The Black Horse Max Bull Bar would be a solid option for the 2004 to present truck owners
out there who are looking to grab one of the more affordable polished options in the category
and one of the few that will not incorporate some sort of skid plate.
Now, this is gonna be optimal for the EcoBoost owners out there who don't want to interfere
with airflow into the factory intercooler.
Your material will be full stainless steel throughout while the finish will be the brightly-polished
option we've already talked about and it will carry a three-year warranty all for right
around 200 bucks.
Now, since this bar is designed to fit such a wide variety of trucks, expect your installation
to vary slightly from gen to gen, but at its core, you're gonna be looking at a relatively
solid one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter here, and we will have a walkthrough
to come later in the video.
Now, first thing's first guys, typically a bull bar will be more of an appearance upgrade
more so than a functional piece of armor.
And while I would say that's true with most of your options in the category, the Black
Horse Off-Road option here is gonna be built with a little bit more strength and durability
in mind thanks to the combination of two things, the three-inch stainless steel tubing but
more importantly the triangulated supports down below here which will add an element
of strength and durability other options will simply not possess.
And I would say that's gonna be one of the things I enjoy most about the Black Horse
Max Bull Bar that we have here.
Now, don't get me wrong guys, it's certainly not gonna be as burly as a designated push
bar or something along those lines, but it will hold up to more abuse than your traditional
two-inch bull bars with some puny little skid plate.
Now secondly, as I pointed out earlier, if you have one of those EcoBoost powered trucks,
a majority of your options in the aftermarket bull bar category will incorporate some sort
of skid plate.
I'm sure you've seen them, you've probably been browsing some of your options.
And yes, those will serve a purpose for added protection but at the cost of blocking some
of the airflow into your factory-charged air cooler or otherwise known as your factory
intercooler.
And as you can see here guys, that's simply not gonna be the case with the Black Horse
Off-Road option wide open down below, nothing to block that airflow.
However, due to the design of this bar and more specifically on how it mounts, those
front tow hooks will not be able to be installed with the Black Horse Bull Bar in place.
So, just be aware of that when shopping around for your different options.
But aside from the design characteristics with the Max Bull Bar, truck owners can also
look forward to that 100% stainless steel build as mentioned earlier, in addition to
that brightly-polished finish as you can see right here, thing is shining like a mirror.
Now, this would no doubt be a great choice for the truck owners who wanna match some
existing chrome on your truck whether the bumpers or grille area or who maybe prefer
those parts to stand out a little bit more from your truck.
On the other hand, if you stumbled across this video, you really dig everything about
this particular Bull Bar minus that brightly-polished finish, well, you can also grab this thing
in black for roughly the same price from Black Horse Off-Road which again is roughly just
north of 200 bucks.
But let's switch gears and talk about the installation.
And again because this thing is designed to fit F150s from 2004 to present, expect your
install to be a little bit different from truck to truck and gen to gen.
For instance, some guys might encounter the smallest amount of trimming to the lower plastic
air dam area while other owners can simply bolt this thing up without any modification
whatsoever using those tow hook mounting locations.
But either way guys, here is a detailed walkthrough to give you a better idea of what you're in
for.
To attach this bull bar to your truck, you're gonna need to attach these brackets to the
front frame rails.
Now, if you have factory tow hooks, you're gonna need to remove those and you'll be able
to bolt these to the factory location.
If you don't have tow hooks, you're gonna need to cut this section out on your factory
bumper.
Now, since we have a cover on our factory tow hook, we're gonna have to remove our bumper
so we can pull that off and then get these installed.
So, to remove this bumper, you're gonna have three 21-millimeter nuts on both sides of
the frame rail.
The one on the backside is pretty hard to see.
It's down here on the outside of the frame rail.
And if you have factory fog lights, you're gonna wanna disconnect that wiring harness
as well.
So, we're gonna go ahead and take our impact and get this one removed.
Now, we're gonna do the other side.
This is the nut that I'm referring to.
It's a little hard to see and it's on the backside.
So, we're gonna use that same 21-millimeter to remove that nut.
Next, we're gonna remove these plastic panels so we can access the two 21-millimeter nuts
to remove this bumper.
So, now we're gonna do the same thing for the other side.
We're gonna pop this panel off.
So, before I get those two nuts removed, it'd be a good idea to have someone grab the other
side of this bumper before we pull this thing fully off.
So, with all of your hardware removed, you're ready to remove the bumper, I still have the
fog lights plugged in just so I can show you how they disconnect when we pull this out.
To unplug your fog lights, you're just gonna pull back on this clip and then disconnect
that.
You're gonna do the same thing for the other side.
So, now that we have access to our tow hooks, we're gonna take this cover off and then remove
the tow hook.
You're gonna do the same thing for the other side, you just pull down on the back and then
we'll pull it off on the front.
So, now you're gonna use a 15-millimeter socket to remove this front bolt and we're gonna
loosen the rear bolt.
Once you loosen it, you're just gonna slide the tow hook back and off of the bolt.
Do the same thing for the other side.
So now, we're ready to begin with our install.
First step, we're gonna attach these brackets before we get our bumper back on.
And like I said, we're reusing the stock bolts from our tow hitch.
So, now we're ready to install our bracket.
We're gonna slide our back edge on and then we're gonna insert our front bolt and we're
gonna snug these up a little bit.
You're gonna do the same thing for the other side, slide the back end in and then we'll
get the front bolt in.
We're gonna use our 15-millimeter socket to tighten these up.
You wanna leave them a little loose so we can have some adjustment.
So, now that we have our brackets on, we're ready to reinstall our front bumper.
I'm gonna have someone assist me while we put this back on.
So, now that we have our bumper on, we're gonna reinstall the two nuts up top.
We're gonna use a 21-millimeter socket to tighten those up.
And as we tighten them up, we're gonna try to center the bumper and adjust the height
as best as possible.
So, now that we have those a little snug, we wanna take our bumper and we'll wanna lift
it up so we close this gap up here.
And we'll tighten this side and then we'll go do the same thing for the other side.
So, before we crawl under the truck to put that last nut and plug the fog light harnesses
back in, we're gonna put these on.
So these just slap right on.
You're gonna orient that at the top and that's gonna go in that top hole.
Same thing goes for the other side.
Just make sure you line it up properly and then it just slaps on.
So now we're gonna install our nut on the backside and then tighten that up with a 21-millimeter.
Now, you can plug your fog light back in.
Your fog light is gonna be located up here.
It's kind of hard to see.
But this is just gonna clip back on.
So, now that the bumper is on and tight, everything's plugged back in, we're ready to install our
bull bar onto those brackets that we previously installed.
Now, this bull bar is gonna sit on the inside of these brackets.
We're gonna get this one side on.
So, we're gonna take a bolt with a washer and we're gonna place that through the outside
going in.
On the inside, you're gonna put a washer, a lock washer and a nut.
Same thing goes for the other side.
And place a washer, a lock washer, and then a nut.
So, with both sides in, we're ready to tighten these up.
Now, these have slotted holes, so you can adjust the angle of the bull bar.
We're gonna use an 18-millimeter socket and wrench to tighten them.
So, once you have the one side tight, you can do the other side.
So, we're gonna get a little snug and then we're gonna adjust it to where we want it
and then tighten it up the rest of the way.
So, after you have your bull bar tightened to your brackets, you're gonna tighten your
brackets down to the frame.
You're gonna use a 15-millimeter wrench to do this.
You're gonna do the same thing for the other side.
So, with everything adjusted and tighten up properly, that wraps up our review and install.
For more videos like this, check us out at americantrucks.com.