- First Name
- Brian
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2023
- Threads
- 60
- Messages
- 8,285
- Reaction score
- 14,679
- Location
- Central CA
- Vehicle(s)
- '23 BB 4dr 7MT, '22 BSport OBX, '87 B-II XL
- Your Bronco Model
- Big Bend
- Thread starter
- #1
So, I just finished the mechanical install of this - still need to wire it up, but wanted to say a couple of comments about the install when you have the not-so-official Mod Bumper.
For the most part - there was only one real deviation from the installation instructions because I didn't have the official bumper. I guess the forged recovery point has a screw that locates it on the bumper before you bolt it into the frame -- my Amazon Chinese bumper didn't have that and the forged block wasn't tapped to accept a bolt to do it - I just had to hold the bumper up while I got the bolts in the recovery block started. Not a huge deviation - the new mounting block with the winch package has a similar setup, and it was tapped, but didn't come with a bolt - I had to find a M6 (I think, going off memory) to stick in there since I didn't have a factory bolt.
Other issues that may or may not be due to the fact that my bumper is non-standard:
Every place where the installation instructions said "Remove the bolt and discard" -- yeah, don't throw those away. Mine shipped without the full quantity of hardware mentioned in the instructions - it was suspiciously missing the exact quantity and type of those factory bolts that it tells you to discard. I had to reuse them (with blue loctite).
Once I got to the point where the frame re-enforcements were on and you re-mount the bumper. That all went fine. Got it all torqued up, per the instructions. My Chinese bumper has always needed a few shims on the lower bolts to level it out, and it still needed the same shims with this.
Then you re-install the plastic trim pieces and eventually try to get the winch and tray installed. Yeah... no. Somehow, my mounts were about 1/4" too wide for the winch frame. We loosened everything back up, but you can't leave it loose to install the tray because then you can't get the plastic trim pieces on. There wasn't a lot of play with it either to jiggle it. We did the best we could with it, and got it to around 3/16"... then a 3' cheater bar and a lot of grunting and beating with a 4# dead blow hammer and finally got the tray on the mount plates and around the recovery points. I don't think my shims had anything to do with it, since it was too wide, not really anything to do with being level or front/back alignment.
Once we got the tray on - you use some bolts on the mini-bull bar to bolt the tray down (you could just use regular bolts if you didn't want to use that bar, but it doesn't ship with any) We had one bolt hole that just wouldn't line up - it was now about 3/16 " off. Out of 6 bolt holes, 4 of them are slotted for adjustment, but 2 of them are fixed, and they aren't the same two points. We drilled those 2 points out a little bit to give us some more wiggle room there and got them to finally slot in.
It got dark after all of that, the wiring looks a lot more straight forward, will tackle that tomorrow.
Also - data point. I have the Pro Comp / 4 WP coil overs. Installing the winch and I lost 1/2" in the front. Plan to readjust to get that back to about 1" of total rake. I had previously installed the Talon steel skid plates a couple of weeks ago - no movement from the installation of those.
Apart from the heart attack of thinking I had an entire box of missing hardware, and then realizing it all matched the factory take off hardware, and the 3' steel pry bar for one small bit - it wasn't too terrible.
And found out I have smushed up the bottom row of fins on my intercooler >< joy. And my bumper has a very slight twist to it - probably from the same misadventures that smashed my intercooler and destroyed my awesome plastic skid plates. I would say the twist might have something to do with not being able to get the winch plate on easily, but that's all direct from the frame, the bumper itself just kinda rides behind that and I don't think it had anything to do with it.
For the most part - there was only one real deviation from the installation instructions because I didn't have the official bumper. I guess the forged recovery point has a screw that locates it on the bumper before you bolt it into the frame -- my Amazon Chinese bumper didn't have that and the forged block wasn't tapped to accept a bolt to do it - I just had to hold the bumper up while I got the bolts in the recovery block started. Not a huge deviation - the new mounting block with the winch package has a similar setup, and it was tapped, but didn't come with a bolt - I had to find a M6 (I think, going off memory) to stick in there since I didn't have a factory bolt.
Other issues that may or may not be due to the fact that my bumper is non-standard:
Every place where the installation instructions said "Remove the bolt and discard" -- yeah, don't throw those away. Mine shipped without the full quantity of hardware mentioned in the instructions - it was suspiciously missing the exact quantity and type of those factory bolts that it tells you to discard. I had to reuse them (with blue loctite).
Once I got to the point where the frame re-enforcements were on and you re-mount the bumper. That all went fine. Got it all torqued up, per the instructions. My Chinese bumper has always needed a few shims on the lower bolts to level it out, and it still needed the same shims with this.
Then you re-install the plastic trim pieces and eventually try to get the winch and tray installed. Yeah... no. Somehow, my mounts were about 1/4" too wide for the winch frame. We loosened everything back up, but you can't leave it loose to install the tray because then you can't get the plastic trim pieces on. There wasn't a lot of play with it either to jiggle it. We did the best we could with it, and got it to around 3/16"... then a 3' cheater bar and a lot of grunting and beating with a 4# dead blow hammer and finally got the tray on the mount plates and around the recovery points. I don't think my shims had anything to do with it, since it was too wide, not really anything to do with being level or front/back alignment.
Once we got the tray on - you use some bolts on the mini-bull bar to bolt the tray down (you could just use regular bolts if you didn't want to use that bar, but it doesn't ship with any) We had one bolt hole that just wouldn't line up - it was now about 3/16 " off. Out of 6 bolt holes, 4 of them are slotted for adjustment, but 2 of them are fixed, and they aren't the same two points. We drilled those 2 points out a little bit to give us some more wiggle room there and got them to finally slot in.
It got dark after all of that, the wiring looks a lot more straight forward, will tackle that tomorrow.
Also - data point. I have the Pro Comp / 4 WP coil overs. Installing the winch and I lost 1/2" in the front. Plan to readjust to get that back to about 1" of total rake. I had previously installed the Talon steel skid plates a couple of weeks ago - no movement from the installation of those.
Apart from the heart attack of thinking I had an entire box of missing hardware, and then realizing it all matched the factory take off hardware, and the 3' steel pry bar for one small bit - it wasn't too terrible.
And found out I have smushed up the bottom row of fins on my intercooler >< joy. And my bumper has a very slight twist to it - probably from the same misadventures that smashed my intercooler and destroyed my awesome plastic skid plates. I would say the twist might have something to do with not being able to get the winch plate on easily, but that's all direct from the frame, the bumper itself just kinda rides behind that and I don't think it had anything to do with it.
Sponsored
