jarrington
New Member
Our Ram's main job is to haul around a slide-in truck camper, and I found that the stock bumper prevented it from sliding all the way into the bed. I had to leave it 2-3" shy of the cab, which is bad for weight distribution and just kinda bugs me. So I decided to install an aftermarket bumper.
First attempt was a Steelcraft Fortis and I have to say, I was not impressed. Fitment was poor and instead of the bumper mounting directly to the stock mounts it had two little brackets that attach to the bumper and the stock mount. This made installation kind of a PITA, since you have to line up the bolts mounting the brackets to the truck and the bolts mounting the bumper to the brackets. Worst though it didn't tuck in nearly as well as the stock bumper, and the right side sat almost an inch further out than the left side even when adjusted as far in as it could go. I could have pulled out the left side to make it match better but that would pull the whole bumper out further from the tailgate, which defeats the purpose. Looking back the fact that the bumper was supposed to fit 2010-2018 1500s and 2010-2021 HD trucks was probably a bad sign - the old one size fits all poorly approach.
So I decided to return that and try out a Fab Fours Black Steel. This one is labeled specifically for 2019-2021 HDs and the fitment was night and day. It bolted right up to the factory mounts with no brackets and tucked in nice and close to the body with very little adjustment needed. It even came with a set of nice LED lights that I wired into the Aux1 switch using the passthrough to the blunt cut wires in the rear - shout out to @Brutal_HO for his instructions on the dash cam sticky. The instructions were much better as well. It's not perfect, as there were a few flaws in the finish and the provided wiring for the tag light wasn't great. I just soldered those connections anyway.
Of course Murphy's law struck - before I could remove the Steelcraft from the test fit my wife managed to back the truck into a pile of logs just enough to put a nice dent in the bumper. Not awful but enough to prevent a store return. So if anybody's interested in a poorly fitting slightly dented barely used Steelcraft rear bumper let me know.
First attempt was a Steelcraft Fortis and I have to say, I was not impressed. Fitment was poor and instead of the bumper mounting directly to the stock mounts it had two little brackets that attach to the bumper and the stock mount. This made installation kind of a PITA, since you have to line up the bolts mounting the brackets to the truck and the bolts mounting the bumper to the brackets. Worst though it didn't tuck in nearly as well as the stock bumper, and the right side sat almost an inch further out than the left side even when adjusted as far in as it could go. I could have pulled out the left side to make it match better but that would pull the whole bumper out further from the tailgate, which defeats the purpose. Looking back the fact that the bumper was supposed to fit 2010-2018 1500s and 2010-2021 HD trucks was probably a bad sign - the old one size fits all poorly approach.
So I decided to return that and try out a Fab Fours Black Steel. This one is labeled specifically for 2019-2021 HDs and the fitment was night and day. It bolted right up to the factory mounts with no brackets and tucked in nice and close to the body with very little adjustment needed. It even came with a set of nice LED lights that I wired into the Aux1 switch using the passthrough to the blunt cut wires in the rear - shout out to @Brutal_HO for his instructions on the dash cam sticky. The instructions were much better as well. It's not perfect, as there were a few flaws in the finish and the provided wiring for the tag light wasn't great. I just soldered those connections anyway.
Of course Murphy's law struck - before I could remove the Steelcraft from the test fit my wife managed to back the truck into a pile of logs just enough to put a nice dent in the bumper. Not awful but enough to prevent a store return. So if anybody's interested in a poorly fitting slightly dented barely used Steelcraft rear bumper let me know.
