Phil314
Tremor Fiend
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2022
- Messages
- 339
- Reaction Points
- 768
- Location
- 45.2521, -93.5612
- Current Ride
- 2020 F350 Tremor 7.3 Lariat
Bought a front hitch for my 2020 7.3L Tremor. Thought it would be a nice afternoon projects. Little did I know.
Instructions say remove bumper wiring and remove bumper. Yeah, right. I couldn't reach 1/2 the clips.
See I've got the block heater option and there is no connector so the entire cord has to be unclipped, but you can't reach half the clips.
Only way to get to them, is to half remove the bumper and support it so you can reach the clips.
I've also got fog lights, which should have been easy. But the connector on the frame was packed with clay dirt (like epoxy).
Spent 2 hr working on it before I finally got it apart. Total time 4 hrs just to get the bumper off.
Installing the hitch itself was a breeze - 1hr.
Hitch is well made. It will be used for a winch, so I got the hidden hitch since it's higher off the ground than some of the others.
In the home stretch, just need to reinstall the bumper. So time to trim the front air scoop.
Well the instructions are even more wrong. Trim 3.5" strip in the middle. That may work for other years, but not 2020.
My air scoop looks nothing like the ones in the instructions. Cut & test fit. Cut & test fit. Cut & test fit......
Finally come to the conclusion, I need to cut the entire bottom of the air dam off - included the 4 mounting points.
That required build some custom brackets to secure it. Took some time but turned out fairly good.
Ok, so now we are in the home stretch. Test fit the bumper again and it goes on.
Problem now is, I can't align the bumper with the proper spacing to the headlights.
There are a couple bumper bracket bolts hitting the bottom of the hitch.
I try making some spacers to space the front bumper out farther, but that didn't really work well.
Finally decide that I need to swap some button head bolts in place and trim the air scoop screw.
That gave me just enough room (1/2 inch more) to align the front bumper properly.
I should almost be done. Right...no.
During all the test fitting, I forgot to route the wires to the stupid fog light connector over the top of the receiver hitch instead of under it.
No problem, all I have to do is remove the bumper one more freakin time. I swear that last one made 50 time total.
Anyway, finally got it done and it turn out good, but it was a lot more work than it should have been.
Total time to reinstall bumper - 8 freakin hours.
Instructions say remove bumper wiring and remove bumper. Yeah, right. I couldn't reach 1/2 the clips.
See I've got the block heater option and there is no connector so the entire cord has to be unclipped, but you can't reach half the clips.
Only way to get to them, is to half remove the bumper and support it so you can reach the clips.
I've also got fog lights, which should have been easy. But the connector on the frame was packed with clay dirt (like epoxy).
Spent 2 hr working on it before I finally got it apart. Total time 4 hrs just to get the bumper off.
Installing the hitch itself was a breeze - 1hr.
Hitch is well made. It will be used for a winch, so I got the hidden hitch since it's higher off the ground than some of the others.
In the home stretch, just need to reinstall the bumper. So time to trim the front air scoop.
Well the instructions are even more wrong. Trim 3.5" strip in the middle. That may work for other years, but not 2020.
My air scoop looks nothing like the ones in the instructions. Cut & test fit. Cut & test fit. Cut & test fit......
Finally come to the conclusion, I need to cut the entire bottom of the air dam off - included the 4 mounting points.
That required build some custom brackets to secure it. Took some time but turned out fairly good.
Ok, so now we are in the home stretch. Test fit the bumper again and it goes on.
Problem now is, I can't align the bumper with the proper spacing to the headlights.
There are a couple bumper bracket bolts hitting the bottom of the hitch.
I try making some spacers to space the front bumper out farther, but that didn't really work well.
Finally decide that I need to swap some button head bolts in place and trim the air scoop screw.
That gave me just enough room (1/2 inch more) to align the front bumper properly.
I should almost be done. Right...no.
During all the test fitting, I forgot to route the wires to the stupid fog light connector over the top of the receiver hitch instead of under it.
No problem, all I have to do is remove the bumper one more freakin time. I swear that last one made 50 time total.
Anyway, finally got it done and it turn out good, but it was a lot more work than it should have been.
Total time to reinstall bumper - 8 freakin hours.
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