After 3 years of looking at maybe 10k bumper pictures as my wife slept, I finally pulled the trigger on a Warn Ascent Full Guard Bumper & simultaneously put a 16.5 Warn winch on my 2021 Platinum. I could not be more pleased with how it turned out & have probably done 2-3x the projects on the truck trying to satisfy myself enough in an attempt to not go through with this. My finalist bumpers were Bodyguard A2 Extreme, Trigger Industries Full Guard, Grid Iron Full Guard & Warn Ascent Full Guard—all unique and worthy in their own right, but in the end I chose Warn for the fit & finish. The toughest thing about the decision was other than on this forum, I’d not seen this bumper in person.
Warn’s Ascent bumpers line-up for 2017-2022 does not plug & play with Collision Assist as others have noted. As my truck has this & I did not want to lose this feature, it took some engineering by my shop’s gurus to get this just right. Thank you to several previous members who shared their installs as this helped us get started. We used a Ford Collision Assist mount as I’d seen on this forum to mount the Collision sensor on the passenger side opening as the 16.5 winch prevented using the drivers. One variation is different we deployed was that we also used a Ford Bronco Mount to that as it has “calibration dials” so much easier to get things set perfectly in place. I also purchased some black plastic material off of Amazon to be the exterior cover which added protection & a clean install. There have been no issues after install- no false braking, codes or error messages.
I had a Ford-Warn winch installed prior & was concerned the truck might sag a bit from the extra nose weight, but not the case. We were prepared to place a small puck for leveling the front end or ordering new springs especially if it had a diving feel when cornering. One factor present with my truck is the front springs are not factory as I’d previously upgraded them early on when doing the BDS 3” lift (my truck is an FX4 nonTremor). Obviously, the added spring rate worked in my favor & finally a project came in on budget. The truck actually feels like it rides better than before as feels planted to the road. Almost the same effect as when adding weight to the bed the rear isn’t as rambunctious.
One thing to consider, I was unaware the 2023+ Ascent line now has Collision Assist integration until the bumper was ordered or might have gambled on getting one and hoping it’d line-up on the frame rails. I do not know if this would have worked out, but also know these newer Ascent’s are minus the headlight mid-bar protective tube.
With any regard, I am tickled about the outcome. Best part is my wife had put my truck projects on a moratorium so I made her buy it as my 25th wedding anniversary
. I know it’s going to cost me more when she finds something she wants, but all worth it!
Warn’s Ascent bumpers line-up for 2017-2022 does not plug & play with Collision Assist as others have noted. As my truck has this & I did not want to lose this feature, it took some engineering by my shop’s gurus to get this just right. Thank you to several previous members who shared their installs as this helped us get started. We used a Ford Collision Assist mount as I’d seen on this forum to mount the Collision sensor on the passenger side opening as the 16.5 winch prevented using the drivers. One variation is different we deployed was that we also used a Ford Bronco Mount to that as it has “calibration dials” so much easier to get things set perfectly in place. I also purchased some black plastic material off of Amazon to be the exterior cover which added protection & a clean install. There have been no issues after install- no false braking, codes or error messages.
I had a Ford-Warn winch installed prior & was concerned the truck might sag a bit from the extra nose weight, but not the case. We were prepared to place a small puck for leveling the front end or ordering new springs especially if it had a diving feel when cornering. One factor present with my truck is the front springs are not factory as I’d previously upgraded them early on when doing the BDS 3” lift (my truck is an FX4 nonTremor). Obviously, the added spring rate worked in my favor & finally a project came in on budget. The truck actually feels like it rides better than before as feels planted to the road. Almost the same effect as when adding weight to the bed the rear isn’t as rambunctious.
One thing to consider, I was unaware the 2023+ Ascent line now has Collision Assist integration until the bumper was ordered or might have gambled on getting one and hoping it’d line-up on the frame rails. I do not know if this would have worked out, but also know these newer Ascent’s are minus the headlight mid-bar protective tube.
With any regard, I am tickled about the outcome. Best part is my wife had put my truck projects on a moratorium so I made her buy it as my 25th wedding anniversary
. I know it’s going to cost me more when she finds something she wants, but all worth it!
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