What's new
By:
Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What are these brackets and can I remove them?

Shocktrooper392

Shocktrooper392

Active Member
Messages
123
Reaction score
216
Points
43
Crawled under my truck earlier to remove my front air dam - I see the 4,000 10mm fasteners, clips, 2 brackets, etc to remove - doesn't look difficult at all. However, I noticed these low hanging brackets off the frame that will hang lower than the bumper after I remove the air dam.

Inked20230218_115942.jpg
Inked20230218_115919.jpg

If I had to guess, I would assume they are for an intercooler if the truck was a cummins. They do not appear to be attached to anything, just bolted through the frame.
 
As above, You “can“ remove them. Should you remove them? Well they were put there for a reason, if you were involved in an accident and the other car submarined because the brackets were removed,
and someone in the other car passed or was injured you would be burdened with the guilt for the rest of your life. They don’t hurt anything (except my head when I banged it against it changing my oil filter once), so might as well just leave them in place. Plus they act as a bit of protection for the winch when off-roading.
 
@Darkone hit the nail on the head here. Up to you if you want to remove them. They are a safety feature for other smaller vehicles, not for you. Take that as you will.

One interesting tidbit to note, they aren't on the 3500 because it's over the weight cap the NHTSA put for these things, so it's only the 2500 that has them (or should be anyway).
 
Defiantly not for the intercooler.

UglyViking said:
@Darkone hit the nail on the head here. Up to you if you want to remove them. They are a safety feature for other smaller vehicles, not for you. Take that as you will.

One interesting tidbit to note, they aren't on the 3500 because it's over the weight cap the NHTSA put for these things, so it's only the 2500 that has them (or should be anyway).
Click to expand...

Makes sense.

They were in the manual for my front receiver, but my truck doesn’t have them.
 
Buy one of these

www.cjcoffroad.com

CJC Built 2019+ Ram 2500/3500 Skid Plate Intercooler Guard

CJC Built 2019+ RAM 2500/3500 skid plate Intercooler guard will eliminate the weak plastic front bumper valance that is supposed to protect your intercooler in your 2019+ Ram 2500/3500 Cummins with the CJC metal Intercooler Guard Skid Plate. These require no drilling or modification to fit!
www.cjcoffroad.com www.cjcoffroad.com

Looks sexy as heck and keeps the brackets.
 
@jetrinka yea your right on that. Definitely cleans up the look of the front end. I added the CJC intercooler guard to mine along with the compatibility brackets as like @UglyViking said 3500’s aren’t required to have them, and mine didn’t come with them
 
One other thing to consider as part of this conversation. These brackets are supposed to be low enough so that they interact with the frame portion of smaller vehicles. the NHTSA calls these "SEAS" (Secondary Energy Absorbing Structure), and they are included when a truck is too tall and thus not enough of it's PEAS (Primary Energy Absorbing Structure) overlaps with that of other passenger cars. Here are some interesting docs with pics and renders that may be interesting to anyone interested in the topic (doc 1, doc 2).

The thing to consider, if your vehicle lifted? These brackets are only what 6-9" tall? Are you running larger tires? All in all, for most guys running a basic 2" level, plus 35s, you're talking about almost 3" being removed from that bar, and keep in mind that the bottom part of the bar is most likely receiving the most contact due to how tall these trucks already are. If you're jumping up to a Thuren tall coil, a Carli kit, or AEV, you're talking about 3" up front plus 37s, so roughly 2" from stock. So now we are up to 5" taller than stock, which removes most of the brackets contact surface, and the most important area. Guys with 6" and up lifts, absolutely no reason for them to be there.

Now, assuming they don't bother you from a looks perspective, and you're not lifted tall enough to make them completely worthless, no real harm in keeping them. My point here is that as you change your truck, you're also changing how these were designed by the OEM, and they start to work less or not at all. If you really care about other drivers, maybe you should have some longer ones made? ;)
 
Thanks for everyone's input, I really appreciate it!

jetrinka said:
Buy one of these

www.cjcoffroad.com

CJC Built 2019+ Ram 2500/3500 Skid Plate Intercooler Guard

CJC Built 2019+ RAM 2500/3500 skid plate Intercooler guard will eliminate the weak plastic front bumper valance that is supposed to protect your intercooler in your 2019+ Ram 2500/3500 Cummins with the CJC metal Intercooler Guard Skid Plate. These require no drilling or modification to fit!
www.cjcoffroad.com www.cjcoffroad.com

Looks sexy as heck and keeps the brackets.
Click to expand...

jadmt said:
View attachment 52181View attachment 52182
Click to expand...

I do want the CJC guard and have it on my list for the truck. Thank you @jadmt for posting this, my next question was going to be if the CJC guard mounts to these brackets. I'm gonna leave them on since I do plan to get the guard later on.
 
I just sent mine out in the mail to some dude with a 3500 so he could mount a CJC guard. Looking at them there is no way past a 5mph crash they are going to do anything to effect the outcome of a collision with a smaller vehicle. They would snap right off. You would really need a under run bar like on a semi trailer to prevent riding up on a rice rocket.
 
Rockcrawlerdude said:
To guard what intercooler?
Click to expand...
I use mine to protect the winch. Between snow, sand, branches, rocks, etc. I want to try and keep crap out of the winch area. I have beat it up pretty good and it is bent, but it is still mounted on the truck. I probably could take it off and hammer it flat so it doesn't look so wonky. :)
 
Wobly said:
I use mine to protect the winch. Between snow, sand, branches, rocks, etc. I want to try and keep crap out of the winch area. I have beat it up pretty good and it is bent, but it is still mounted on the truck. I probably could take it off and hammer it flat so it doesn't look so wonky. :)
Click to expand...
If you’re happy with your purchase that’s awesome. I’m sure it looks cool under the truck.

IMHO you don’t need to protect the winch, It’s likely the most robust thing on the truck. If you think you broke the winch by bashing something into it, you’ve set off the airbags and the winch is probably still fine. It still works under mud and under water. You’ve only limited access to it and created a reverse mud scoop. Just my opinion. If you wanted to make an argument for protecting the winch it would need to be protecting the rope from UV rays.
 
Rockcrawlerdude said:
If you’re happy with your purchase that’s awesome. I’m sure it looks cool under the truck.

IMHO you don’t need to protect the winch, It’s likely the most robust thing on the truck. If you think you broke the winch by bashing something into it, you’ve set off the airbags and the winch is probably still fine. It still works under mud and under water. You’ve only limited access to it and created a reverse mud scoop. Just my opinion. If you wanted to make an argument for protecting the winch it would need to be protecting the rope from UV rays.
Click to expand...
Different environments. If I were in Georgia, mud would be my primary concern. In Colorado, we have very little mud, but a lot of snow and a lot of rocks. Not disputing the fact that the winch will work under those conditions. My statement really should have said "...keep crap away from the winch line on the drum". As for protecting the winch line, I switched the Warn Spydura line to a Safe-Xtract line. Only the rubber dipped loop protrudes from the fairlead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top