Using Factory LED Fogs with Rugged Ridge Venator Front Bumper

[ZBRA]

So the Venator bumper only comes with the brackets for halogen fog lamps. The instructions and included brackets cover the Sport halogen lamps and the Sahara halogen lamps. In all fairness, Jeep has a lot of options. There's the Sport plastic bumper, the Rubicon/Sahara plastic bumper, the steel bumper package, and then there's halogen and LED fog options for each of those bumpers. Potentially 6 different fog lamp part numbers, but I'm not sure if the same lamps were compatible across any of those combos. Either way my stock 2023 Rubicon LED fogs weren't going to fit the Rugged Ridge brackets.

Looking at Google, I'm not the first to have this issue. I didn't see any solutions though, so here I am posting how I got them the factory LED fog lamps to fit. Tools used: paint marker, cut off wheel, grinder, wire wheel, and paint. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here ya go:

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[ZBRA]

All done...

 

[ZBRA]

The most painful part of this install was cutting the grille. I first removed the lower section of the grille surround , and then trimmed the part of the grille normally hidden by that panel. This was necessary to clear the wiring on the back of the winch relay box.

 

[Mojocho]

Was your original bumper the steel bumper?

I have the plastic Rubicon bumper on my Gladiator and those LED fog lights fit just fine Gladi for a JLU.

 

[ZBRA]

Was your original bumper the steel bumper?

No, I had the plastic bumper.

 

[Mitoni]

So I just ran into this fog light problem with my new Reign JL Willys. I took the other way though. The holes overlapped about 1/2 way between the bracket and the light holes, so I just drilled out just enough on the light that the screws went in. I figure that worse thing is that the light is off by 1/16"-1/8" in the socket.

The biggest problem I team into so far was that one of the welded bolts in the bracket was off-center and not flat. I had to cut the weld and use a different nut to bolt it in.

 

[ZBRA]

The biggest problem I team into so far was that one of the welded bolts in the bracket was off-center and not flat. I had to cut the weld and use a different nut to bolt it in.

I ran into that too. I enlongated the hole in the bracket to expose the nut on the other side.

 

[Mitoni]

I ran into that too. I enlongated the hole in the bracket to expose the nut on the other side.

I'm just upset because thanks to the delays, I ran outta daylight to finish it today. I put some bags over the fog lights and I'll pick it up in the morning.

 

[Tfluharty]

Thanks for this thread. I ended up handling the led light issue the same way. Ground down a bit of the bracket to get the holes to line up. And repainted the exposed metal.

 

[ZBRA]

Thanks for this thread. I ended up handling the led light issue the same way. Ground down a bit of the bracket to get the holes to line up. And repainted the exposed metal.

looks great. Glad I was able to help.

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