The BETTER Light Bar Bracket - 42" Lower Grille bracket development thread

That actually was in the plan. I'm mobile so I don't have the documents in hand to share, but a fixed horseshoe-shaped spacer was intended to be part of the design. The issue we were running into was that when that thick of material (5/16") is run on a laser table we were getting too much extra molten metal pouring back into the initial cut resulting in pretty poor finished pieces. Me - "Okay fine then... We'll go across town and see if we can get someone to waterjet out these spacers." They say can do it, sure, but for a pretty penny. We were then now faced with having to determine cost vs performance benefit. Cutting the spacers, welding them up, etc takes time and resources, and I didn't want to push the price point on these units further up yet.

What we ultimately landed on is what you see above with a few tweaks. There's going to be different washers and a non-threaded one-piece spacer in the back. The tiniest bit of deflection I've alluded to previously is not emanating from the rear mounting hole, but rather across the top-most bolt/nut along the back mounting plate. I'm confident that those who have (or will) pick these up will likely not even notice any sort of instability. Especially if what they are coming from are the DD brackets...

You've definitely got an engineer's mind as you were thinking the same things we were. I just found myself struggling to do it efficiently.


Looking here if you check out the rear slot you can see the etching of that spacer when we were initially planning for it.

 

SURE did! Got a good handful of them out anyway! The rest should go out tomorrow. Just gotta visit the powdercoat folks.

I won't have a formal install guide out by the time some of you receive them, but I'll do my best to rough something out ASAP!

 

Well this has certainly taken me longer to put together than I anticipated! And I still don't have the video guide together! Oh well, we can get something together for you all in the meantime so that we can get you going.

Tools Needed:

• Large flat blade screwdriver or preferably a trim removal tool
• 14mm wrench
• 4mm or 5/32" Allen wrench
• 1/8 Allen wrench

What's in the Box:

• 1 set of black Hotshot Offroad Tundra Brackets
• Qty 2 - 10-32 Thread, 3/4" Length Button head screws (rear screws)
• Qty 4 - Stainless washer for M5 screws - 15mm OD (rear mount)
• Qty 2 - M5 lock washer (rear mount)
• Qty 2 - Aluminum unthreaded spacer - M5, 8mm length, 8mm OD
• Qty 2 - M6 x 1.00 mm thread, 12 mm length Button head screws (front screws)
• Qty 2 - M6 washers, 12mm OD (front mount)
• Single-use blue Loctite kit
• Optional - Painter's Tape
• Optional - Diode Dynamics 42" Light bar
• Optional - Diode Dynamics heavy duty single output wiring harness

Installation:

1. Remove Lower Grill "Grate" - This will likely be the trickiest part of the entire install. This lower grill piece will not want to come free despite your best efforts! Rest assured, we have removed quite a few of these and have not broken anything yet so you absolutely can do it without issue. I am not going to try and explain it here, and will instead link you to the Headlight Revolution YT install video for now - HERE. They show the process of removing this piece in question, and will also give you some supplementary information as the overall install of our kit will be very similar to theirs!

1a. Tape off lower grille plastic - This is an optional step. This kit takes up ALL of the lower bumper's available area so there is a strong possibility that you will be scrubbing the heads of the bolts against the bumper during install. We recommend putting a couple pieces of painters tape up on either said to help prevent scuffing of your bumper's plastic. Area inside of square as shown here -

2. Remove Bumper Nuts - Climb underneath your truck and locate the 6 nuts that are used to secure the crash bar to the frame. There will be 3 per side, all of which are in a vertical line and are silver in color. Or at least they were when they were new! Using your 14mm wrench (you may need to use a socket and breaker bar to crack these loose as they likely will be very tight) remove these 6 nuts completely and set them aside. They will be needed for reassembly.

3. Assemble light bar brackets and light bar - Gather up your DD light bar, Hotshot brackets, and the hardware bag that we provided. NOTE: You will not use any of the hardware that was included in the white box that comes in the light bar box. You can set it aside, dispose of it, or keep it for potential future uses.

• Familiarize yourself with the orientation of the light bar brackets. When pressed up against the sides of the light bar the flat part of the bracket that attaches to the frame should be pointing IN like this -
  
  
• Place light bar face DOWN on a flat surface. Don't worry, the heads of the faceplate screws will elevate the front lenses off of the surface. As far as which side is "left" or "right" there is no right or wrong way. That said, we prefer to have the power lead coming out the right as it makes wiring easier (closer to battery/firewall opening). That said, having a right-exit does limit how far up the bar can sit in the grille opening. If you think that you will want the light bar pushed up to the top of the opening then we recommend that you have the power lead coming out on the left side.
  
  
• Install front bolts and washers - Put a small dab of blue loctite on the end of the threads of the short bolt. Using the shorter bolt and the smaller washer hand tighten them into the light bar. Don't make these too tight yet. Complete this step on both sides.
  
• Install rear bolts/washers/spacers - **TEST YOUR REAR BOLTS PRIOR TO FULL ASSEMBLY. On one of our sample light bars there was some overspray in the rear bolt holes which made getting a bolt in there difficult. Make sure that you are able to get the rear bolt started into the rear threaded section before applying loctite.
  • Slide a lock washer onto one of the bolts followed by one of the wide washers.
  • Feed this bolt through the rear opening of the light bar.
  • Slide another washer onto this bolt.
  • Put a small dab of blue loctite on the threads of the smaller bolt.
  • Slide the aluminum sleeve onto the bolt.
  • Thread bolt into rear opening. Do not tighten bolt enough to collapse lock nut, but just tight enough to where the rear bolt isn't super loose.
  • Complete this on both sides.
  • As far as initial alignment is concerned we built this kit such that if you have the rear "pivot" screw positioned in the middle of the channel that will be the proper alignment for most vehicles. We recommend that is where you start, and figure that is where most of you will land. We gave the flexibility for variability in vehicle rake for perfect alignment.
  • Here is what the bolt/washer configuration will look like -

4. Test fit bar and brackets - We designed our kit so that you would be able to install it with the brackets already fitted to the light bar. It makes it possible to do the install on your own if you don't have an extra set of hands!

• Guide the assembly with the bracket ends into the lower bumper opening.
• Once you have the bracket ends in far enough to clear the silver-colored crash bar begin to roll the entire assembly up and into place. The assembly will be able to be made "square" before reaching the bolts sticking out of the frame.
• Push the assembly back and onto the frame bolts. You will likely need to be underneath the vehicle for this step (and why we recommended the tape on the bumper earlier since you won't be able to see). Make sure to seat the back plates flush against the frame as this will be important for rotational alignment.

5. Determine rotational alignment and tighten bolts - With the assembly set in place you can see where the light bar will be pointing. In most cases you are going to want the light bar to be pointing straight ahead. Not pointed up nor down at all. Reaching in from underneath/back you should be able to push the light bar up and down in the available channel to determine your aim. Once you have found your spot pull the light bar assembly back out part way. You can pull it out all of the way, but you don't need to. The brackets will kind of lock into place resting in the bumper if you have the assembly about 1/2 of the way out.

• Tighten bolts - We recommend snugging the rear bolts on either side to lock in rotation. Then move to the front and get them nice and tight. Move back to the rear for a final tightening. Be careful to not over-tighten the rear. Once the lock washer is collapsed and you aren't seeing any threads or space between any of the components that is enough. If you over-tighten the rear bolt you run the risk of crushing the aluminum spacer.

6. Install assembly and determine vertical alignment - The oval shaped cutouts in the brackets allow for vertical alignment in the lower grille opening. Push the completed assembly back into place in the grille and onto the frame bolts. Start the 6 nuts from step 2 onto the bolts. Tight enough to provide resistance, but not enough to where you aren't able to move the bar. Finalize where you would like the light bar to sit within the grille opening and tighten the nuts securing the brackets to the frame.

7. Wiring - This part is much easier explained in video format! Beginning at the 3:47 mark in the video I will link below they discuss wiring. If you are experiencing issues, are wiring up to a switchpros, spod, etc and are having issues please let me know and I can walk you through it on an individual level no problem.


COMPLETE! Now get out there, and let us know how we did!

https://youtu.be/s9Fe4Kc5e8o?t=59

Can these brackets be used as a bumper shim? - YES. While we didn't develop them specifically to be dual purpose shim/light bar bracket they can in fact be installed between the bumper and the frame. If you decide to attempt to sandwich these brackets between the frame and the bumper I am happy to report that one of you has already done it just like that! It will set the light bar a bit further back in the opening, but it still looks great! The customer who did it supplied us with some pics.

 

The back plate and support arm are different metal thicknesses. They were the same for a time, but we were still R&Ding then. However, even on this design we are cutting the support arm from a single piece of steel and using a press brake to form the gusset. We're only welding one seam where the backing plate and support arm meet. Is that what you meant?

 

Haha sorry about being late to the punch! Have you had a chance to snap any pics?

 

Lookin good and thanks for sharing pics! Thanks for calling and letting us talk you through that hiccup. Glad we got it figured out, and looking forward to your night review once you can find some time to do so!

Now... Rest

 

Appreciate it guys! Don, that thing is SHINY! My truck wasn't that clean the day I bought it...

 

Also, couple of "quality of life" updates to all of these kits. We have gotten some feedback that some are running into issues with the threads on the back of the light bars. We have found some powdercoat overspray, imperfect threads, etc on a couple of bars on the rear-most holes. We are now test-fitting the rear screws into all of the light bars, and doing what is necessary to make sure things work (re-tapping, swapping out bolts, etc).

 

I was like wait, what?

 

We have had a few of these orders come in over the past week or two here, and thank you for that!

For those that are patiently waiting (I'm looking at you especially @SR5BART ) we had some delays with our powdercoater, and will FINALLY be getting everyone's order out tomorrow!