After 4 long weeks, it's done!
10-19-2006, 02:45 AM
#16
Banned
Thread Starter
Thanks for the comments guys. I am in Tulsa now, I just wanted to slam some pics up before I left home earlier. I will put up more pics Saturday night or Sunday sometime. I already took a Sawzall to the old inner fenders and cut them so they don't hang down. I should have the rest of the PIAA lights by the time I get back home Saturday night, so I'll get all of them put in and get some newer pics of better quality.
Dustin, I tried to put that big freakin winch in there before I left but I'm not man enough. I didn't realize how huge the Warn 16.5k really was... it's insane. I'll install it Monday after I get home and my buddy can come over and help. I can pick it up fine, but I don't want to attempt to try and hold it in place while putting bolts through the front of the bumper to secure it!!
Luken, I actually have a set of 37x13.50 Toyo's in my shop. I got them last month. I am waiting to put them on though... these BFG's have a ton of tread left and I want to get the long arms done before I put the Toyo's on. They are a little taller and I don't want to tear up my fender flares. They should really set the truck off once installed, and I think they will perform a lot better in all conditions. I'm not real happy with these BFG's.
Wiggs, the bumpers were painted by a body shop here. I bought the bumpers in raw steel, so they had to be sand blasted (they got rained on and started rusting instantly), then they used some sort of zinc primer, and sprayed them, then sprayed two coats of clear. They came out great. I was going to have them powdercoated originally but I wasn't sure that it would be an exact match, so I just thought I'd go this route and see how it works. It should be fine for this mall crawler. I like your idea of the rear winch, the thing about using a pulley would be that the hook and cable have to go through the fairlead which would be attached to the outside of the rear bumper. That in itself presents some problems for looping the cable back to the front of the bed. I guess you could always take the hook off and run the cable however you want, as needed, but my suggestion would be to buy either a small removeable winch that you can mount to the bed, like a trailer winch, but remove when not in use... or simply put a winch on the front of the ATV.
They are nice to have anyway. I used mine a lot. Even if the ATV won't start or run, you will still have enough juice in the battery to pull it up the ramps into the bed.
tcr, not sure what you mean about the bumper lights? If you are referring to the KC's, I have them aimed already. They work very well, but I'm anxious to get the dual 4 inch driving/fog lights in. Lights are gooooood.
Oh, I think I see now... that second pic, I guess I took that before I aimed them down. The guys at the body shop had them aimed way up when I picked the truck up.
displacedtexan, I know what you mean. They generally look like big jungle gyms going down the road. I don't like all of that hoopty junk... just a nice sleek bumper that is much more functional and much safer than the stock bumper, but doesn't take over the whole front end of the truck.
zeek, yeah I have a 4.5 inch lift with 37 inch BFG AT's. They are on 10 inch wide wheels so they are more like a 36. As I said in another response above, a real 37 inch tire wouldn't fit with this setup. What's nice about the Road Armor bumper is that it gives you so much more room in front of the tire. I'm going to push the front axle forward about an inch, like what I did on my 2nd gen, and get a lot more room for the tires, plus a better ride.
jared, I already talked to Natalie at Road Armor about getting some pics on the site. I'm going to get some good ones for them. My other truck is on there and is the only one that isn't on pavement or manicured grass. I plan to install all of the accessories and then head down to one of the trails and get some good action shots for them.
BigDan, the bumpers are painted to match but because of the color of my truck, they look like raw steel in these pics. I have some pics of them when they arrived, I'm trying to find them on my server. They look a lot different without all of that paint and clear coat on them.
Dustin, I tried to put that big freakin winch in there before I left but I'm not man enough. I didn't realize how huge the Warn 16.5k really was... it's insane. I'll install it Monday after I get home and my buddy can come over and help. I can pick it up fine, but I don't want to attempt to try and hold it in place while putting bolts through the front of the bumper to secure it!!
Luken, I actually have a set of 37x13.50 Toyo's in my shop. I got them last month. I am waiting to put them on though... these BFG's have a ton of tread left and I want to get the long arms done before I put the Toyo's on. They are a little taller and I don't want to tear up my fender flares. They should really set the truck off once installed, and I think they will perform a lot better in all conditions. I'm not real happy with these BFG's.
Wiggs, the bumpers were painted by a body shop here. I bought the bumpers in raw steel, so they had to be sand blasted (they got rained on and started rusting instantly), then they used some sort of zinc primer, and sprayed them, then sprayed two coats of clear. They came out great. I was going to have them powdercoated originally but I wasn't sure that it would be an exact match, so I just thought I'd go this route and see how it works. It should be fine for this mall crawler. I like your idea of the rear winch, the thing about using a pulley would be that the hook and cable have to go through the fairlead which would be attached to the outside of the rear bumper. That in itself presents some problems for looping the cable back to the front of the bed. I guess you could always take the hook off and run the cable however you want, as needed, but my suggestion would be to buy either a small removeable winch that you can mount to the bed, like a trailer winch, but remove when not in use... or simply put a winch on the front of the ATV.
They are nice to have anyway. I used mine a lot. Even if the ATV won't start or run, you will still have enough juice in the battery to pull it up the ramps into the bed. tcr, not sure what you mean about the bumper lights? If you are referring to the KC's, I have them aimed already. They work very well, but I'm anxious to get the dual 4 inch driving/fog lights in. Lights are gooooood.
Oh, I think I see now... that second pic, I guess I took that before I aimed them down. The guys at the body shop had them aimed way up when I picked the truck up.
displacedtexan, I know what you mean. They generally look like big jungle gyms going down the road. I don't like all of that hoopty junk... just a nice sleek bumper that is much more functional and much safer than the stock bumper, but doesn't take over the whole front end of the truck.
zeek, yeah I have a 4.5 inch lift with 37 inch BFG AT's. They are on 10 inch wide wheels so they are more like a 36. As I said in another response above, a real 37 inch tire wouldn't fit with this setup. What's nice about the Road Armor bumper is that it gives you so much more room in front of the tire. I'm going to push the front axle forward about an inch, like what I did on my 2nd gen, and get a lot more room for the tires, plus a better ride.
jared, I already talked to Natalie at Road Armor about getting some pics on the site. I'm going to get some good ones for them. My other truck is on there and is the only one that isn't on pavement or manicured grass. I plan to install all of the accessories and then head down to one of the trails and get some good action shots for them.
BigDan, the bumpers are painted to match but because of the color of my truck, they look like raw steel in these pics. I have some pics of them when they arrived, I'm trying to find them on my server. They look a lot different without all of that paint and clear coat on them.
10-19-2006, 07:14 AM
#17
Registered User
I think I just wet my pants. that is a great looking truck. I think i am going to get the bumper I was looking at. monsterbumpers.com they have a stealth series too that is similar to RA but less expensive and close to my home port.
It definantly makes me do a second thought on the RA bumpers, they look great!
10-19-2006, 12:45 PM
#22
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Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa. & Columbus, OH.
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Great Truck again DJ.
I do have a 2000lb. Warn on my ATV. I never thought about having enough juic ein the battery to get it up there. I guess I figured it wouldn't have the strength but you are probably right!
I do have a 2000lb. Warn on my ATV. I never thought about having enough juic ein the battery to get it up there. I guess I figured it wouldn't have the strength but you are probably right!
Seriously...sweet lookin' truck!
10-20-2006, 11:39 PM
#26
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DJ,
What size lights can fit into the 4 holes in the bumper? I am ordering 4 Black Magic Hellas for the front bar but need to know what lights to get for the fogs. Also, do you know if Warn's electric 16.5K was your only winch choice? I got mine for the H2 with the 12K Hydraulic Mile Marker and heard rumors of a 18K (or something like that) hyrdraulic coming out.
The other thing was, how does the RA bumper look with a metallic paint like ours? Is the surface smooth enough such that it looks uniform, or does it look a little different than the body? It's a little hard to tell from such low-res pics.
Lastly, I cannot tell from the pictures, but how much more does the rear bumper stick out than stock? I don't have an equivalent picture on my truck so I cannot get a good feel for it.
Thanks man!
What size lights can fit into the 4 holes in the bumper? I am ordering 4 Black Magic Hellas for the front bar but need to know what lights to get for the fogs. Also, do you know if Warn's electric 16.5K was your only winch choice? I got mine for the H2 with the 12K Hydraulic Mile Marker and heard rumors of a 18K (or something like that) hyrdraulic coming out.
The other thing was, how does the RA bumper look with a metallic paint like ours? Is the surface smooth enough such that it looks uniform, or does it look a little different than the body? It's a little hard to tell from such low-res pics.
Lastly, I cannot tell from the pictures, but how much more does the rear bumper stick out than stock? I don't have an equivalent picture on my truck so I cannot get a good feel for it.
Thanks man!
10-22-2006, 03:11 PM
#28
Banned
Thread Starter
DJ,
What size lights can fit into the 4 holes in the bumper? I am ordering 4 Black Magic Hellas for the front bar but need to know what lights to get for the fogs. Also, do you know if Warn's electric 16.5K was your only winch choice? I got mine for the H2 with the 12K Hydraulic Mile Marker and heard rumors of a 18K (or something like that) hyrdraulic coming out.
The other thing was, how does the RA bumper look with a metallic paint like ours? Is the surface smooth enough such that it looks uniform, or does it look a little different than the body? It's a little hard to tell from such low-res pics.
Lastly, I cannot tell from the pictures, but how much more does the rear bumper stick out than stock? I don't have an equivalent picture on my truck so I cannot get a good feel for it.
Thanks man!
What size lights can fit into the 4 holes in the bumper? I am ordering 4 Black Magic Hellas for the front bar but need to know what lights to get for the fogs. Also, do you know if Warn's electric 16.5K was your only winch choice? I got mine for the H2 with the 12K Hydraulic Mile Marker and heard rumors of a 18K (or something like that) hyrdraulic coming out.
The other thing was, how does the RA bumper look with a metallic paint like ours? Is the surface smooth enough such that it looks uniform, or does it look a little different than the body? It's a little hard to tell from such low-res pics.
Lastly, I cannot tell from the pictures, but how much more does the rear bumper stick out than stock? I don't have an equivalent picture on my truck so I cannot get a good feel for it.
Thanks man!
The bumper lights need to be 4 inch lights. The stock ones would fit in there if the way that Dodge makes their fog light mounts wasn't so freaking weird.
I just got the Warn 16.5 because it was the biggest and the general rule of thumb is twice the pulling strength of your vehicle weight. So a 12k winch would not have been adviseable in this situation with a truck that weighs over 8,000 lbs. Road Armor actually recommends Milemarker winches, and if you can get verification from Milemarker on the 18k winch, then I would wait for that.
The bumpers came out great. They look just like the stock bumpers as far as the paint goes. The body shop I go to is expensive but they are amazing. Everything looks uniform, no color change at all. I'll take some higher quality pics and link them, I don't like posting large files that might bog down other people's computers.
I don't think the rear bumper sticks out any more than stock, they look about the same to me. The rear bumper does appear to hang down lower than the stock bumper, though. Before, the receiver hitch was completely under the bumper... now, it's part of the bumper, surrounded on all sides except the bottom. So it hangs down another 2 inches.
Thanks for all of the nice comments, I appreciate them.
Rob, glad you got to see the ATV show. We filmed that last summer so I am surprised they are still playing it. It's always fun getting to hang out with the media types and do stuff like that.
Chad/Greenhornet, I'm not sure exactly when I'm heading to California but I am still planning on it. I have to talk to Don Juan and see what works for him. I've got a Razorbacks game Nov 11th but I'm good anytime after that. We'll see what happens.
I really don't want to drive all the way out there but I think that is the only way we are going to get the long arms unless Don can find a 3rd gen to cut on out there. Vegas was 25 hours, so I'm looking at probably 30 hours each way. My legs are getting cramped just thinking about it...
