Hardcore Custom Truck Bumper Installation

This old 2006 Dodge Ram truck needed some beefing up, and the best way to do that was to add a custom bumper. Something that would allow me to Dodge "RAM" anything in my path.

I'll be using the MOVE bumper package from https://www.movebumpers.com/

The project took 1 day to install and another hour or 2 to paint.

Tools:

Welding Masks

Grinder

Welder and Welding Cart

Wrench

Materials:

The MOVE bumper kit comes with all of the metal pieces

Carbon Steel Solid Wire .030"

Paint color of choice

Couple of Cold Beers

To begin, I popped the hood of the truck so I had some wiggle room.

Then removed the 2 bolts on each mounting bracket - this will release the bumper.

You may need to remove the bolts from the filter in the 2nd image here for additional wiggle room.

So far, so easy.

Next, I lined up a new mounting bracket that came in the MOVE kit to the bracket on the truck where the previous bumper was installed.

I used the same old bolts and fastened on the new mounts to both the left and right side of the truck (left a little wiggle room with the bolts).

Eventually I'll come back to this part and remove these 2 bolts once the whole thing is assembled.

Once I have my mounts ready to go, I went and held up the center bumper piece and lined it up to where the ends were flush with the mounting bracket ends.

The kit has extremely precise and clean cuts so it's pretty obvious as to how these connect.

I tacked the center bumper onto these brackets just for a slight hold for now. I'll come back and weld everything once all of the pieces are connected.

The base of the bumper is essentially done and will be the main unit of the bumper.

There are a few other parts of this bumper and yours may be different if you purchase other types of kits.

The one I have included a few side brackets to complete the look.

These simply welded on to the sides of the center bumper, and again, I'm just tacking it on and not fulling welding it quite yet.

Then there were 2 more smaller end pieces to just finish off the look.

These hug right under the lights. During this time, you can really see how level your bumper is - just step back and get a visual of how it looks on your vehicle. You can also determine how level it is by looking at how far it drops below the headlights on each side.

I went ahead and partially welded these on.

The very last pieces to connect are these top 2 design plates.

They cover the top of the mount and are also welded on.

Pretty simple!

Everything was held together pretty well with the tacks I made.

I did my last visual inspection and it looked level to me so I removed the entire bumper from the truck

Now was the time that I welded this whole thing, inside and out. Remember, I'm building this to Dodge "RAM" some stuff, so this needs to be sturdy.

After welding, I grinded down the weld joints with a grinder and cleaned the whole face of the bumper up.

The bumper is ready to go at this point and some people like the look of the raw steel.

In my case, I wanted to paint it black to match some of the other features of the Dodge RAM Truck.

I spray painted this black and just did a couple of coats for now. I really plan on using and abusing this thing so I'm not going to powder coat it or sand or anything special - just paint.

For the GRAND FINALE....

Time to install using the same method you used to install the original mounting brackets in the 3rd step above. Use the two bolts for each left and right mount and fasten it on. Now make it TIGHT.

You're all set to go - go bump some stuff.

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Consider it :)

Thank you so much for following along and I'll see y'all on the next one!