Ford Super Duty Brakes, Bumpers, and Lights - Taking Care Of Our STD

Staff Shop

No, it's not what you think. That's what we've decided to name our Super Duty. It stands for Super Turd Diesel. This truck has been passed around more than a ... well, you know ... and nobody really gave it too much love or gave it a name. Considering the problems that plague many 6.0L diesel engines (including ours) and the hub fire/failure we had on the way to Moab, Utah, earlier this year, we thought it was only fitting to call this truck the STD. But we're still going to treat this truck with as much love and respect as the rest of our fleet and in no way try to get rid of it. In fact, we made a special 64-hour trip out to Moab just to rescue this truck after the hub failure. And of course, we couldn't just fix the truck while we were out there. We took the opportunity to give the truck a good maintenance check and improve some of the most important safety features on the truck - namely the bumpers, the brakes, and the lights.

But first we had to rebuild/replace the front hubs and brakes at Grandpa's Garage, also known as the house of our pal Danny Grimes.

With the help of Danny, Dynatrac, and the local Moab Ford dealership, we were able to get our STD back on the road and ready to test out some new bumpers, brakes, and lights.

Luckily, Jim McGean of Dynatrac was in Moab when we got towed into Danny's place. He kindly came over to take a look and advise us on what to do, even though they were not his parts. The parts were not available in town, so we'd have to leave the truck and come back a month later.	Take a close look at this brake caliper and caliper bracket. These were the only things holding a 41-inch tire on the truck at highway speeds when it broke. They wore completely through in the time it took us to stop. Another few seconds, and that tire and wheel would have completely left the truck.	The innkeeper himself, Danny Grimes, actually took our inner axle and stub shaft apart for us. He must have really wanted this truck out of his house! It is a rare sight that Danny will lift a wrench. He is very generous and very hospitable, but he's worked on too many trucks for too long, and now that he's retired to Moab, he is happy to point you in the right direction to his toolbox, so you can do the work yourself.
Left is a new Dyantrac hub conversion spindle, and right is a new stub shaft (outer axleshaft). At the center is our old spindle and stub shaft. You can see for yourself how bad it got in there. The spindle and shaft are completely welded together.Luckily for us, Jim had taken pity on us and sent out a Dynatrac spindle, hub, bearings, and nuts to put our STD back together.	That rust-colored water dripping out of the hub? Hmm, yes, that might have been the cause of the hub failure on the other side of the truck. We'll be repacking and cleaning this one too before our drive home. Remember that this is what can happen if your crazy publisher borrows the truck and gets stuck in a river one day.	Since we knew we'd have both sides apart, we took the forethought to get some of Dynatrac's new DynaLoc locking hubs to install on our ride. DynaLocs are engaged the same way as any other hub but have a different design that makes them a failsafe hub. If they break, they break in a permanently engaged position. You can look for an in-depth story on how they work in the Oct. '08 issue of OFF-ROAD.
We like how the lines were steel tube for the first few inches that attach to the brake caliper. This type of design ensures that a flexible line will never get pulled into a moving part around the hub. By the way, that shiny new caliper and bracket came out to around three bills at the Ford dealership, so remember how expensive maintenance neglect can be.	Now that the truck was able to roll again, we had to address the brakes that had gotten wasted in the hub failure.Since the brake lines on the truck were sort of old and nasty anyway, we took this opportunity to upgrade to some Superlift extended-length Bulletproof brake lines. They are Teflon braided stainless steel lines covered in insulation to protect the steel braiding from fraying.	The rear brake line went on much the same as the front. Application-specific lines like this are really nice because all the ends and brackets are cut to install and work the same as the factory ones.
We know that bumpers and lights weren't necessary to fix our truck (the brakes were), but how could we wrench on it and not take the opportunity to start turning this into a real truck?! We took one look at that fiberglass faux bumper that was on our truck and pitched it into our buddy's backyard. This truck was going from show-truck life to a support-and-work-duty life, and we had Off Road Tech (ORT) send us some badass bumpers we could actually use.	The rear bumper uses a 3-inch, 0.120-wall main tube with a 2-inch, 0.120-wall lower tube as the main structure. Ten-gauge steel acts as the deck on top of the bumper, so you can stand up on it or sit things on it while working (something really useful in a bumper).Attaching the bumper to the truck frame are 3/8-inch plate brackets, and ORT cuts a lot of holes into the 3/8-inch plate to reduce weight. This rear bumper weighs in at only 75 pounds.	ORT's front bumper is made up of 3- and 2-inch tubes, along with 3/8- and 3/16-inch plate steel, but still weighs in at only 185 pounds due to the generous amount of holes cut into the plate steel where structural integrity was not compromised.The winch tray has provision for a six-bolt mounting pattern that some 15,000- and 16,000-pound winches call for.
ORT's bumpers come unfinished to cut costs for customers and negate any hassles with scratches during shipment. We had ours painted to match our truck at Earl Scheib Paint & Body. Why not powdercoat? Once powdercoat is broken through, it tends to get eaten away and chip over time. Paint can be touched up easily with a touch-up kit. Since we were planning on "using" these bumpers, paint was the way to go.Peter Russell of our local Earl Scheib Paint & Body shop helped us get four bolts into each framehorn for our front bumper.	Besides the four bolts on each framehorn, ORT supplies towhook extensions that bolt onto both the frame and the bumper and act as frame reinforcements - something that is very important to keep the bumper from bending the front framehorns when using the winch.	We thought we were being so original using ORT's bumpers along with Hannemann fiberglass on our Super Duty. We couldn't believe it when this truck from Team Bolt-Ons came and parked right next to us. Oh well, we should know by now that almost nothing is original.
ORT also supplies a small skidplate for the front bumper. It's really aesthetic more than anything else, as there is 3/16-inch steel right behind it, but we like the look of it, so we added it on. Button-head Allen bolts are provided to keep a clean look to it.	The rear bumper was extremely easy to install with two bolts through the framerail on each side attaching the bumper. ORT's rear bumper can be used in conjunction with a factory-style rear tow hitch as well.	The painted rear bumper really worked well with our truck's lines. Our truck had a "farm-style" bumper on the back of it before this, and it just didn't really flow with the whole swooped fiberglass bedsides look.
We had five light-mounting points on our ORT front bumper. Since this is just our support truck, HID lights are definitely not necessary, and we therefore went with Baja Designs' 100-watt halogen Fuego 4-inch race lights. We ordered a single spot beam (left) for the center, two driving beams (center), and two wide-driving beam lights (right) for the outside "fog-light" positions on the bumper.The spot beam has a 10-degree field of view, the driving beams have a 20-degree field, and the wide-driving beams have a 28-degree field of view. This way, we have the best of all worlds for lighting the foreground.
Baja Designs offers a really nice weatherproof wiring harness to complement its Soltek light line. All the wires are sheathed, and high-quality Delco weatherproof connectors are used to plug the lights into the harness. You can run up to three 100-watt Fuego lights off of one harness. To run the third light, Baja Designs has a Y-connector available to plug two lights into one pigtail. You can wire the harness, so it works only when you turn on your high-beam headlights, or you can wire it, so it will work as a stand-alone system with Baja Designs' optional switch kit.	The angle adjustments on these lights are second to none. We really like the way you can easily loosen a knob and reposition the light beam.	Since we were mounting the two wide-driving beam lights on the fog-light tabs of the bumper, they'll hang in an upside-down position. It's OK to mount the Fuegos this way, but you'll need to rotate the reflector 180 degrees for optimum light performance. Don't be like us and completely take the light apart to rotate it. There are O-rings, and it's a pain in the butt to get back together properly. We learned on the second try that you can simply remove the four bolts from the light bezel and just rotate it around without removing anything.
Our single spot and two driving beam Fuego lights sat on the main tube, centered over the winch. You can request either two, three, or four points for mounting lights on this main tube from ORT. You can also request two tabs on the top hoop. The two fog-light tabs are standard on all ORT's front bumpers.	So we had fixed our brakes, added our heavy-duty ORT bumpers, and mounted our Soltek lights. Now all we had to do was throw a giant winch in this big bumper. And we can't think of any better way to package a heavy-duty 15,000-pound winch than the way T-Max sent one to us - in a wooden crate! We've seen more than one winch eat itself through the cardboard packaging box that many winches come in. T-Max gets an A+ on packaging!

How Did We Like It All?

Honestly, we think we might have improved the coolness of our truck tenfold with the new bumpers, winch, and lights. Our Super Duty went from poseur to punisher in a matter of a few mods. The ORT bumpers look great, provide great protection, and give us functional points for towhooks, winches, and lights - things all very necessary for support, recovery, and work.

Hooking up the control box on the winch is super easy. There are three main wires, and they are color-coded (red, yellow, and black) with the paint on the end of each terminal, so there is no guesswork (unless you're color-blind).

The biggest problem with giant fullsize truck winch bumpers? Many of them require the winch to be in the bumper before the bumper goes onto the truck. In other words, you now have to lift an extra 150 pounds in addition to the giant-ass bumper. We got away with removing the top bolts of the ORT bumper, loosening the bottom ones, and tipping the bumper forward enough to heave the winch in. Be careful that you leave enough thread contact when loosening the bolts - you don't want that bumper coming down on your feet when you place the winch!