I recently purchased an ARB Bull Bar and was wondering if anyone had a write-up of the install. From what I've read the Installation of the Bull Bar itself isn't too difficult, unless you need to do some drilling to make new holes. I was wondering if anyone had a write-up of how to remove the stock bumper. Thanks.

~Elroy

Well, I did it by myself in the dark using a flashlight and with no instructions, so it can't be that bad.

Sorry, I don't remember the details, but basically there are 4 bolts to the frame that have to be removed and some bolts up inside the front of the bumper (hard to get to!) that have to be loosened so that the brackets will move sideways and clear the front frame crossmember. The only thing I really had problems with were some clips up inside the fender area that had rubber bushing type thingies in it and I never did really figure out the trick to those...they eventually just fell apart and let go on mine. You also need to remove the very front crossmember piece from the frmae before the ARB will fit on. You can put the crossmember back on for extra rigidity, but it will need to be cut on both ends. It will be obvious to you what needs to be done there.

Make sure you have two extra people when you put the ARB on unless you don't value your front fenders!

Sorry I'm not much help!

When you install the ARB remember:

Middle bolts first (loose so you can shift the bar)
Front bolts second
Rear bolts last
Tighten it all down when it looks good.

Also be careful not to over torque the upper bolts.
I stripped one and ended up having to drill thru and bolting it.
I could have re-tepped it but the bolt might be stronger in the long run and I don't intend on removig the ARB anytime soon :)

Looks like I am going to have to elongate my front holes for my bumper? I have it installed per drawing but the front edge touches the plastice grill and I have alomost an 1" gap at fender lip?

I put the foglights here. It seems like a good protected place.

Originally posted by rrdstarr
I put the foglights here. It seems like a good protected place.

ask philosopher about putting foglights there.....they are not protected. they can get crunched.

Originally posted by Synchro
ask philosopher about putting foglights there.....they are not protected. they can get crunched.

Ask Philosopher about what he hit at that location, and how he thought he would manage to get over it.

They are fairly well protected down there when you look at the approach angles.

http://www.xterrain.com/images/foglightarb.jpg

I have to agree with you Ian...I'll have to add the beer opener mod tomorrow! I assume you just pick those up at any Kitchen supply type store?

Still also trying to decide on lights?

Has everyone else used the supplied licsense bracket to attach their plate? I think I would trash the plate on the first serious approach!! :(

I had to get my bottle opener at a restaurant supply store here in Denver.

Stay away from "spot" beam lights up front. A nice wide beam like the Hella driving series put out a nice spread.

The license plate bracket is designed for Australian plates, unless they changed it.

I never really plan on doing offroading at night and would really need a true foglight! It gets pretty soupy out here in Tacoma, Today being a good example! Also on my drives to Montana I need to be able to see the deer and elk before I splatter them with the ARB! :flash:

They're kinda pricey at $300, but I'm probably going to get the IPF JO1's myself. I think they look like a good fog/driving combo and should be legal to use all the time.

IPF JO1 Lights (http://www.overlander.com/pages_misc/contents_fr.tpl?cart=30834836221982624)

XXXterra from SOXC has the J01 as loves them.
Have a look at his site for more info:
XXXterra Site (http://members.home.net/linossiy/frame2.htm)

I also have the fogs mounted under the ARB and have not had a problem yet. The way I see it they are the cheap stock ones anyways so if I break them no big deal.

If I do destroy the foglights I plan to use the exsisting harness and relocate some ne lights to the top of the ARB! ChuckH was over this afternoon wiring the turn signals in the ARB and hooking up power to the Cobra 75 WX ST and tuning the Firestick II antenna! Many thanks to him!

I am going to have to put additional holes in my frame to support the ARB in a level attitude. My front holes are half a whole off! ChuckH and I tried everything put no success! :(

Yep, the holes on Ricks bumper are definately not in the right place. By looking at my bumper and comparing, I would say that his front hole is about 1/4" too low and 1/4" too far back and the middle one is about 1/4" too far back. his bumper was sitting too far forward and way too angled. I can't even figure out how they got it on at all yesterday. There is no way I could see to get it even close to straight without drilling out the front hole completely so it connects with the Navara hole and even then it's going to be a little low and far forward. he will have to put in more bolts to secure it. So much for bolt on ease...maybe KMA is building the bumpers now! The good news in all this is that his bumper is far enough forward that he can put big tires on and maybe even squeeze a winch up behind there without removing the bumper! :D

Otherwise, he is all set up and his CB seems to work well.

Oh, and I say it again, the Bilstiens kick ass! :D

rrdstarr,

i installed my ARB about 2 months ago and have the same alignment problem. i just havent gotten around to redrilling the holes.

Originally posted by xoc


Ask Philosopher about what he hit at that location, and how he thought he would manage to get over it.

They are fairly well protected down there when you look at the approach angles.




I cracked one of mine driving over a berm-like wall, which I made it over. You've seen pics.

It even has my name on it!!!! How is that for wierd?

Hey Chuck,

You going to help with the wiring when I install my bumper at Rick's this weekend? What do you need to cut that front cross bar? Can it be done with a hack saw or does it require fire? FIRE! hehe... :)

- Joe

Originally posted by mudphud
Hey Chuck,

You going to help with the wiring when I install my bumper at Rick's this weekend? What do you need to cut that front cross bar? Can it be done with a hack saw or does it require fire? FIRE! hehe... :)

- Joe

Are you talking about the one attached to the front of the frame rails? It's held on by two bolts.

Originally posted by ChuckH


Oh, and I say it again, the Bilstiens kick ass! :D


Hopping rides in members trucks again Chuck? :D

Originally posted by mudphud
Hey Chuck,

You going to help with the wiring when I install my bumper at Rick's this weekend? What do you need to cut that front cross bar? Can it be done with a hack saw or does it require fire? FIRE! hehe... :)

- Joe

Um, maybe! :) I'm hoping that Schlud and I are going to get together and do AAL's, but we can probably work out all the times so I can hit both places! I'm not sure if Rick was paying attention to the wiring or not, but if I can't make it, you just need to tap the brown wire from the ARB lights into the green wire for your factory signals and then black (ARB) to black (factory) using the connectors that come with the bumper. The factory lights unscrew at the top and then pop out at the bottom so you can reach the wiring. You won't have to use any of the wiring extensions if you mount the ARB lights so that the wires come out on the side closest to where they run up to the factory lights. make sure you wrap everything up with electrical tape! I'll try and get over there though...when are you guys doing this?

Oh yeah! The front frame brace is probably best cut with a band saw or such. you could cut it with a hack saw, but it would probably take you some serious time! If I see you, I can take it and cut it for you then get it back to you or you and I could run to North Seattle and I could cut it at work that same day possibly. I repainted mine afterwards too.

Uhmmm...what ChuckH said! :confused:

Originally posted by Schludwiller


Hopping rides in members trucks again Chuck? :D

Yep! :D Just getting another feel for them and convincing myself that I need to rob a bank so I can have my own!

Originally posted by ChuckH


I'm hoping that Schlud and I are going to get together and do AAL's




You guys don't have AAL yet? That is so last week ...


:)

Originally posted by Philosopher


You guys don't have AAL yet? That is so last week ...


:)

Well we had to drive to frickin Ouray to get them. :silly2:

Just ordered my AAL's last night....

I took a picture of my ARB mounting bolts to show how they line up and then drew crappy circles in the approximate places where the bolt holes were on Rick's bumper to show how much they were off. I love my ARB bumper, but ARB should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their bumpers to be built and shipped with so much error. I think maybe they are hiring ex KMA employees or soemthing! :rolleyes:

Since I make my living as a mechanic, (BUT with Boeing's wonderful announcement tonight of layoffs), I plan to use the other exsisting holes and drill them out and install grade 8 hardware. The only way the ARB will move then is if I plow into some one at 60 MPH! I am also thinking of making some braces possibly for the wings, like the stock bumper had???

Today ChuckH and I installed Mudphud's ARB. His was a little closer to being installed without elongating the holes. BUT it was necesary to elongate the middle hole to get the bumper level! We also had to open the bolt holes in the rear to accept the large bolt. Sorry I forgot to grab some photos of what we did before we installed it!

And next week we do lights! :D

Overall, things went pretty well and mudphud did participate in putting his bumper on!

Now for the big question. Is it just in pictures, or do I really look that f'ing fat? :o You guys better stop feeding me pizza and Geno needs to have the camera taken away from him. Yikes!!! :eek:

DAMN!! I just did a quick tally and PNWX is up to 17 or more members with ARBs!! At roughly $625 each, that's $10,625 !! I think they need to buy us Pizza an beer one of these days!!

Damnit Mosi...what did I say about pizza? Um, nevermind, give me pizza! :D

You guys really should swing by ARB if you get a chance and show them the holes are in the wrong spot. If something changed in the more recent shipments it would help other owners if you let ARB know.

At least give Marc at ARB a call.

Well, I didn't want to feel left out so I did the bottle opener mod too! I painted mine to match the bumper though. Uh oh, I can already feel the flames! :eek:

Yeah, thanks to Rick and Chuck for all their help. I think after we experimented with the installation of Rick's ARB the week before, the installation of my ARB went much more smoothly. The top of the ARB is still flush against the plastic, but the space along the sides between the side panel and the ARB is pretty even, so I think it's level.

Also reattached the toe hook upside down so it doesn't run into the ARB. Don't know if anyone else has done this and actually tried to use it. Problem is that it points upward rather than downward now.

Mudphud, I forgot to get a pic of that installed? I'll get mine installed on Wednesday and post a pic if you don't have time!

Well I got the bullbar today, I'm going to install it in the shop in case I run into any complications. The question I want to ask is how exactly were you able to mount the stock fog lights? I havent looked at it real well yet I was just wondering. :)

As for the winch, does the roller kits come with them or is that something else you have to buy?

Aquamander, look on the first page of this thread and see how I an XOC and others have theirs mounted.

The winch comes with all the parts necessary to install on the ARB. I saw a XD9000 for $689! Might have to go pic that up!

Has anyone mounted their tow hook back on after installing their ARB?

Originally posted by rrdstarr
Has anyone mounted their tow hook back on after installing their ARB?

Interesting, the stock one fits upside down and rotated 180 just fine.

I just added the off the shelf hooks back on.

I saw the pics but I was curious about the hardware. How is it actually connected?

Hopefully you saved the nut that held the light on the original bracket. If you did, just drill a hole through the sheetmetal and put the nut back on! Taaadah! Then you can ziptie up the wire that dangles down.

Yeah, I guess that's the thing to do for now. Has anyone else come up with any other ideas?

I'm searching through the shop, trying to aquire my material I'll need to make a decent front skid plate out of. Which brings me to another question.

I have;

1/4", 1/2" and 3/4" T6061 cold extruded plate. I also have some 3/16" stainless steel sheet.

What would most people here want to use for a front skid plate (radiator protection)?

I will use 1"x1"x1/8" stainless angle to reinforce it to the bumper. I was thinking about machining some small slots for air to pass through it too. While the aluminum would be eaiser to make, I think the stainless may be less troublesome as far as cleaning and easier to bend. But then again, stainless would probably dent easier. Actually, I'm thinking the aluminum would probably be more impact resistant over a flat area than the stainless. Guy's in the shop are split 50/50. I don't have the bar on yet, we're tossing around some ideas.

Opinions?

I think I would go with Aluminum if your NOT a super aggressive offroader! but you'll probably want to put a reinforcement down the back and have like a two inch lip/bend at the bottom to cover the area not covered by the factory skid. Stainless for corrosion resistance! It is as strong as steel! And if you want to go cheap, just get the mild steel plate. I don't think your really need the holes? The ARB has a pretty good duct to scoop air in. Unless of course you have a winch and lights blocking above the bumper.

my .02 ;)

Here is the way I did mine.

When I torqued the forward 4 bolts to 44NM, my washers dished out! I have replaced them with ones that are about three times as thick! Ya'll might want to have a look at yours?

Thanks for the input, my bullbar went on without any problems. everything seemed to line up okay no hole mods needed for me.

Thanks Chuck, wiring was easy. The only difference was my ARB had a blue and brown wire. Blue to green, brown to black. I used Panduit connecters and taped everything up.

The install went much easier than expected, we just happened to have this cool "bullbar-putter-onner-thingy" :flash:

Originally posted by rrdstarr
When I torqued the forward 4 bolts to 44NM, my washers dished out! I have replaced them with ones that are about three times as thick! Ya'll might want to have a look at yours?

Rick, which washers are those ?

44Nm isn't that much. Mine are torqued to 100 lb. ft., or 136Nm.

I had torqued them to spec and went to check the torque after driving around with them ARB for a week and they were totally dished out! If you replace them you'll notice the holes are larger than the fasteners by a significant amount! The aft fastener is perfect no problems!

XOC (or anyone else for that matter) Do you have the Fabitron skid on your ARB? What grade hardware did you use? I was thinking I would use grade 5 as no bolts were supplied for the forward four holes?

-Rick

Originally posted by Aquamander
Thanks for the input, my bullbar went on without any problems. everything seemed to line up okay no hole mods needed for me.

Thanks Chuck, wiring was easy. The only difference was my ARB had a blue and brown wire. Blue to green, brown to black. I used Panduit connecters and taped everything up.

The install went much easier than expected, we just happened to have this cool "bullbar-putter-onner-thingy" :flash:



Sweet! You know, Mudphuds wires were blue and brown too, but I could have sworn mine and Rick's were brown and black. I also have Oldtimer's Disease, so maybe I just forgot! No matter, you figured it out and it probably doesn't really matter with those lights anyway.

Your bumper looks awesome and I see you already put lights on. Cool! :D

BTW, I like the "bullbar-putter-onner-thingy!" I have one of those at work but I'm not smart enough to have thought about using it in such a way. Hmmm, must find heavy things to attach to my truck now!

They helped a bunch. Just finished puting the ARB on this evening. It required some grinding just to get the bolts in and now it needs some more work to get it perfect. It's good for now until I have some more time to fix it properly. I'll post pictures soon, but I just wanted to thank all of you for the posts - they helped? :)

But I had a picture from Moab of my ARB just about to reach it's maximum approach angle on some slick rock.

Picked it up from 4WheelParts, here in San Diego, and put it on this weekend:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1485609&a=13845344&p=54985981&Sequence=0

I've got more pictures with comments posted at
www.PhotoPoint.com (http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1485609&a=13845344)

ARB rocks :D

I need to come and meet you guys.

You need to go wheeling with us on the 20th!!!!

You'll have a blast!!

Hey Rick & Joe,

It's great to see you both get the ARB's installed...

I was wondering when you both would get them, but
I see you answered my question...

I look forward to seing all your upgraded mods on
our next xcursion...

See You There:sun:

Installed 4 ARBs on Saturday, 3 on Xs and 1 on a Frontier. Still waiting on one to arrive for another X, sorry Rich. 3 of the 4 installed had to be drilled. Thank god for air tools:D

Do you have a pic of the Frontier with the ARB. Just curious what it looks like.

That's Outdoorzguy's site. He's the Frontier owner that just installed the ARB..

www.nissanoffroad.net

Cliff

Here's a pic of my friend Jason's Frontier.....

Here's another on the rocks...

Now that's the way a real truck does it....Dragging the bumper and all. Not like those SISSY SUV Xterra's....:devil:

Cliff
Flame suit Ready...:sun:

He made it up the rise, had plenty of room on the bumper. Ground his reciever a bit though!

Here is Mike's Frontier after having his ARB installed. Notice he painted his grill black, hiding that nasty chrome!

Looks very nice! Glad he blacked out the chrome! It just doesn't go with the ARB blackness!

I thought the plate hangs way to far down when your offroading so I took it off and mounted it at the bottom holes. I didn't have a spacer so I used nuts instead! I also put a piece of foam on th back to keep the plate from rattling.

Thats a lot of nuts!!!! :D

i know it's a lot of nuts! :D I just need to get some spacers made!

Originally posted by rrdstarr
i know it's a lot of nuts! :D I just need to get some spacers made!

Why not buy some conduit at the local hardware store and cut it to fit? That would work fine and should be super cheap! Plus you can buy Galv. conduit that won't rust. Good luck...

Looks great! My bolt holes were off just the opposite. My bumper is about an 1/8 th off dropping to the front. I did have to take a sawzall to the Warn roller fairlead to get it to mount under the the ARB area. Did anyone else have this problem?

Also, I've emailed SLR twice about the Bilstein shock recommendation for running the ARB. I've had no response yet (2 weeks now) is this typical? And what are you folks running? There is a four wheel shop here that stocks the complete line of shocks, deal mostly with full size trucks and do not carry any ARB products. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!
:cool:

SLR never responds to email, and when they do it takes forever. just call them they'll tell you 20% stiffer bilsteins but they wont give you part numbers so be prepared to give them your credit card number.

Bilstein P/N's

Front:

B46-1099-H1 4X2
B46-1099-H2 4X4
B46-1099-H0 4X4 valved for extra weight of winch

Rear:

BE3-6422-H0 stock
F4-B46-2126-H0 for use without rear sway bar and with 2 inches of lift

Call Spencer at SLR if you don't get e-mail. He's not very up to date on his e-mail.