite course,it gets hard immediately.- So this gap's gonna be a little tricky,and then this is the firstbig thing we have to avoidor we could slip off here.And I think we're gonna be fine.Bring her up.Okay, keep on coming, straight like that.- Let's see if the clearance.See, if they didn't have that bumper,the bed might've been scraping there.- All right, that looks good.So we're gonna wanna gopretty hard left now.- So something we did on bothtrucks is both of our bumpersreally elevate the front.There's no bumper blocking the frontof the wheels now, really.So that allows us toget onto these obstacleswith more ease.- Okay, okay, back up, andturn the wheel to the right.(metal banging)Sweet.- That was on the skid plate.- Skid plate.- But that's what you want.Skid plate's taking all the abuse.James is cooking through this right now.- Thanks, bud.- Now we're getting intowhere I'm concerned about.This was the hard sectionwhen we ran it clockwise.Now we're running counterclockwise.I'm not sure how it's gonna work out.Also, before we started shooting,we brought the stock truckshere before we had done any workon 'em, and we could not make it up this.- Watch it it dig in now.Front right.- Ah, that's what I was talking.That's where it got stuck.- Okay, okay.All right, so back it up, and basically,we just need to do thiswith a touch of momentum.(engine hums)Yep, yep, yep, you gottajust keep going there.All right, stop.Back up. We gotta do that again.- It's very scary.- Giver the (bleep) beans, James!Son of a (bleep)!Doesn't need to be great.Yep, yep, ah!Okay, back up.- There you go.(truck squeaks)That was four tries on this part.- Mm-hm.- I think we give you onemore, and if you can't make it,that's it.- All right, cool.One more try, we'll take it.It feels like I'm just gonnadrive off on that side.- You're close, but you're not.- Give her the beans, James!(suspenseful music)- Right now.- Oh!- It was close- It was so close, but thedriver's side rear let go.- Need some lockers.- Well, it looks likeit was actually tougherto run the buff horseshoe backwards.So even though we've got more clearance,thanks to our newer, bigger tiresand we've got all our armorand our increased approachand departure angles, we still are stuck.So let's see what Low Team can do.- Approaching the first obstacle,just a straight on pylon.I think this is where ourbumpers are gonna help us'cause we got rid of a lotof material in front of them.So now we can just kindaapproach 'em head on.- Left-hand down. That's it.- Dang, look at their rock sliders.Those look really good.They look really familiar.- You can do it, Nolan.- Left-hand down.- He better not (bleep) make it.- Dude, what of he makes itfirst try, then what do I do?- And roll forward.Straight a little bit.Left-hand hard, hard,hard, hard, more, more.- That's all the way.This is where Hi Team got stuck.Let's see what we can do.I feel like we burnedthrough the first halfin half the time that Hi Team did.- Lightning speed.- It was pretty fast. It felt good.- Wait, what?- He just said that they madeit through the first halfin half the time.- Who said?- Nolan.- His internal clock hastaken a beating, apparently.(James chuckles)(truck squeals)- Yes, he got stuck.- Yeah, I mean, you hate to see it.- Just another day at the office.- Just consistentwith the throttle.Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.- He did it.- He did it.- I hate him.- Okay, so you're teetering.- Oh, that's close.That's all the way.- Yep, keep it there.Left-hand down.Nice.- Ooh!- Um, we might've got stuck, dude.I kinda wedged your passengerfront wheel on that rock.- What a turn of events we've got here.- Oh, well, well, well,you got a little further,but maybe you didn't get far enough.Maybe you're a little stuck boy now.- Go, go, go, go, go, go.- Man, they're pretty stuck.- It looks like theybeached on the skid plate.I think we're gonna haveto try to pull 'em out.We're gonna use theirfancy, new, homemade bumperand the shackle they put on it.Let's hope you guys weldedthis bumper up real good.- Hopefully it doesn't fly off.Everyone kinda clear out. (laughs)I'm like 90% sure thebumper's gonna be fine,95, 85, 90% sure it's gonna be okay.- Yeah, go.- Yes!- (chuckles) The bumperlives to see another day,and the truck's unstuck.What more could you want?- That's craftsmanship, Aaron.That's you, Dog.It worked.I always knew it would.- Both trucks got stuck.We definitely gained alittle bit of clearancewith our new bumpers, some confidencebecause now we both have rock sliders,and hitting the bottom of that skid platesounds a lot better than hittingthe bottom of our trucks.But we both did get stuck,and I think that came down to traction.As soon as one of ourwheels lifts, it just spins,so we're gonna have to goback to IPL and address that.So, Nolan, does moreexpensive mean more better?- I don't know.I think it's varies by part.- Let's start at the front of the truck.- Yes.- Front bumper.- I think Aaron andZach did a wonderful jobon the front bumper.I really, really lovehow the bumper looks.It's got great clearance,and it was strong enoughto get pulled off the buff horseshoe.I think that's a win.One downside of buildingbumpers yourself, James,is that you've gottahave a bunch of tools.We had to have a welder,lots of grinders, a notcher,a pipe bender, as well,and a good understandingof geometry, which I did not.I had some flashbacksof eighth grade math.Anyway, let's talk aboutyour bumper, James.- We didn't have to use any tools.Our bumper was $1,000,which is pretty expensive.It's really heavy, so weadded a bunch of weight.We lost a little bit of clearancein our suspension on the front.Looks-wise, not my favorite.I think it's a little much.- It's a miss for me.It doesn't really match therear bumper, in my opinion.- I would feel confident runningover pretty much any animalwith it, though.- (laughs) Yeah, for sure.- So if you have an old deer or a buffalothat you would like toput out of its miseryin bold fashion, hit meup, nolan@donutmedia.com.Overall, for the frontbumper, just straight up,I would give the win to you guys.- I agree. Thank you.- I think this wholeepisode is a great exampleof great beginner fabrication projects,which brings us to our skid plate.I've never welded on anything before,but at the end of the day,it came together really well.It looks awesome.It's so strong, and I canboard slide a truck nowwhenever I want.It gives me so much more confidence.- I do feel bad that we ranoutta time for the skid plates,but, dude, after lookingat your skid plate,that would've beenanother two days, I think.- Oh, for sure.The clearances are so small.The thought that wasput into our pre-cut kitis mind-blowing.Our kit was $460.All of your materials, eventhough you didn't use anyof them, were about $150.I think it's totally worth it.- Yeah, I don't think we wouldhave been able to engineerthat $300 Hi versus Low skid plate,even though we didn't make ours.I'm choosing Hi.- 100%.- Let's move on to anotherfail for the Low Team,the rock sliders.- They technicallyare not rock sliders.They're step tubes.- They are step tubes.- So they're for your feet and decoration.- Yeah, when I was putting them on,I kinda knocked on 'em.I was like, "That soundsa little plastic-y."- On the other end of the spectrum,we have our set of 4xInnovations real rock sliders.They were about $550, andthe step tubes that you stolego for about $300.So there's a price difference of $250.- Again, I feel bad that we did not dothe proper rock sliders.In fact, I ordered material to do it.Just again ran outta time.It's the first thing thatyou should learn to fabricatebecause you're only doingtwo bends on a sliderand you're just making platesto put it onto your truck,totally doable.You can do it.- And finally, we've reachedthe back of the truck.- Look, man, I was given atask, tried to make it happen.I'm pretty happy with howLow bumper came out, in fact.- Yeah, I think it looks cool.- We rounded off the edges,made some caps for the ends,painted it all nice.- Zach, the director's laughing at you.- I know he's laughing.I see that.- Because you said you made it look nice.The first day that we wereready to put it together,Joe was out sick.I thought I was gonna cry.We pulled it together.- You guys made it happen, man.- I think it looks awesome.- It looks great, andit's got places for youto put swing arms on there.I can't wait to see what those look like.James, if we had to start over tomorrowand rebuild our armorand spend our own money,which components would you choose?- Low Truck front bumper,Hi Truck skid plate,Hi Truck rock sliders,Hi Truck rear bumper.- I would goLow Truck front bumper,Hi Truck sliders and skid platesand Low Truck rear bumper.- Let us know what youwould do in the comments.Hit that subscribe button.Hit that like button.I know you guys have been droolingover my hat this whole time.It's now available at donutmedia.com.Make sure to tune in next week.We have another super exciting episode.It's another really hard one.You guys actually had a really easy time.- Pretty easy, yeah.- We had a pretty hard one.Thank you so much for watching.We're having such a good time,even though we're cryingourselves to sleep every nightand I am financially ruined.- He's only half joking.Be kind.- I love you.- See you next time.