DV8 FS-14 installed on JLUR

[RisingEagle]

hey all -

so I finally got my bumper purchased. I had decided on a DV8 FS-14; it's a JK (not JL-specific bumper) but it installed just fine.

My Jeep is a JLUR, with plastic bumpers and the LED package.

I originally was going to order it from northridge4x4, then tried extremeterrain, but they were both out of stock (or like 11 days to ship). So I hit trusty google - and morris4x4center had it in stock - and $20 cheaper than the other two places. Now I don't care about the $20 and would have happily supported either of the two supporters on this board - but they weren't going to get it to me in 2 days, and in today's "I-need-it-right-now" society, well I wanted to install my bumper when I was off on the 4th. Arrived FedEx very well packaged; foam and wrapped and protected; zero issues on the shipment from Morris.

Oh, also got a Smittybilt X2O winch, a Factor-55 hook, and red buckles. If I had read the ad better I would have seen the bumper comes with buckles and don't order them. oh well - red is better than galv steel.

Anyway - Jeep before install. I had started taking off the bottom plastic skid plates, and the metal protector plate down there before I thought about taking a picture. Also - there is an EXCELLENT youtube video on how to remove the bumper from quadratec . I'm a computer security guy by trade, definitely not overly familiar with wrench turning - but the video explained everything and it was pretty easy.

After watching the video a couple times, the bumper came off and I opened up the boxes to begin install. The DV8 bumper came with all of the hardware needed - didn't use a single bolt I took off (comes with the nuts for re-attaching the bumper, etc).

I had mounted the winch before putting the bumper on, but for me that was a bad idea. I am a learn-as-you-go guy, and I had not wired up the controller on top of the winch - just mounted the winch. well, when it came to working the rest of the winch I wound up taking it off to attach the control box and wiring anyway. In any case - with the FS-14 there is that light bar gap (I didn't install the mesh) and that made it super-simple to get to the bolts for the winch.

Two items of note;
1. Definitely loosen the outer / inner brackets that the bumper goes through. so there are the frame holes that you can't move, and then there are these brackets with two holes (a bracket on each side of the frame bar, total of 4) that are held on by a bolt. loosening that will make it a lot easier to get the bumper to line up.
2. I DID have to "oval out" the holes in the frame mount, but not by much. I used a cordless drill and the largest bit I had, and worked inwards on each of the 8 holes on the frame mounts where the bumper studs go through. It really didn't take much - I contemplated other methods (such as hitting the frame mount with a mallet type stuff) but in the end enlarging the hole a little worked fine. the studs are just a tad closer inward than the holes (didn't measure, didn't care that much). when you hold the bumper up you can see the bolts, just off-center a little.

after widening the holes, the bumper went on pretty well. I could get to all of the bolts with standard tools, I didn't need crazy bendable ratchets or anything.

I still need to wire up the LED foglights - but I'm going to just cut the connectors off the old harness and use new wire. So need to find my soldering iron. re-using the old harness is a bad idea in my opinion - you would basically have to disassemble the entire old bumper to get it out. The LED foglights out of the pastic bumper fit almost perfectly - 3 of the 4 screws worked, which was solid enough for me

anyway - thought I'd share. happy 4th

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[Pig-Pen]

i saw a JK the other day with an oem JL front bumper on so i figured they must be interchangeable.

bumper looks good.

 

[Sling_Shot]

Looks Great, thanks for the info, I've been looking at DV8 bumpers, good to hear all the parts and instructions were good.

 

[RisingEagle]

update on the LED fog light transfers (completed it last night)

was super-simple-easy. the wiring harness was deep inside the stock bumper - no way was I bothering with it. So I cut off the connectors and built my own.

there are three connectors - the connector to the Jeep itself, the connector to the driver fog light, and the connector to the passenger fog light. The passenger fog light and the Jeep connector are close to each other - about 8-12 inches, creating a "Y" and then continuing to the driver fog light.

I made TWO cuts. I cut PAST the "Y" on the passenger side, leaving me a wire with two connectors on it, and then cut the driver connector. I left about 6" of tail wire on each.

I then used two pieces of wire (black and yellow because the driver wire was yellow - but any color will do) to connect the two wires on the driver side. straightforward - black to black, yellow to white/yellow (connector side).

on the "Y" cable - there were two black wires, and a white/yellow wire. Not sure what that other black wire was doing in there - I assume it was a loop or something, I donno. but I just twisted the two black wires together, and connected them to the black wire feeding the drivers side. I then connected the yellow wire to the yellow/white wire. soldered it all up, shrink wrap, wire sheathing.

came out pretty good

only need about 12" of wire for the FS-14 bumper; the fog lights are pretty close to each other. the connector for the Jeep just made it - no adjustment necessary for that one so really just replacing the wire between the passenger and driver side was all I had to do

if you have any questions feel free to shoot them my way and I'll do my best to answer.

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