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I just had a good conversation with them and together we identified the next steps that I can do from here. Will get under the truck later today and hopefully this then takes care of this issue.
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So glad I read your write-up. I was seriously considering this very bumper. Not any more! Thanks a bunch.Black Friday 2022 I ordered a dual swing-out arm Octane Rear Bumper from Chassis Unlimited. Initially, I was quoted a delivery shortly after Christmas, but that never materialized. Whenever I reached out, it was almost ready. Then this, then that until it finally shipped on February 22nd.
The pallet arrived at a friend’s business as he has a loading dock/forklift. I went the next day to take look, but felt quite disappointed. The pallet was wrapped in heavy-duty shrink-wrap which was fine. The bumper was “protected” by Smirnoff Ice cardboard boxes and maybe that explains the issues. There was no mounting hardware, no brackets. Just the bumper and the spare tire mount.
I reached out to Chassis Unlimited the same day, but it took additional 2 days before a shipment went out. It looks like two shipments actually, which caused additional confusion. One box came via UPS and one via USPS.
Installation: Ok, time to get this thing installed. If you can hold/operate a drill or impact driver, you can install this thing yourself. The instructions were not provided with any of the shipments, but fortunately I had reached out about it when I requested the mounting hardware. The instructions were extremely generic and it seems to be one set of instructions for all their bumpers. YouTube to the rescue, but there is no install video for this Chassis Unlimited bumper (or for any other one with the right level of detail). Fortunately, I found a video from Chandler Truck Accessories (CTA) for one of their rear bumpers. This video got me 80% to the finish line. Removing the old bumper was easy following the Chandler Truck Accessories video.
Then the problems started happening. Nothing to be a showstopper, but annoying and time consuming and I have additional work lined up as well for reasons I will explain shortly.
Mounting Brackets. I had to guess how they went onto the truck, but figured it out quickly. The CTA video helped. Then I transferred the parking sensors to the new bumper and things turned bad. The cut-out holes are a tiny little bit to small. Just enough that the sensors did not fit back in the holding. I tried all 4 sensors and then called Chassis Unlimited. I was eventually told, that I have to shave down the sensors or the holdings to make it work. This was bad, but I made it work. However, there is a weld on the left side of the bumper near where the sensor is located and the sensor wire connector hits the weld just right to prohibit installation. So, I shaved down the casing of the wire connector for the harness as well. Two of my sensors are now loose and I will need to glue them in, but that is for another day.
License Plate lighting. The instructions barely talk about the LED lighting for the license plate. It feels like some obscure LED lighting. It works, but you have to mount it before you install the bumper and then I wonder how I would ever get the license plate off or install a new rear camera with a license plate bracket?! The provided LED lights feel cheap and the wiring is even worse. And – there are no instructions of how to wire it to the existing harness. Again, the CTA video provided a solution. I will probably work out something different for this, but for now it works.
Rear lights. The bumper has two openings for 3” LED Cube pods/lights. I did buy two Diode Dynamics Stage Series 3" SAE/DOT White Sport LED Pods. There is no way to flush mount these. Even leaving a tiny gap is difficult. I have yet to wire them up, but I have the feeling they are pointing a bit upwards. It’s not horrible, but it is definitely not good or great. I am considering to buy other LED pods that may fit from the outside and drill some holes into the bumper to have them flush with the bumper. I will decide when I have them wired up, but right now I am not sure I like this.
Mounting the rear bumper. My buddy helped me to mount the bumper and we ran into a major issue on my 2022 F250 Tremor. On each side at the tail end of the truck where the original bumper fit like a glove there is some plastic cover mounted. Again, the instructions don’t mention this, but to make the bumper fit so that you can bolt it on you have to remove the plastic pieces. It is a total of 4 fastener clips/fender clips or whatever you want to call them. Once these plastic covers are removed, the bumper fit onto the mounting brackets and I was able to bolt it on. There are now openings in the fender that I need to seal up or cover up. Most people will not notice, but I think it looks like sh!t/sloppy/cheap.
Home stretch. The opening for the trailer hitch plug is too small. It is too low as well. There is no way the standard plug from Ford is going to fit in there. I started shaving off the bottom of the plug, but realized once I had enough height clearance, that the plug was also too wide. I am not even mentioning that the flip cover is hitting the bumper and will not close ever unless I come up with something. But wait – there is more. Not sure if to blame Ford or Chassis Unlimited, but the plug/bumper is now further away from the vehicle body and the wiring harness will not reach the plug – ever. The only solution I see is to cut the wire and make my own extension to get it connected. So, I am debating how to fix this. I do not have a metal grinder, but if I can wide the hole for the plug I may get the plug into the bumper. Not sure what to do about the fold-up lid/cover. It looks like the specific plug section may still be covered if I shave off a bit more. I am not planning to tow anything, but that does not mean this needs to be done properly.
My opinion: So, I am quite disappointed at this point. Parking sensors are pretty much the same – no matter the car/truck manufacturer. Why I am forced to shave down the plastic of my sensors is beyond me. I get that the bumper is thicker, but that cannot be it. This is sloppy engineering in my opinion. If I search on YouTube, other bumper makers get this done just fine. But that the trailer/hitch plug does not fit – I mean – not even close – that is really bad!!!! Really bad. The opening is too low and needs to be moved up a quarter or a half inch. And then it is a tiny bit too narrow. Just enough to make this a super frustrating experience. It took me ~4 hours to install the bumper. Probably could have done it in less than 3 hours. I assume I will need another 2 hours to address the issues mentioned.
Ok, but what about the bumper itself? The right-side swing-out arm had some minor scratches on the powder coating, but those will be invisible once the spare tire is mounted. Speaking off – I had to look at product pictures on the Chassis Unlimited website to find the right way of mounting the spare tire mount. Anyway, everything feels solid. It is a good bumper. The welds look good, the powder coating looks good. The swing-out arms work and feel solid. The truck looks great and probably even more, once I have the spare mounted. Had to realize that I could not use locking lug nuts with my Method 305 HD wheels and had to order other lug nuts. The bumper will grow on me, I love the truck's look, but I had higher expectations.
PS: I wish they would have shipped some of that Smirnoff stuff with the bumper. Needed a drink this evening.
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That is a good question. I think the bumper is fine, but probably was not fully checked against a 2022 Super Duty. The brackets is a different question. I wonder if they are for one of their normal bumpers without the swing arms. The arms + then the extra weight from a spare tire - I am pretty sure there is a lot more force and pressure going on. I mean, look at those openings in those brackets. There is no way the brackets would stay in place with so much room in those openings when you have a 220 lb bumper and a 110 lb spare tire "pulling" on it.I almost beginning to wonder if you were shipped a wrong bumper?
I know what you are saying and I am prepared to shift gears next week. But before I go down that path of no return, I want to make sure I have done my part to resolve the situation. Unfortunately, this is not a small Amazon package that I drop off at the UPS store. And CU's return policy is not designed to make it easy for me either.I would have sent it back long ago, and disputed with my cc company if they wouldn't take it back. One you start adding things to "fix" it, all bets are off and you own it.
I have to give it up to you @Chris-DTA, you have invested so much time, energy, and perhaps busted knuckles to be so humble and optimistic about this whole situation.
I, on the other hand, would have been furious and certainly knocking on CU door coming Monday morning.
I added one hole today, but it did not work. I do not want to (should have to) drill additional holes into the frame. I need the frame to be as solid as possible.If you had to you could use something like this for your trailer wiring. It would suck to have the hole there though. Or use a smaller 7 way connector if it would fit in the hole.
I would just drill/bolt the extra holes once it was lined up and use bigger bolts in the main holes. It would be pretty solid then. It was supposed to be bolt on though so I understand the issue. I am interested to see what they say.
I have prepared an email to what I think is the ower or chief executive. Will sleep over it one more time, before hitting the send button. And yes - I will offer to them to drive up and have them fix it. Will have to wait to Monday for the next step.yeah, no matter what you keep doing, the trailer plug still doesn’t fit right. That alone makes me think you should drive up there, show them all these issues, and ask them to replace the bumper. Way too much money for these things to not work right. I’d count myself lucky to be close enough to drive there. Imagine if you were 20+ hours away. Please, do it so that someone who is 20+ hours away doesn’t get screwed with these design issues.
Are they shipping a new bumper?I did email the owner of Chassis Unlimited yesterday and we had a lengthy discussion on the phone today. He was not aware of the situation until my email and I feel properly supported now to get this situation resolved. Will probably take me a couple of days to get back under the truck, but I feel more optimistic about this now.
What's their resolution?I feel properly supported now to get this situation resolved.