Addictive Desert Design Dodge HD Bumper - Addictive Bumping And Lighting

Bumpers and auxiliary lights are a must for any well equipped off-road vehicle. Factory bumpers these days are little more than cosmetic fascias that cringe at the thought of actually hitting something. Furthermore, the stock headlights leave much to be desired in adverse conditions were seeing an upcoming obstacle early can greatly increase your chances of avoiding it.

We found a great prerunner bumper for our Dodge Ram tow/chase truck that actually covered up the majority of junk behind the factory bumper--one made by Addictive Desert Designs (ADD). The bumper has a bunch of nice features that we felt would nicely compliment our truck. First of all, the bumper is lightweight, weighing in at only 130 pounds. This is good since the front end of our truck is already extremely heavy due to the diesel engine. Secondly, the bumper has a built-in skid plate that will help protect the AC condenser, intercooler, and radiator--all of which are costly to replace if damaged--from debris. In addition, the bumper has four mounting tabs that will serve to locate the 170 Striker HID lights we got from Light Force.

The lights we added to the bumper certainly go along with the lightweight theme as well. Light Force uses composite materials for the housing and a polycarbonate lens resulting in a strong light design. Some people might question the durability of using plastics in the light construction, but this is obviously not an issue since these very lights are commonly used on many competition vehicles that undoubtedly see more abuse than any sane person will inflict on their personal vehicle.

ADD is a small but extremely...        read full caption ADD is a small but extremely competent fabrication shop located in Arizona. The quality craftsmanship is obvious when you look at the TIG welds that hold the bumper together. We got our bumper bare so we could take pictures of the welds, but you can order it powdercoated straight from ADD.	The factory bumper covers...        read full caption The factory bumper covers the lower part of the AC condenser, intercooler, and radiator. But only the front part of these components are protected with the factory stock, and they are still susceptible to damage from below. On top of that, the factory bumper has an opening in the front that allows road debris to hit the AC condenser head on. Our condenser already showed signs of damage, but luckily nothing bad enough to cause a leak.	Installing the bumper is as...        read full caption Installing the bumper is as simple as removing four bolts that hold the factory bumper to the frame. We ran into a slight problem due to our larger aftermarket intercooler that would not allow our bolts to slide out. Instead of removing the intercooler we just cut the heads of the bolts off and pulled them out the other way. We replaced the factory bolts with grade eight hardware--examples of which you can see below the cut factory bolts.
This is one of the two frame...        read full caption This is one of the two frame mounts for the bumper. We installed the bolts in the opposite direction as from the factory. The precision of the bumper construction was apparent during the bumper mounting. The fit was snug with zero play, but not too tight to make lining up the holes difficult. One person did the entire install of this bumper without any help. Yep, it's that easy.	From the side, you can see...        read full caption From the side, you can see how the skid plate extends down below the AC condenser and other parts. These parts are now protected from the front and below, a vast improvement over the factory setup.......	.....Here you can also see...        read full caption .....Here you can also see the added clearance in front of our tires. This will be great for the larger rubber we are about to add.
The Light Force 170 Striker...        read full caption The Light Force 170 Striker HID lights come in pairs with everything you see here in each box. The electrical components located below the lights are part of the HID kit and include a ballast and igniter. HID technology is nice since the lights only require a fraction of the power compared to halogen light of the same candlepower. The standard Striker lights use 100 watts each and the HID versions use only 35 watts.	Light Force is clearly committed...        read full caption Light Force is clearly committed to the reliability of their product. An example of this is the high quality sealed connectors used throughout. We were happy to see this since our truck regularly gets dowsed in anti-icing chemicals that are placed on the roads in Colorado during the winter.	We mounted the igniters along...        read full caption We mounted the igniters along the inside of the skid plate using a combination of double-sided tape and zip ties. It would have been nice to mount these in the engine compartment for safety, but the lead wires were not long enough.
In addition to an igniter,...        read full caption In addition to an igniter, each light has a voltage conditioning unit that steps up the voltage for the HID bulbs. We mounted these just behind the headlights on the frame. It is a good idea to mount them somewhere they will not be exposed to high engine temperatures. Heat is the enemy of most electrical devices.	To wire our lights we went...        read full caption To wire our lights we went to a local auto parts store and picked up this 30 amp relay and fuse holder. We also purchased some heat-shrink to seal our connections, an activation switch, and terminal connectors. Light Force offers a complete wiring harness which we would recommend for simplicity and quality of the installation.	After the wiring was complete...        read full caption After the wiring was complete and operational we mounted the relay to the inside of the fender as high in the engine compartment as possible. We are not sure how weatherproof this relay is but it should be pretty safe here. If significant water gets to this level in our engine bay we will have much bigger problems then a malfunctioning relay.
To get a starting point for...        read full caption To get a starting point for aiming the lights we used the wall ten feet in front of the truck. The center lights are set higher to illuminate the far off distance while the side ones are lower to help with seeing more closely. There is no right or wrong way to aim the lights. A bit of experimentation may be needed to find the best setup for your needs.	The dark picture was actually...        read full caption The dark picture was actually taken with our headlights on. The bottom image is with the Light Force Striker 170 HIDs turned on. The added light from the four Light Force lights is remarkable......	......Light Force offers filters...        read full caption ......Light Force offers filters that can adjust the pattern and color of your lights. We think our setup might benefit from a more diffuse pattern on the side lights to cover a wider area than the spots.

We initially chose the bumper based on its looks and weight. There is not a wide variety of pre-fabricated prerunner bumpers available for HD Dodge trucks. That being said, we could not be happier with the fit, finish and strength of the bumper we got from Addictive Desert Designs. It would be hard to imagine a better fitting or higher quality build at any price. It should be mentioned also that Addictive Desert Designs makes similar bumpers for other makes and model vehicles. Light Force has a great reputation for quality auxiliary lights. After installing the four 170 Striker HID lights and wiring them up we understand why. We also found that the lights are not only light in weight but also in power consumption. This is great since it makes less demand on our electrical system resulting in better long term reliability of our truck's electrical components like the alternator and batteries. Only time will tell how durable these lights really are but we certainly won't hold our breath until something happens since it is likely going to be a