So, literally, my only complaint about my new (to me) 2015 F450 is the lighting sucks.
I did a bunch of reading, and finally settled on Rough Country for several reasons, cost, various internet reviews, and pictures of fit and finish. I purchased their 30" LED light bar, and their 36w LED Ford Fog lamp Retrofit kit. Now - I didn't do both projects today, so if some of these pictures seem a little off on their timeline, that's why.
I did the bar light first. I saw one picture out on the interweb of it being mounted in the grill rather than the usual bumper mount or high-windshield mount (and to me, on a truck, both are very gawdy looking) . So I decided to go full-stealth, behind the grill. I will say this, when it was all said and done, you'd think they made this light on purpose just for this. (OK, they kinda did).
ok, first, the usual disclaimer, I'm not affiliated with Rough Country..... Second disclaimer - For the light haters - I will never run the light bar on a road with on-coming traffic. Unless of course they're being an arse with their highbeams...:B
First - I removed the grill AND grill subassembly so I could do all of the fit and trimming on my workbench. When removing a Ford front grill, you can do either - just the grill, or grill+sub assembly which makes the latter half of this pretty nice.
In this picture, the grill has been removed, sub assembly still on the truck. Look closely and you'll see which fasteners are holding on the subassembly VS. the actual grill itself---
Grill and subassembly on my bench, mounting light bar to subassembly with grill separated.
A very slight amount of trimming needed to be done to the inner grill to flush fit the light behind it.
Grill and subassembly fit together on my bench
Subassmbly alone put back on truck
Light connected to Ford Upfitter switch
Now, Foglights.
I did the foglights today. First thing I discovered that's NOT in the manual that came with the kit - it is WAY easier to just take the grill back out and then remove the headlight assemblies. The top two bolts holding the foglight buckets in are a PITA to get to if you follow the instructions. Get the headlights out, and wow, 10 seconds yer done.
Grill and headlight assemblies out of the way
Now, wow, super easy to get to the top bolts--
Here's the kit installed into the factory foglight bucket
I did the first one with the grill on, and said to heck with that, but here are the before/after pics with just ONE lamp done for comparison---
Here we are all done...... Light bar and fog lights mounted.
With just the factory headlights
After - (The light bar is so bright, it closed the iris on my camera down and made the headlights look dimmer)
I also have LED replacement headlight kits coming. I'll add to this or just do another post when they get here.
I did a bunch of reading, and finally settled on Rough Country for several reasons, cost, various internet reviews, and pictures of fit and finish. I purchased their 30" LED light bar, and their 36w LED Ford Fog lamp Retrofit kit. Now - I didn't do both projects today, so if some of these pictures seem a little off on their timeline, that's why.
I did the bar light first. I saw one picture out on the interweb of it being mounted in the grill rather than the usual bumper mount or high-windshield mount (and to me, on a truck, both are very gawdy looking) . So I decided to go full-stealth, behind the grill. I will say this, when it was all said and done, you'd think they made this light on purpose just for this. (OK, they kinda did).
ok, first, the usual disclaimer, I'm not affiliated with Rough Country..... Second disclaimer - For the light haters - I will never run the light bar on a road with on-coming traffic. Unless of course they're being an arse with their highbeams...:B
First - I removed the grill AND grill subassembly so I could do all of the fit and trimming on my workbench. When removing a Ford front grill, you can do either - just the grill, or grill+sub assembly which makes the latter half of this pretty nice.
In this picture, the grill has been removed, sub assembly still on the truck. Look closely and you'll see which fasteners are holding on the subassembly VS. the actual grill itself---
Grill and subassembly on my bench, mounting light bar to subassembly with grill separated.
A very slight amount of trimming needed to be done to the inner grill to flush fit the light behind it.
Grill and subassembly fit together on my bench
Subassmbly alone put back on truck
Light connected to Ford Upfitter switch
Now, Foglights.
I did the foglights today. First thing I discovered that's NOT in the manual that came with the kit - it is WAY easier to just take the grill back out and then remove the headlight assemblies. The top two bolts holding the foglight buckets in are a PITA to get to if you follow the instructions. Get the headlights out, and wow, 10 seconds yer done.
Grill and headlight assemblies out of the way
Now, wow, super easy to get to the top bolts--
Here's the kit installed into the factory foglight bucket
I did the first one with the grill on, and said to heck with that, but here are the before/after pics with just ONE lamp done for comparison---
Here we are all done...... Light bar and fog lights mounted.
With just the factory headlights
After - (The light bar is so bright, it closed the iris on my camera down and made the headlights look dimmer)
I also have LED replacement headlight kits coming. I'll add to this or just do another post when they get here.
Impressive, neat-and-tidy install! Really like how you've done it. I've also recently added lights. But I went old school.
dadwolf2 wrote:
Looks awesome and great installation. I thought those LED's are technically "off-road" use only though?
OP wrote wrote:
Second disclaimer - For the light haters - I will never run the light bar on a road with on-coming traffic. Unless of course they're being an arse with their highbeams...
I am always skeptic with such statements.
Too often I drive on the freeway or highway with a divider and guys from other side "have no clue" why I am flashing high beams in their direction.
Technology goes long way but with all lights you have to check certification.
We just sold wagon that had high-discharge headlights. Very expensive option and the newer sedan with only projection halogens is poor cry in light department.
Then in lot of countries using fog-lights without the fog is against the law.
I like the stealth mount of the LED bar, assuming it is for use on dirt roads only.
