Hello all,
This is something that I have wanted to do for a
while but have been very busy with school and work so
I have not had time.
I was looking for a 4x4 bumper for my dakota. I wanted
something that I could mount a set of 7" Hellas that I
had sitting around. I looked at all the bumpers and
talked to alot of diffrent people but just did not
want to spend 700+ dollars for a new front bumper. I
looked at the Fabtech ones. I think they were 250 and
I think that I could only find them in that Blue
color. I have a red truck so it would not look that
nice. I talked to a guy out west and he told me about
off Road Warehouse and how they build there own. The
cost was about 139.00. So I thought and looked some
more. One night on my way home I almost hit some more
deer. A deer got my last truck and I run @ 2 to 3 AM
every night. I figure it is only a matter of time
before I hit another one. So the next day I call up
and order a ORW light bar for 139.00 plus 30 bucks to
ship it across the country.
I got a person and was not put on hold the first
time I called (THAT IS AMAZING ANYMORE). We talked
about the bar and how they were made. They have a guy
that makes all these bars for them. So it was going to
take 3 weeks for him to make the bar and then
powercoat it. That was not a problem for me. I placed
my order. Right under 3 weeks he calls me and tells me
that they are going to ship the bar today and asks if
he can bill my creidt card. About 5-6 days later I get
the bar in the mail. It took a while because of the
4th of July. I get the bar in a pretty beat up box and
I was scared to open the box to find out that the bar
was damaged during shipping.
But to my amazement the bar was well packed so
there was no damage. The powercoating was really nice
and in good shape. I looked over the bar and was
impressed with the welding. It was MIG welded and had
little to no splatter on the bar. All the joints were
nice and somewhat smooth. The bar was bent equally on
both sides. I got in the package the powercoated bar
and a bag of hardware (I did not get any install
instructions). I put it in the back of my truck so I
could install it at work.
I kinda held the bar up and tried to find the
center of my bumper and center the bar on it. That was
a little bit more diffcult then it should have been. I
found the center of the bumper then mesured out to the
mounting point. Then I measured from the ground up to
make sure that it would not lean to one side. There
are four bolts that hold the bar to the front bumper.
There are two 7/16 bolts that go in the front. Then
the other two go in front of the headlights and drill
stright down on top of the bumper. All the bolts go on
the top part of the bumper so the lower valance does
not need to be drilled. After I drilled the 1/2 holes
for the bolts and loosely mounted the bar, I noticed
that the two upper bars were not the same distance
from the headlights. They were about 1' off from each
other. I took and put in the lower rubber gromet and
put the drill through it and pull one side about 1/2
down and pushed the other side about 1/2. That work
and they look the same. The hardware is good. You get
two 7/16 Zink bolts with washers. Then you get the
upper hardware that has 4 gromments and stainless
steel hareware. I am not sure if it is 409 or 316
stainless. It should be 316 stainless.
after mounting the bar I started on the headlights.
I thought it would be alot easier then it turned out
to be. I wanted the lights to work only when the
headlights were on and I tunred the brights on. Sounds
simple but I took Two relays one switch and some deep
thought to make it work. I ran a simple power relay.
12 volt in and the other side was a switched 12 supply
to the lamps. The switch went from the high beams on
the headlights to ground. Then the second relay went
from the headlight switch in the truck to a swicth
that I mounted in the 4x4 console on the floor. From
the switch to the relay. the other side of the relay
went to ground. I used the relay to switch the 12
volts to the first relay. So in order for the Hellas
to work I have to turn on the headlights. I have to
turn on the swich mounted in the 4x4 console and I
have to hit the brights.
So you might be asking why all this trouble. Dodge has
a floating gorind system on these trucks. So when I
turn off it looses all the grounds and applies 12volts
to most of the truck. That is not a big deal till you
try and run something off of it. My headlights work
they way I wanted them to until I shut the truck off
then they came right back on. I am not sure how much
of this has been talked about on the DML but there are
some forums were this has been talked about.
I have had this bar for about 2 weeks now and it is
worth every penny. I know that deer freeze in
headlight and some even run towards them but at least
I will see them coming this time. I know that there is
a cat that about lost one of it's life the other night
if I did not have them. I like lighting up the road. I
think the bar will do very good in the long run. It
protects the lights very nicly because of the upper
bar running over the top and in front of the lamps. It
mounts very soild and the lights do not shake when I
drive. I am very happy with the bar and would buy from
them again. The powercoating was so thick that I had
to run a ground out to the lamps because they could
not ground out through the bar.
I will try and take some pics and post them if anyone
would like.
Thanks for your time.
Matt Tharp
Here is the web site address.
http://shop.offroadwarehouse.com/index.php?cat=234&item=oriBar
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