Nose Job - 1999 Ford Super Duty

The 150-pound bumper can be shipped to your doorstep via truck and comes in a wooden crate that provides enough firewood for a week. It's a long trip from Australia, and ARB wants your bumper's black powdercoat paint perfect when it gets to you.

Four bolts and five minutes removed the flimsy OE bumper from our '99 Super Duty. We wish we could say that the ARB bumper installs as easily, but several brackets and alignment angles need to be addressed to get the thing on. Perhaps this mounting approach has something to do with the bumper's airbag compatibility, we're not sure. Just be prepared to spend a little extra time here.

The factory tow hooks must be removed but are reinstalled later onto the ARB bumper brackets.

Since the tow-hook bolts also hold the front spring hangers to the frame, these bolts must be replaced with bolts provided by ARB.

The next step is to install these two vertical mounting brackets to the factory mounting brackets on the ends of the Ford framerails. These brackets essentially rotate the actual bumper-mounting points 90 degrees. They change these mounting points from flat against the frame ends to parallel to the framerails via the holes seen in the ends of the vertical plates. This method adds another dimension to the alignment process, making the install more complex and time-consuming.

If you are not utilizing a winch, this nicely finished plate is provided to cover the winch access holes in the top of the bumper. Note the rubber trim and shape. This is not just some after-thought piece.