speeddemon0712

Let me start out by saying I do NOT recommend altering or messing with the crash bars on your F150 in any way shape or form. Ford put them on your truck to increase safety and are not meant to be removed or altered to run larger tires or a more aggressive wheel. Altering these crash bars may effect the safety of you and your passengers in a collision.

Hey guys,

First off, please excuse my lack of detail and knowledge in this how to. I worked on my truck yesterday and just took some pics of the progress not thinking I would write up a how to. This thread is how to swap your front crash bars from driver side to passenger, and passenger to driver. I'm only doing the swap because my crash bars were cut out from the shop that did my level, and I wanted them back in for my safety.

Tools needed:

- jack
- jack stands
- 21mm socket
- 15mm socket
- 4 high grade bolts (I used 1/2-13 x 3-1/2 bolts from Tractor Supply), lock washers, nuts
- cutting tool (cutting off bolts)
- grinder
- a buddy (just don't call him a tool, he might get angry)
- beer (jk, beer and power tools never mix well)

The reason to swap sides is it'll give you an extra 1/2" - 1" of clearance to run bigger tires or a more aggressive offset wheel without having to remove the crash bars. From the factory, the front crash bar comes straight out from the sleeve it's in. On the opposite side of that bar, it's curved inward.







If you swap the bars to either side, that curved part will be on the side of the tire giving you that extra 1/2" - 1" of clearance. I cannot stress this enough, PLEASE DO NOT CUT OUT YOUR CRASH BARS! They are there for your safety and your passengers. Plus, if you ever were to get in a front end collision, the insurance company could possibly deny your claim because you removed a "safety" feature from your vehicle. I haven't heard it happen yet, but why take the chance?

I had a level and 35's installed on my truck about 2 months ago. The shop that did the install cut out my front crash bars (with my permission). After a lot of thought and reading up on this forum, I decided that it was in my best interest to buy new ones and put them back in.

Start by jacking up your truck and removing your front wheels and tires. Then, you will need to remove your front bumper (it's actually SUPER easy). This is where I failed miserably since I forgot to take pics during the process. Here's the video that I used as guidance to remove the bumper.




If you don't want to watch the video, here's a quick explanation with some crappy pics. Pop off your front clip where your license plate should be.







This should reveal four 21mm nuts. Crawl under your front bumper and remove your fog lights from the housing, and the clip from the bumper. Do this on both sides.









Remove the 21mm nut on either side of the fog lights. Remove the four 21mm nuts from the front that are behind that black clip from your license plate. Slowly pull the bumper forward. There should be 3 clips that hold the wind deflector to the bumper, remove those and pull the bumper off. Easy peasy.

Now for the crash bars. Like I said, mine were cut off, so you'll have the crash bars here where I don't. Using a 15mm wrench (if I remember correctly) back the bolts out about an inch or so.







Cut off the head of the bolt.

speeddemon0712

Cut off the bottom nut that's tack welded to the bottom of the crash bar sleeve. Pull the bolt through the bottom and your crash bar should slide right out. Grind that area smooth.









Now put your passenger side crash bar into the driver side crash bar sleeve. Use your new bolts and slide them from the bottom up through the holes. Put on your lock washer and nut, and tighten down. There are no torque specs, I just got it as tight as I could. Repeat on the passenger side.













Now you can put your front bumper back on, your wheels and tires, and enjoy your extra clearance! Because of the swap, I can run 35x12.5 tires on a +18 offset wheel and not rub. AWESOME!









Please let me know if you have any questions or if I made any mistakes in this thread. Good luck guys!

HughMungus

No thanks.

Ricktwuhk

Wow.

Title needs to be changed. Should be "how to remove safety feature that was tested to keep you safe, and make it so you may - or may not be safe".

This should be removed from the forum IMO.

vintageman

Good write up. I'm not planning on doing this but for others knowledge, what was the bolt length that you used? That info may keep someone from running back to the store to get a longer/shorter one. Other than that quick question, good write up, I think you made a good decision to put them back on, safety should always be a top consideration.

Tom

speeddemon0712

How is this less safe? I'm trying to help people by giving them an option other than removing the crash bars completely. Shops cut out these crash bars like it's nothing and I'm trying to stop that.

speeddemon0712

Thank you for pointing that out. I'll edit my post. I used a Grade 8 1/2-13 x 3-1/2 bolt from Tractor Supply.

Ricktwuhk

Because you have not crash tested it. You believe that it's safe. And, it MAY be safer than removing them. But you don't know that.

speeddemon0712

I completely understand, but a lot of people do not care or understand what these crash bars do. If someone is determined to run big enough tires that they'll rub and they'll do whatever is necessary to make them fit, then I'd rather they do the swap vs. removing them completely.

Ricktwuhk

Then put that in your original post. Something like "I've posted this procedure for those that don't want to totally remove this safety feature, or just cut it off or bend it out of the way. Please be aware that how the vehicle will behave in an accident is unknown."

Also, for those that don't care or understand and remove/modify the crash bars, they should sign a waiver agreeing to pay all costs associated with any injuries that may occur if they are in an accident and injuries are determined to happen due to the changes. Of course that won't happen.