Hey, guys.
Adam here with americantrucks.com and today we're taking a closer look at and installing
the RedRock 4x4 tubular off-road bumper available for the '14 and '15 Silverado 1500.
You should be checking this particular bumper out if you're looking for an affordable yet
off-road capable solution to front end armor.
This particular bumper here is textured black powder coated to give you that stealthy appearance,
but more importantly, the functionality is extremely important here for the price point
it is at.
This one, in particular, retains your factory tow hooks so you do have that front end recovery.
You have that LED flood light or long-range light included in the kit.
They're easily bolted up to this 20-inch open slot, which, in my opinion, looks very, very
sleek.
And the bumper itself is made from a heavy-duty steel plate and tubular steel materials combined
to give you that nice, durable finish while also cutting a lot of weight.
Now, I've dealt with a lot of off-road bumpers similar to this one, bigger than this one,
more expensive than this one, and cheaper than this one and I have to say this one,
in particular, is the lightest one I have felt personally.
A lot of times, these do require a helping hand to get installed because they are so
heavy.
This one, in particular, I tackled myself because it was so easy to maneuver and so
easy to hold up while also working that ratchet.
I'll show you guys all of that process in just a little bit.
That tubular steel here, although it is lightweight, can take the beating for on and off-road obstacles
and you can clearly see you're getting a lot of ground clearance with this bumper.
Not only ground clearance, but the corners are up a lot higher so you do have a higher
approach angle, something to keep in mind for you avid off-roaders.
You do get a skid plate at the bottom there and a very nice, aerodynamic design throughout
with these pre-drilled holes going through.
It's got some nice welds and a very nice build.
Fitment here, definitely top tier.
Although it is not priced as a premium bumper, I would say it actually fits a lot better
than some of the more premium bumpers I have had to deal with personally in the past.
This one, in particular, hugs the body lines really well.
There's no ugly bumper gap and really just fit very nicely.
In addition to that, those long-range flood lights are absolutely killer when turned on.
As you guys see it, is extremely bright, so I would use extreme caution when using this
on the road.
It can be very blinding and dangerous, but for off-road use or worksite use, this can
come in handy because it lights up a really, really long range, it has a very widespread
and a very tall spread.
So, very useful off-road lighting, I will say.
The auxiliary lighting in the kit, very top notch.
This all comes in under the $600 mark.
This is about 550 bucks.
This, very worthwhile if this is what you're in the market for.
If you're searching in the category, if you like a skinny design, something that isn't
very bulky and bulgy, which a lot of them in the category are, this is a good way to
go.
Install, two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter.
The reason I'm giving it two out of three wrenches instead of one out of three is just
simply because anytime you're doing body panels and heavy-duty work like this, you wanna be
careful that you're not scratching or dinging up your paint.
It can take some mechanical expertise just to maneuver this properly, but at the end
of the day, you can tackle it by yourself in the driveway at home.
Have about two hours on deck from start to finish.
You can get it done.
It just is a little bit time-consuming.
Also to keep in mind with that difficulty rating, no splicing for the wiring, no cutting
for the bumper, no drilling, no modifications whatsoever.
This is a direct bolt-on through and through.
So, guys, without further ado, I wanna show you how it gets done.
I'll take you through step by step, so let's get to it.
Tools used in this install include an impact gun, 3/8 ratchet, quarter-inch ratchet, a
variety of extensions, 7-millimeter, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, and 19-millimeter deep sockets,
13-millimeter wrench, 16-millimeter wrench, 18-millimeter wrench, Phillips head screwdriver,
and a panel removal tool or a flathead screwdriver as a replacement.
Now the first step of the uninstall is to grab your panel removal tool or a flathead
screwdriver does the trick if you don't have one of these handy.
Remove all of the plastic rivets or the push pin clips holding on that factory radiator
shroud on top to give you access to your upper grille bolts.
There's 12 of them all around the edges.
Grab that tool, pry up, and remove them.
Once you get this last one off, you can pop the entire radiator shroud out in one piece.
Next step are the four 10-millimeter bolts at the top of our grille.
Now, those, we're given access to by removing the radiator shroud.
That's why we had to pop that off.
So, grab your 10-mil socket and remove all four of these.
So, the next step here is to crawl underneath the front end.
There's two 10-millimeter bolts holding on the bottom of your upper grille as well as
two more clips that are snapping it into place.
We're gonna pop off those 10-millimeter bolts and then we'll be able to pull our grille
off.
Next up, we have to remove our trim panel underneath our headlights.
Grab a 7-millimeter socket and remove the one bolt in your wheel well.
Repeat the other side With those bolts out of place, the next step here is to pull off
that lower trim panel to gain access to a couple of bolts underneath of that lower grille.
So, with that, pull them off from the side, work your way all the way around, pop that
right off, set it aside.
The next couple of bolts you'll wanna remove are right where the grille meets that headlight
underneath of that grille portion.
Grab your 10-mil socket and your extension.
And you're gonna get this off.
Same thing on the other side.
All right.
Now, we can get our upper grille out of place.
Next up, there are two bolts, one on each side underneath of your bumper on a crossbar.
Grab a 13-millimeter socket and remove those bolts.
All right.
Now, we can do the same thing on the other side.
There are four bolts holding the front of the bumper in place.
Grab an 18 socket and get these off.
So, once you have everything disconnected from your stock bumper, it's time to pull
it off.
Next, we have to remove our tow hooks.
Before we get that far, we're gonna take off that faceplate.
There are three bolts on the front of it.
Grab your 15-millimeter socket and pop these off.
Same thing on the other side, and then we'll tackle removing our tow hooks.
All right.
Next up is your tow hooks.
Grab an 18 socket and remove the solo bolt on the one side.
The secondary bolt has a nut on the opposite end, so grab an 18 wrench, hold onto that.
Set this aside to be reinstalled later.
So, we finally got our factory bumper off of our 2014 Silverado LTZ and you see it underneath
of our RedRock tubular bumper.
That is a big thing I wanna talk about here, guys.
There is not only a night and day difference between the two, but there also is a night
and day difference between the option here and a lot of the other ones in the category.
This is made from a mixture of heavy-duty steel plate and heavy-duty tubular steel,
which gives it a very lightweight design.
Lightweight is not something you can typically use to describe a lot of these aftermarket
off-road capable bumpers.
While this is off-road capable, it can take a beating on the trail and on-road facing
a number of different types of obstacles, but it's also going to keep the weight down.
A lot of these aftermarket bumpers are extremely heavy and it's not gonna be the case here,
thanks to that tubular steel.
Now, this tubular steel throughout has been mandrel bent.
It's got very smooth bends to it.
It hugs the width of the body of your Silverado, it looks like it belongs there, and it has
really good fitment.
It also has a steel plate on the bottom, a skid plate rather, that has holes cut out
for a little bit more of an aerodynamic feel to it while also protecting some of that underbody.
The big thing here that you're getting not only is protection but also ground clearance.
As you can see, compared to your factory bumper that hangs really low with that bottom chin
splitter or the bottom spoiler there, this one does not.
It actually goes in the complete opposite direction, angling upward to make sure that
it gives you better approach angles.
If you are taking your truck off-road or using it to its fullest potential, if you come across
a log or a rock in the road and you're looking to go over it, you don't have to worry about
scraping, especially on a factory suspension.
If your truck isn't lifted, you are more susceptible to coming in contact with those road obstacles.
Giving you that higher approach angle here with the RedRock bumper, you can go over it
easily without scraping up that bumper.
Finally, I do wanna point out that this is a textured powder coated finish.
It gives it that nice stealthy look at the front end, but it also protects you from corrosion
and rust resistance while also giving it a scratch and dent resistance.
Finally, you could also put in a light bar, which is included in the kit here.
It is optional in some cases.
You can pick this up with a mesh grille insert.
Ours here will have that light bar which I'll show you guys toward the end of the installation.
We'll assemble that all together on a table and then work on the wiring a little bit later
on.
Also has a nice aerodynamic finish to it, which I talked about in the skid plate, but
you can see that all across the bumper with open slots here, giving you a nice airflow
to the engine bay and also keeping less wind resistance on your Silverado.
So, with all the lighting opportunity at the front end, your tow hooks are gonna be retained
and have extension brackets going forward.
So, that's really useful to keep recovery points at your front end and altogether, this
is a really, really good option for the guys looking for that high approach angle, really
good ground clearance, good protection, lightweight front end, recovery points, lighting, so on
and so forth.
So, without further ado, I do wanna get this on the truck.
We still have a little bit of assembling to do, especially with our tow hooks and the
extension brackets.
So, let's just get to it.
All right.
Now, that we have our bumper on our table here, it's time to assemble our brackets to
the back of the bumper.
Now, they are driver and passenger side-specific so make sure you have them in the right spot.
You also wanna grab the 16-millimeter bolts, nuts, flat washers, and lock washers.
We're gonna use those to install these brackets on the inside of our bumper.
Now, you're gonna start on your driver's side, pick up that bracket, and line up the three
open holes here.
The inside of the bracket's pre-welded to the back of the bumper.
Use the hardware I just mentioned to tighten those down.
You wanna have a flat washer on one side, a flat and lock on the opposite along with
the nut.
Now, of course, when you're tightening these down, you wanna make sure the bracket is completely
straight.
Grab your 16-millimeter socket and wrench and tighten these down.
Repeat for the opposite side.
All right.
Now, we can move on to our light bar.
Now, to assemble our light bar, it is pretty simple.
If you have the grille insert and not the light bar, you can also assemble that at this
point, but because we have the light bar, we're gonna go ahead and slide this right
into position and lay that face down.
I'm just gonna tuck that wire into the inside of these sloshes just to keep it out of the
way for now.
These L brackets are gonna hold the light bar to the light bar brackets on the back
of the bumper.
We also have two different sized bolts.
The smaller ones are gonna go straight to the sides where the pre-drilled holes are
on the light bar.
The longer ones are gonna get the nut on the other side, going to the bracket.
Now, for that, what we're gonna do is start with these smaller ones.
Make sure you have the washers attached to it as well.
Put your light bar bracket into place, slide this through the open slot.
We're gonna tighten it down by hand.
And we don't wanna get it too tight just yet.
Just leave it a little bit loose.
Same thing over here.
Next up, we're gonna take our other bolt along with the washer, slide it through the bottom
end.
Washer on the outside, cap it off with the nut.
All right.
Grab your socket and wrench, tighten them down.
The next step here is to assemble our tow hooks onto the extension brackets.
Now, we're gonna be using the factory hardware.
If your factory bolts are not long enough to make it through the entire extension bracket,
you'll wanna pick up bolts that are slightly longer that will still match the thread pattern
you need.
So, what we're going to do here is we have those replaced, we're gonna slide our tow
hooks onto the bottom here, but you also wanna put your shims into place, that way the tow
hooks aren't rattling back and forth.
So, we'll need one shim on that side.
Of course, one shim on the other, then we're gonna start by putting our long bolt through
the outside, matching it up, going all the way through.
We're gonna tighten down the nut on the opposite end by hand, and we'll use our 18 socket in
just a second.
The other one is gonna go into the welded nut on the inside of that plate.
Now, because those shims are double-sided, it'll work with that double-nut bolt.
Get that lined up, tighten that down by hand.
We're gonna do the same thing over here.
Grab your 18 socket and wrench to tighten these down.
Now, these double-nut bolt plates are gonna hold these extension brackets to the truck.
So, our next step here is to start installing these on our Silverado.
All right.
So, next up, we're gonna put on our passenger side tow hook.
Now, the bracket is gonna attach to the factory locations but we're gonna be using our double-bolt
plates included in the kit.
Now, they give you these plastic spacers.
Now, what these are going to do, you're going to install these on the stud after you put
it through not only the factory location but also the new bracket.
That'll hold the stud in place while you assemble everything else.
That way, it doesn't keep falling onto the inside.
So, it makes it a little more convenient.
So, for here, what we're gonna do, pop this over top, our double-bolt plate is gonna go
on the outside, and we're gonna install that plastic spacer shield that'll keep it in place.
That way that bolt plate doesn't fall in.
And we're gonna do the same thing on the inside.
From here, we can install a flat washer, a lock washer, and our nut.
And the same thing for the other side.
Now, we're gonna do the same thing on the other side.
Now, the next step is to put our bumper in place.
We're gonna go ahead and drop this right over the tow hook extension brackets where it will
bolt up to where our factory faceplates were right above those tow hooks.
Now, the cool thing about the location it's in now is it actually will hold itself up
pretty well.
When you can get the factory bolts that held the faceplates on, those will actually hold
this bumper together.
So, I'm gonna grab those bolts, come back here, thread them down by hand, and then tighten
them all down with our socket.
With our bumper in place, we're gonna use that factory hardware I mentioned to tighten
this down.
All right.
Once you have it lined up exactly where you want it to be, grab your ratchet and your
socket to tighten them down.
Now, the next step here is to work on our wiring for our light bar.
Now, of course, if you did not pick the option up with the light bar, you can skip this step,
but since we do have one on our RedRock bumper, we're gonna start here at the battery.
Now, these two are gonna go to the battery terminals.
Of course, black being negative, red being positive.
You know the drill.
We're gonna grab our 10-millimeter socket, quarter-inch ratchet, and an extension.
We're gonna pop off the bolt holding on that terminal to the battery.
Then we're gonna take the bolt and slip it through this O-ring and then bolt it down.
All right.
Now, we can do the same thing to the positive terminal.
Our next step is to take our relay and bolt this down.
Now, you can put this really anywhere inside the engine bay that it can reach.
I find it pretty convenient that there's a screw right here on the factory air box.
If you have an aftermarket cold air intake, it will be a different story, but for the
factory air box, we can bolt it down right there then we can split the wiring off.
All right.
So, now that we have our relay bolted down, you'll see that this wire splits off.
This one going to the front of the vehicle is actually for the back of our harness on
our light bar.
So, that's gonna plug into there.
This wire here, however, is gonna be our controller.
This button is gonna turn that light bar on and off.
Now, what we're gonna do is, since this does split off, I'm gonna split off and have that
controller line across the back of the firewall.
Now, you have a harness coming from your battery going all the way across.
That is actually what we're gonna zip tie that to.
We're gonna follow that across to the driver's side.
And then there's a plug that leads under the dashboard.
That's where you can pull this up from inside of the cabin, and then there's 3M tape on
the back of this that you can peel off and stick wherever you'd like.
Now, today for the video, we're not actually going to be feeding this into the driver's
side simply because there are so many different ways you can do it.
The saying is there's a lot of different ways to skin the cat.
You can pick however you choose to get this into the dashboard.
Maybe you don't even want it there.
You could wire this in differently, but just for the sake of argument, we're gonna wire
this across the firewall leading over to the driver's side, and then we're gonna leave
that there for now.
From there, you can wire it into the cabin.
Then once we have that taken care of, we're gonna head back to this wire.
We're gonna feed it all the way down and behind our grille, behind our bumper, and plug it
into the back of that light bar.
You wanna start by feeding that controller underneath of this bar here.
We can just put a bunch of that wiring inside of the engine bay here.
We're gonna feed this across, back underneath and start following that harness.
Now, there are zip ties included in the kit to make this a little bit easier.
I'm gonna start with the first zip tie back here.
This gives us a good starting location for that harness.
All right.
Now, we can go back and snip off the edges a little bit later on, but for now, we're
just gonna keep feeding this across, zip tying it every couple of feet.
By the time we get to the other side of the engine bay, we'll be good.
From here, there's a plug down where a harness goes into the driver's side underneath the
dashboard.
You can pull that plug off and feed this wire through.
You can poke a hole in it to make your life easier and just feed the wire in.
Grab it from underneath of your driver's side dashboard.
Again, we're not gonna do that for the purposes of this video, but that is a very easy way
to get it into your cabin.
From there, we're gonna head over to the grille, plug it in so I can show you guys how it works.
But we're gonna leave this harness out here for now.
All right.
Next step is the other end of that harness.
We're gonna start by feeding it through the backside of that cold air intake or our factory
air box, going in these little slots just to get it a little bit more tucked and neat-looking
so there isn't just big wires jumbled under the engine bay.
We're gonna pull that through.
You can see that starts to tuck in pretty nicely around the factory air box.
Once you had that wire tucked nicely feeding all the way to the back of your harness on
the light, you can plug it in with that plug and play connection.
So, no splicing required and because there are fins on the back of that light bar, you
can tuck some of that excess in.
There was a lot of zip ties included in the kit, so any excess slack you have on the wiring
can get zip tied back out of the way so it's not hanging in plain sight.
Make it look nice and neat.
All right.
Next up, we're gonna put our grille back into place.
Now, the reason you don't wanna do that trim piece next is because you still need access
to the bolts underneath it.
So, we're gonna put our grille back in, snapping it into location up top first.
Make sure it seats.
Now, we can go back in and use the four bolts on the bottom to get those bolted back in.
Bolt it up at the top, finish it off with the trim and the radiator shroud, and we'll
be done.
All right.
Now, we can do our four up top, straight across.
All right.
Next up is our trim piece.
Pop that right over top.
Snap that into place on each end.
You wanna make sure that the lips are going right over top of the lip under the headlight.
Now, grab your 7-millimeter bolts that we originally removed in the beginning of the
video from inside of those wheel wells, and we're gonna tighten those back down.
Last step of the whole process here is our radiator shroud.
Take all of your plastic rivets, pop them back into place.
Well, that's gonna wrap up my review and install of the RedRock 4x4 tubular off-road front
bumper available for the '14 and '15 Silverado 1500.
Before we get going, just a couple of things I wanna mention here.
As you see, we got this bolt up to our Silverado without any modifications.
However, if you didn't really like the look of your wheel well liners hanging below the
bumper, you can, of course, just trim those a lot shorter just to make sure it clears
and you don't see them from the front.
My personal opinion, doesn't bother me whatsoever, but if it bothers you, it's something you
can do or you can just completely remove them.
It's completely up to you.
With all that said, if you wanna pick up the RedRock 4x4 tubular off-road bumper, you can
do so right here at americantrucks.com.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét