The DV8 full-width front bumper that we have here will be one of the most affordable ways
to bulletproof the front-end of your 2004 to 2008 F-150, while also adding a ton of
functionality as well.
Now, the DV8 will combine high-tensile strength steel, along with four LED cube lights and
a winch mount capable of supporting up to a 12,500-pound winch, all for right around
800 bucks.
Now, install is going to get a strong two-out-of-three wrenches on the difficulty meter here, due
to the sheer size and weight of the bumper itself.
But, if you hang with me for a little bit, we'll show you how it's done later in the
video.
So, the land of aftermarket bumpers can be a rather expensive one.
However, DV8 is a company that tends to keep things rather affordable overall, as is the
case with this three-piece, full-width bumper that we have here.
Now, full disclosure, guys.
The site is going to advertise this bumper as being, quote, elegant and streamlined.
But I'm here to tell you this thing resembles more of a reinforced steel clenched fist,
because there's really nothing streamlined about it.
And I don't think that's a bad thing here, as protection is its obvious first priority,
with some functionality baked in.
So, what do you say we talk about it?
But, with that said, what do you say we start with protection first and foremost?
DV8 is going to use a combination of the 3/16-inch high-tensile strength steel for I'd say the
majority of the build here.
But, they do reinforce certain key areas with 1/4-inch thick steel, namely your winch plate,
D-ring mounts, things like that.
Now, that steel has been finished off in the two-stage black powder coat, textured black
powder coat I should say, to help prevent corrosion for one, but also to help keep that
bumper looking good for many years to come.
Now, if you should run into any issues down the road, DV8 does offer a three-year manufacturers'
warranty against any possible defects.
But, protection aside, the DV8 is also packing a ton of functionality and inclusions as well
which, for an entry-level price point, is a very nice thing to point out.
First up, guys, they do include four three-inch cube lights to be used with the bumper in
the pre-cut holes for you.
Each cube light is packing six individual high-powered LEDs.
So, nice bump up in auxiliary lighting here that is included with the DV8.
Now, secondly, the bumper does include two high-strength steel D-rings to be used with
your recovery points here, or D-ring mounts.
And, again, that's something that companies don't always toss in, but kudos to DV8 for
including them, again, on an entry-level option.
Now, last but not least, the full-width option that we have here is winch-compatible and
can support up to a 12,500-pound winch of your choosing, as long as it utilizes a 10
by 4.5-inch mounting base, which, by the way, that weight capacity is pretty burly.
Now, I'm sure I don't have to tell you guys the importance of adding a winch to your rig
from a recovery aspect, or even utilitarian purposes, but you'll never appreciate it more,
trust me, than the first time you or one of you buddies gets a little jammed up and needs
a little help.
Now, that base plate, again, does feature that 1/4-inch thick steel plating, and it
does have a cut-out right up here, guys, as you can see, for your winch line along with
your fairlead, which, by the way, it should accept pretty much any fairlead out there.
But now we want to show you just what it takes to get this monster installed on your 2004
to 2008 F-150 at home.
And, again, interesting note here with the construction.
Know this bumper is not busted.
This is how it comes.
It's a three-piece design.
So, you have your base portion here, which is going to be basically housing your winch,
D-rings, things like that, and then you have your two caps here, which will house some
of your lighting as well.
I will say this multi-piece design definitely makes the install a little bit easier, because
you're losing a little bit of weight, but either way it's still kind of a knuckle-buster
here, guys, but as promised here's that detailed walk-through with my buddy Joe to help you
through the job.
Joe: For this install, I used a 1/4-inch drive cordless impact gun, three-eigths drive cordless
impact gun, three-eighths drive cordless ratchet, 1/4-inch drive cordless ratchet, 10-millimeter
socket, 8-millimeter socket, 10-millimeter universal socket, 15-millimeter socket, 18-millimeter
socket, 21-millimeter socket, 18-millimeter ratcheting wrench, 18-millimeter box wrench,
10-millimeter box wrench, electrical pliers, clip panel removal tool, a butane solder torch,
pneumatic reciprocating body saw, and a dead blow hammer.
Okay.
So the first step of our removal process is going to be to pop the hood and remove the
hood latch using a 10-millimeter socket.
With your hood latch out of the way, using a 10-millimeter socket and an 8-millimeter
socket, you're going to remove your five bolts securing the fascia piece to the front-end.
Now, continuing to use our 10-millimeter socket, we're going to remove the three 10-millimeter
bolts that hold the headlights in, to expose some of the hidden hardware for the fascia.
All right.
Now, with a little bit of pressure, just slide your headlight
out.
Now unclip your lights and you can remove your headlight.
Now, with our hardware exposed, we can get the remaining bolts for the front fascia.
Continuing with the 10-millimeter socket, we're going to remove the three bolts on the
inside of the fender here to get the front fascia off.
So, I know it's hard to see, but there's actually three bolts on the inside of this fender.
Two right here in the front that are pointed up, you can get them from behind the headlight,
and one on the inside of the wheel arch, right behind the fender flare.
Now you can remove the one clip and the two nuts that hold the fender flare to the front
fascia piece so that you can remove the front fascia from the vehicle.
All right.
Finally, using your 10-millimeter socket, you can remove the 2 support brackets on either side.
Now we can pop the front fascia off and start working on removing the front bumper.
Now we can unhook our fog lights from the front bumper and start removing the nuts.
With a 21-millimeter socket, remove the 4 nuts that secure the front bumper to the frame.
With the nuts removed, you can pull the front bumper off.
If your truck is equipped with tow hooks, you're going to want to use a 15-millimeter
socket and remove the 4 bolts that hold the tow hooks to the frame rails.
All right.
So, the first step now that we have our bumper up on the table is going to be to install
the provided gasket in between the center section and the wing section that goes on
later.
All right.
Now, using the supplied hardware from DV8, you can start assembling the wings to the
center section of the bumper.
With the wings loosely attached, I'm going to use an 18-millimeter socket and wrench
and I'm just going to snug the bolts up just a little bit, so that I can still adjust things
later, so that I can get everything lined up once it's on the vehicle.
All right.
Now we're just going to repeat the process for the other side.
As you can see, I've got an extra set of hands to just make things a little easier, to hold
things in place while I get everything bolted up.
Once again, I'm just going to loosely tighten up these bolts so that I can leave some adjustment
for later.
All right.
Now we're going to move on to installing our fog lights supplied by DV8 into the front-bumper.
They give you all the hardware and Allen keys that you need to install these into the front
bumper.
I have mine on a small impact gun and a 10-millimeter wrench to tighten up all the nuts and bolts.
The next step is going to be to install our bumper brackets onto the bumper itself before
we install the whole thing onto the frame rail.
Once again, I'm going to loosely install my hardware so that I have adjustments when I
put this thing onto the vehicle.
All right.
So, in preparation for putting our bumper onto the vehicle, we're going to wire up the
cube lights.
There's a lot of different ways you can do this.
I wired my two cube lights together, red-to-red, black-to-black, and I'm going to put a spade
connector on the end of each wire.
I'll then tie that into a harness that's on the vehicle so that I can switch them from
inside the cab.
As I mentioned before, there's a lot of different ways you can wire up these cube lights that
come with the DV8 front bumper.
Since our vehicle was equipped with fog lights originally, we're going to tap into the fog
light harness and use the switch inside the cab to work the lights.
So, I'm going to cut the connector off and tap into my power and ground circuits and
just add a small spade connector that I can hook into the cube lights that I added onto
the back of the bumper.
All right.
So a little bit of clearancing is going to need to be done on your fender flare to mate
up on the body line on the bumper.
So, what I'm going to do is trim the end of the fender flare off following the body line
of the fender so that it matches up nicely with our DV8 bumper.
All right.
So, this bumper is pretty heavy, so I got two of my friends here to help me get it up
into place.
Joe and I are going to get this up onto the frame rails, and Adam's going to get the bolts
started at the bottom.
All right.
So, as I mentioned before, I left all my bolts loose to make my adjustments here at the end
after I put the bumper on the vehicle.
I've got my buddy Adam over here to hold the corner of the bumper up into place, while
I tighten up my bolts underneath.
So, now, using an 18-millimeter socket and wrench, I'm going to tighten up all my wing
bolts to get the bumper fully secured.
All right.
Now I can make my electrical connections for my cube lights in the bumper.
All right.
Now, I'm going to use the provided bolt to bolt down the hood release bracket to the
DV8 bumper.
Now we've got our bumper secured in place and adjusted the way we needed to, we can
start putting our headlights back in to wrap this thing up.
And that's going to wrap up my install for the DV8 full-width off-road front bumper for
your '04 to '08 F-150.
For all things F-150, keep it right here at AmericanTrucks.com.