Fabrication: To make a light bar fit, or just replace fogs?

Eagle

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So I looked at getting this 33,000 lumen light bar to fit into the slot that is cut in the front bumper of my RAM 3500.

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This opening is just over 44" in total length, but if the factory tow hooks are left in place, the opening between the hooks is 31.5" in length. Which is almost perfect for the Black Oak bar that comes in at exactly 31.5" wide, but 3 1/3" tall. The hole in the bumper is only 3" tall however... which complicates the install significantly. Here's the light bar:

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With the fancy brackets that come with it, the complete assembly comes in at 34"

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On a side note, I'm very happy with the quality of the Black Oak light, its finish, harness and light output. I really want to make it work... but it's going to take a lot of effort to do so. Any way, here's a few more pics of the light bar and its harness:

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So TCG... if I'm going to make this light work, I either need to remove the bumper from the truck, or enlarge (CUT) the bumper to allow the light to fit through the bumper opening. Cutting into a chrome bumper doesn't sound like a good idea for corrosion reasons, therefore...

I need to look into what it'll take to remove the bumper and all the harnesses and air flow plastics... which certainly isn't a huge hurdle in comparison to the work I did on say, the 3600mi GT500 a couple years back... but it's still sort of intimidating work. In looking at removing the bumper, the main brackets look fairly simple. The tow hooks are attached with 4 bolts which pass through the front of the frame supports and are accessible on the back side from under he truck:

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From there, I'm not sure what else needs to come out... but there are a number of harnesses pinned to the back of the bumper itself, so that will all need to be addressed as well.

Finally, for the brackets which will hold the light bar in place, my current thought is to cut, bend, and powder coat some mild steel and attach them using the bottom inside bolt that holds the tow hooks in place. The tow hooks line up with the centerline of the opening, so this method will leave the light bar dropped about 3/8" low in the opening, basically hiding the lower part of the frame around the light.

Let me know your thoughts and if you agree with the mounting idea I mentioned.
 

Eagle

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Alternatively... I could purchase these brackets and replace the factory foglight housings with something like this:

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Certainly would not offer as much light output in this configuration, but with each set of fogs putting out 3k lumens for a combined ~6500 lumens... they're certain to still light up the road nearly twice as much as the factory low beams and fogs combined.
 

Eagle

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Stupid question, but why can't you just mount the light on the back of the bumper so it sits flush with the opening? Does it need to pass through the front of the opening?

Yeah, the light won't fit through the front, nor be able to come in from the bottom due to lack of space.... so it's gotta go in the front in order to sit flush.

The bar is also a curved bar which ALMOST follows the same curve as the bumper, but given that its slightly taller than the bumper opening, its going to have to be mounted just behind the opening in order to make this work without cutting anything...
 

Eagle

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I'd chop the inner hooks off of the bracket and just have them in a J shape instead of an anchor. then make a triangulated L bracket that comes off of the inner bolt holes for the tow hooks.

I thought about doing that as well. There's a write up out there where a guy notched the tow hooks and drilled through them and mounted the bar right to the hooks. My question was how much that impacted the strength of the hooks though.

Certainly cutting them in half as you're suggesting and having only one side tied to the truck would have significant negative impact to their strength! :rofl:
 

RICH17

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I thought about doing that as well. There's a write up out there where a guy notched the tow hooks and drilled through them and mounted the bar right to the hooks. My question was how much that impacted the strength of the hooks though.

Certainly cutting them in half as you're suggesting and having only one side tied to the truck would have significant negative impact to their strength! :rofl:

While I agree. What are you really going to be pulling from there?
 

rdsnake

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If I ever was going to put a light bar on my truck, I would put it behind the grill. Looks super clean. Check out this thread. It's for a Duramax not a Dodge.

40" LED Light Bar Install - Chevy and GMC Duramax Diesel Forum

But sounds like you're hell bent on getting it into the lower grill opening. So, can you flip the brackets 180* so the foot would be on the inside of the bar to give you a shorter length? You can also make new brackets, ones that are super thin. That's what I have on the RzR
 

Eagle

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While I agree. What are you really going to be pulling from there?

In all honesty, probably nothing if I never touch them. But if I do, I'll have to do something with them that leads to a failure. :rofl:

If I ever was going to put a light bar on my truck, I would put it behind the grill. Looks super clean. Check out this thread. It's for a Duramax not a Dodge.

40" LED Light Bar Install - Chevy and GMC Duramax Diesel Forum

But sounds like you're hell bent on getting it into the lower grill opening. So, can you flip the brackets 180* so the foot would be on the inside of the bar to give you a shorter length? You can also make new brackets, ones that are super thin. That's what I have on the RzR

The included white powder coated brackets cannot be flipped to fit behind the light unfortunately. Bad design on this one, but it is what it is.

As for fabbing thin brackets, that's exactly what I'm anticipating doing. I'll then use one of the bolts from the tow hooks to hold the bracket in place. :bigthumb:

Finally, as for putting it behind the grille, the RAM doesn't have enough depth or width to put even my 30" light, let alone a 40". I would have considered it though if there was enough real estate.
 

Lord Tin Foilhat

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The stock headlights kind of suck.

see if they make aftermarket HID projectors. Otherwise the only other option is to make a stock set into projectors.

The cobalts suck too, the ebay projectors made a big difference and custom projector headlights were even better (but more money and time)
 

RICH17

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see if they make aftermarket HID projectors. Otherwise the only other option is to make a stock set into projectors.

The cobalts suck too, the ebay projectors made a big difference and custom projector headlights were even better (but more money and time)

the headlights suck but not worth the money
 
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