Hey, what's going on, guys?
Adam here with americanmuscle.com.
Today I'm bringing you a detailed overview of the Barricade Extreme HD front bumper with
your choice of either having the LED fog, spot and center lights or just the LED spot
lights, fitting all 2015 and newer F-150s.
So in this video I'll be touching on the quality of the materials you can expect when picking
up this bumper, as well as the functionality, styling and even the installation, which I'll
tell you up front will get two different methods for me to choose from.
The first method does not require any cutting and will get a one out of three wrenches on
the difficulty meter.
On the other hand, the second method will require some cutting for you to cut off the
subframe extension, which will get a two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter.
The Barricade Extreme HD front bumper with the LED fog lights, spotlights and center
light bar or just the spotlights themselves, going to be for the 2015 and newer F-150 owner
out there looking to pick up a very protective front bumper for the front end of their F-150,
while also getting a lot of extra lighting features not only for styling, but for visibility
and safety as well.
The bumper I have here today is a part of the HD or heavy duty series of front bumpers
from Barricade for your F-150 that offers a few different levels for you to choose from.
Now this one has a few additional features that make it a very uniquely designed, direct,
durable upgrade for your F-150 to get rid of that wimpy stock front bumper.
Now as you can see on both sides of the bumper, there's actually specific cutouts to mount
the LED fog, spot and center light bars, making this one stand out from the pack of other
bumpers on the market.
Now in addition to the cutouts that allow you to mount the extra LED lights, what makes
this kit actually stand out from some of the other durable protective bumpers out there
is this kit actually comes with perfect high output LED fog lights, spot lights and a center
light bar to go directly in the middle here, which sets it apart from other options out
there.
This one offers not only the cutouts but the LED outputs that actually fit perfectly in
the cutouts for a very straightforward, very simple installation, which I'll get to in
a little bit.
As you can see on both sides, there is a deep pocket here that is perfectly made to fit
those specific LED fog lights and spotlights.
Now, one of each will actually go into this pocket and mount up top above the honeycomb
backing, which is actually removable if you don't want to put the lights in there.
But if you do, it's highly recommended to keep them.
So in addition to the two fog and spotlights on the side, the center light bar with LED
high output lighting will go right here in the middle where this CNC laser-cut spot is
perfectly made to fit that actual light bulb.
So in front of where the center light bar will go, you can see there is a V-shaped cutout
here as well as two lines cut out on the sides where the spot and fog lights will go.
Definitely this is for added aggressive design, but it's also for a very, very enhanced airflow.
Now it's not going to make a drastic difference, but this way it is able to help the airflow
flow right through the bumper without giving it any drag.
Now as far as the materials go, you can expect a 10-gauge heavy duty stainless steel CNC
laser-cut openings for the fog and spotlights as well as the center light bar.
If you don't decide to go with the package, that's fine too, but this is definitely going
to be useful for the guys out there doing some night driving, some night work with the
truck or even some light off-roading, who need that extra protection and need that extra
visibility for added safety.
Now to top it all off, as if this front bumper wasn't badass enough, it is black powder coated
with a textured finish just to give it the aggressive good looks and also to keep it
corrosion-resistant for long time usage.
So I will say that the Barricade HD series front bumpers aren't the most protective front
bumpers on the market.
If you are looking for maximum protection for the front end of your truck, I would suggest
picking up the Iron Cross HD series front bumpers.
Only downside to those are they do have the cutouts for the additional light features
but they don't actually include them in the kit, so you'd have to pick those up separately
and the bumper itself will cost more than this one does and this one even includes the
lights.
So there is a lot of bang for your buck with this option given that it does give you the
heavy duty steel gauges as well as the additional light fixtures.
Now price-wise I know what's on a lot of your guys' mind, "What is this going to cost me?"
Now this one is going to be about $1,200, which definitely is a lot for a front bumper
but you want to take into consideration you're getting not the most protective front bumper,
but a heavy duty gauge steel that will protect your lower front end from small trail hazards
and everything you will run into on a day to day, especially with a work truck.
You do want to take into consideration not only does it have the cutouts for lights,
but it actually includes the high output LED fog lights, spotlights and center light bar.
Now if you're only interested in picking up the other option out there that looks exactly
the same as this with the spotlights, you can pick that up for a couple hundred dollars
less.
Now jumping into the installation, as I mentioned in the beginning of the video, this one will
really have two methods of installation for you to choose from.
Now, the first method, which will be a little bit easier, does not require any cutting.
The cutting method gets the two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter because you
will have to cut the bolts off that hold the subframe extensions onto your front bumper.
Our installation team found that you don't even have to do that.
If you don't want to do any cutting and do the one out of three wrench difficulty meter
installation, then you will not have to cut off that front subframe extension.
We found that this fits directly over it.
The only issue is you will be able to see the subframe extensions through the actual
bumper, which most people, like myself, do not find that to be an issue.
But if you want to cut them off, you can definitely go for that.
For all installation purposes in this video, we will not be using the cutting method.
We'll just be putting this right over the subframe extension.
So to kick things off, you want to remove your factory front bumper.
It may be easier to do this with a helping hand as well.
Before you get the whole thing off, remember if you have the EcoBoost models, you'll be
removing bumper pads and if you have fog lights installed as well, you want to unplug that
harness and release it from the clips on the back of the bumper.
With a helping hand you want to put this into place on a mounting flange on the actual frame
and bolt it down using the hard rail on the driver's side, repeating the process for the
opposite side as well.
Now whether or not you're going with a kit that includes the center light, spotlight,
and fog light, or just the spotlights themselves, this installation is going to be very similar.
Now with the center light bar, you'll attach the brackets to the respective sides and then
the center light bar will mount onto the brackets and the same thing will apply to the spot
and fog lights of course.
It will only matter if you're going spot or both of them.
The only difference with the spot and fog lights as opposed to the center light bar
is instead of the brackets, the spot and fog lights will mount to already precut slots
above the honeycombed backing on the actual side of the bumper and repeating the process
for the other side as well.
Now the wiring isn't the hardest job at all either.
The only thing that's going to matter is where you want the wiring switch to end up, so you
might have to end up drilling, depending on where you want that switch to be.
You'll be attaching the relay to the firewall as you see here, and running the wires up
the firewall and attaching it to that relay.
So the power and ground wires will run through your firewall and connect directly into your
battery, connecting to both battery terminals.
The switch, like I said, will be completely up to you.
Some people can run it up through a preexisting grommet in your center console or run it under
your dash.
This one is very customizable.
It'll definitely be up to your personal preference.
So overall, you'll be looking at spending about two hours or so on the installation,
depending on which route you take.
If you take the non-cutting route, this definitely gets a one out of three wrenches on the difficulty
meter.
If you deal with the cutting, I will give it a two out of three just because it is a
little bit more demanding.
Overall, definitely something you can get done in the driveway at home with a helping
hand.
So just to quickly wrap things up, guys, if you're the owner of a 2015 or newer F-150
and you're looking for a way to swap out your factory front bumper for a more protective
and tougher front bumper with additional lighting features, you might want to check out Barricade's
Extreme HD front bumper with either the center light LEDs, spotlight and fog lights, or just
the LED spotlights themselves, all of which are available right here at americanmuscle.com.
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