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In the end, went with the Onki one I was looking at. These are spendy, about $1,200 total including shipping. I took it to a local body shop this morning and they installed it for me for $100. Took them (two guys) just over an hour. My observations, in case anyone else is looking at the Onki ones: First, there is no upper support. 4 heavy bolts at the same location at the tow hooks, and the tow hooks are reinstalled over the grille guard brackets. As promised, the hood on the newer F-150's (2009+) do miss the guard by about an inch (I was a little worried about this.) The guard seems to be pretty solidly built and looks great. Here, though, is the down side. It is not a one piece guard, they call it modular. The headlight guards bolt on to the main center bull bar. Having said that, once installed, and when driving, you can see a little bit of shaking on the head light guards. I've only driven across town and haven't taken it on the freeway yet so I don't know if this is going to be an issue or not. Apparently, Onki knows about this and, I would assume, have received complaints about it so they include two stabilizers. However, these stabilizers are rather hokey, in my opinion, for what you pay for this guard. They are basically rubber lined pipe clamps that you put on the end of the head light guards then "stick" (3M sticker tab) them to the fender. While they appear to also be stainless steel, they look like crap...again my opinion. Maybe they'd work great but I would think that over time the "stick'em" would die and they'd start buggering up your fender if you didn't watch them closely. I haven't put them on yet and will wait to see if I even need to.
So, after this guard (Onki) has been on for several days, I am happy with it. Looks great, etc. I am a bit dismayed about the shaking though. It doesn't seem to hurt anything (been on the freeway several times now) and you can't feel any vibration or anything. But I can see it shake and that does irk me a bit. I have not put on their "stabilizers" and probably won't. They would just detract from the look overall in my opinion. I still think some kind of upper support would help immensely. There's just a lot of metal sticking up for this to be attached only with 4 bolts (2 on each side and those two being close together...again they are the same place as the bolts that also hold on the tow hooks). So, you get a bit of flexing. Maybe this is normal for grille guards. But you'd think they could figure out a way to mount these things so they are rock solid. Oh well...such is how it is.
Final follow-up....took a long road trip a couple of weeks ago. The guard was just fine. Still on good and tight. Still shakes a bit but I've gotten used to it. You don't feel it at all when driving. On the trip, I seemed to have lost maybe 1mpg total.
That really looks nice. Great choice. My headlight guards have always had a little shake in them. They can be removed too. But I didn't notice any lose in my gas mileage thou. Let me tell you a little story. After I got the truck back, my guard seemed to shake a lot. After about four days I decided to check the bolts. With the exception of the bolts at the tow hooks, I had to tighten every single bolt. A couple I could spin by hand. What idiots. And it was off center. So I tightened the bolts up myself, said the heck with it. They'd only screw it up again. Didn't line it up because it was winter and I would need some help. It wasn't to noticeable anyway. That Feb. I was getting out of the truck in front of my bank. It was stormy and windy, and the wind ripped the door from my hand and the door blew back towards the fender. Afterwards the door wouldn't close right, and the paint had chipped in the door jamb. Took it the dealer for repair. They said the Red Candy was a special paint and would take a lot of blending, and that they would have to remove the guard to blend it in correctly. I left it and a week later I get her back. Aside from other issues with the job, I checked the bolts and guess what? That's right, most were loose. And the guard was off center still. I took the truck back for some other issues with the paint job, and had them go over all the bolts. Well several months later in the spring, I was waxing her up. That's when I had noticed the bottom bolts at the tow hooks were in backwards and one was even a different bolt. I just left it. It's not noticeable unless you're looking for it. I'll get around to it sometime. My back is in bad shape at the moment. Any way, sorry for being a wind bag....
Thanks Scarlet. Yeah, it's always something, isn't it? Sorry about your paint issue. As for the guard, I'm glad to know that the minimal shaking isn't just something I've got. Sounds like maybe it's a normal thing for the headlight guards on some of these guards. On mine, the manufacturer supplied a tube of lock-tight and said it should be used on all the bolts, and that was done. So far, mine continues to be nice and tight. They also recommended having the bolts all checked after about a month. I haven't done that yet but, again, they seem to be staying tight. I still believe that some kind of upper support (like yours has...the bars that go in above the bumper) would be a plus but it doesn't seem to be an issue so far. As a side note, don't know if you have this problem, but they won't let me take it through the car wash (the one I use). Too much metal out front and they're afraid the felt in the wash will either get torn up or damage the guard. Eh....I hand wash most of the time anyway. Hope your back gets better. Been there, done that...no fun.
08-26-2014, 04:26 PM
