KC Daylighter and T-Rex Billet Grill Review/Install (PIC HEAVY)
02-13-2011, 06:57 PM
#1
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KC Daylighter and T-Rex Billet Grill Review/Install (PIC HEAVY)
Hey Guys, I finally got around to installing the 4 KC Daylighters, KC lightbar and T-Rex Billet Grille on the Beast. Figured I would post some comments and a review. To start the light bar is a KC Hilites bar (#7429) that is black powder-coated and has tabs for 4 lights. I used all 4 obviously with 2 KC Daylighter long range (#631) and 2 KC Daylighter driving lights (#634). They are 6 inch, 130w and bright as 
. They are mounted on 1/2" spindles that fit perfectly into the tabs on the light bar. Since the majority of the light body is in front of the spindle I found it helpful that the KC bar has the mounting tabs on the back of the light bar rather than the front like some of the other bars out there. The bar mounts solidly with a 5/8" bolt and a 3/8" bolt that go through holes already existing on the frame and KC supplies a HEAVY backplate to make sure nothing goes anywhere and to diffuse the weight of the bar and lights. On the subject of weight the bar and lights are heavy so I found it easier to mount the lights on the bar and then install the bar to give me more room to work later on. As you can see in the pics, there are rubber insulators on the mounting hardware that clamp onto the bar tabs as you tighten the bolts and eliminate the "shudder" in the light as you go down the trail from the rough terrain. The lights are very solidly constructed to include probably about a 1/4" diameter of metal flex tubing that comes out of the back of the light that contains your wiring until about 6-8" out where the wires emerge so that you can connect them to the supplied wiring harnesses. (NOTE: This flex tubing is very solid and has a rubber "doughnut" around it about halfway down that is supposed to keep the metal from contacting your bumper...it does not. For color matching purposes and to keep scratching from road jarring to a minimum I bought 3/8" electrical loom from Home Depot and mounted it on the wiring. Looks good since it hides the wiring ends after the supplied flex tubing ends and protects your bumper!) I decided to mount the supplied relays for the lighting on the battery box itself. Using the supplied self tapping screws I placed the relays on the right of the box (see pics). (Make sure you have a sawzall or equivalent that can get down in the battery box between the battery and the box to remove the sharp ends of the screws that will protrude on the battery side of the box). I found the best place to run the wiring to the cab is on the OEM wiring clips that run along the top of the engine bay under the windshield (see pics) to the firewall on the driver's side. There is an existing hole that is sealed with a grommet that has wiring already running through it. The grommet cannot be removed without cutting it out so pull it towards you from the engine bay side and you will have just enough space to push your wiring through to the cab. (You will need to install another grommet of your own to keep the wiring from getting cut by the edge of the firewall sheet metal). When mounting the switches in the cab I found that the plastic of the cab was too thick for my original idea which was a tapped hole into the dash that I could simply screw the KC switch into without the squarish surround so I installed the switches with the supplied screws and drilled a hole just big enough for the wiring in the panel below the switches. Benefit here was the switches obscure the hole from view from above. Wrapped all the wiring in 3M heavy duty electrical tape and zip tied the loose ends and voila.
The grille is a T-Rex aluminum billet grille in powder coat black (they offer it in chrome as well) part #20568B. The biggest pain in the of the install was removing the OEM grille from the truck. May I recommend that you get the "nylon pry bar set" from Harbor Freight to assist you in this as there are 5 hidden clips across the top of the OEM grille assembly that unless you have a pry bar you will NOT get loose. The advantage of the nylon bars is they wont mark your paint. Once removed you cut out the center of the grille leaving only the surround which you bolt to. Note, you CAN light our OEM grilles on fire if you don't control the speed of your Dremel or Air Saw...
I found it necessary to loctite my grille bolts since the company sent the wrong mounting kit and I "shade tree mechanic'd" it with 4 1/8" bolts. MAKE SURE YOU OPEN THE GRILLE WHEN YOU GET IT! T-REX puts a little note inside the shrink wrap that "if you don't contact us within 3 days of receipt to report missing parts TS, no exceptions"
More Pics Coming, hit the 6 max at once...
. They are mounted on 1/2" spindles that fit perfectly into the tabs on the light bar. Since the majority of the light body is in front of the spindle I found it helpful that the KC bar has the mounting tabs on the back of the light bar rather than the front like some of the other bars out there. The bar mounts solidly with a 5/8" bolt and a 3/8" bolt that go through holes already existing on the frame and KC supplies a HEAVY backplate to make sure nothing goes anywhere and to diffuse the weight of the bar and lights. On the subject of weight the bar and lights are heavy so I found it easier to mount the lights on the bar and then install the bar to give me more room to work later on. As you can see in the pics, there are rubber insulators on the mounting hardware that clamp onto the bar tabs as you tighten the bolts and eliminate the "shudder" in the light as you go down the trail from the rough terrain. The lights are very solidly constructed to include probably about a 1/4" diameter of metal flex tubing that comes out of the back of the light that contains your wiring until about 6-8" out where the wires emerge so that you can connect them to the supplied wiring harnesses. (NOTE: This flex tubing is very solid and has a rubber "doughnut" around it about halfway down that is supposed to keep the metal from contacting your bumper...it does not. For color matching purposes and to keep scratching from road jarring to a minimum I bought 3/8" electrical loom from Home Depot and mounted it on the wiring. Looks good since it hides the wiring ends after the supplied flex tubing ends and protects your bumper!) I decided to mount the supplied relays for the lighting on the battery box itself. Using the supplied self tapping screws I placed the relays on the right of the box (see pics). (Make sure you have a sawzall or equivalent that can get down in the battery box between the battery and the box to remove the sharp ends of the screws that will protrude on the battery side of the box). I found the best place to run the wiring to the cab is on the OEM wiring clips that run along the top of the engine bay under the windshield (see pics) to the firewall on the driver's side. There is an existing hole that is sealed with a grommet that has wiring already running through it. The grommet cannot be removed without cutting it out so pull it towards you from the engine bay side and you will have just enough space to push your wiring through to the cab. (You will need to install another grommet of your own to keep the wiring from getting cut by the edge of the firewall sheet metal). When mounting the switches in the cab I found that the plastic of the cab was too thick for my original idea which was a tapped hole into the dash that I could simply screw the KC switch into without the squarish surround so I installed the switches with the supplied screws and drilled a hole just big enough for the wiring in the panel below the switches. Benefit here was the switches obscure the hole from view from above. Wrapped all the wiring in 3M heavy duty electrical tape and zip tied the loose ends and voila.The grille is a T-Rex aluminum billet grille in powder coat black (they offer it in chrome as well) part #20568B. The biggest pain in the
of the install was removing the OEM grille from the truck. May I recommend that you get the "nylon pry bar set" from Harbor Freight to assist you in this as there are 5 hidden clips across the top of the OEM grille assembly that unless you have a pry bar you will NOT get loose. The advantage of the nylon bars is they wont mark your paint. Once removed you cut out the center of the grille leaving only the surround which you bolt to. Note, you CAN light our OEM grilles on fire if you don't control the speed of your Dremel or Air Saw... I found it necessary to loctite my grille bolts since the company sent the wrong mounting kit and I "shade tree mechanic'd" it with 4 1/8" bolts. MAKE SURE YOU OPEN THE GRILLE WHEN YOU GET IT! T-REX puts a little note inside the shrink wrap that "if you don't contact us within 3 days of receipt to report missing parts TS, no exceptions"More Pics Coming, hit the 6 max at once...
02-13-2011, 07:21 PM
#6
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The bar I got from Amazon since KC Hilites wanted a REDONKULOUS amount of money to buy it directly and I got the driving lights on Amazon. I got the long range lights from Quadratec since they had them in stock and I got the grille from American Truck N' Auto Accessories. The awesome thing about any KC Hilite product has got to be the 23 year warranty but with how solid that light bar is I will never need it...
02-13-2011, 08:06 PM
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Originally Posted by VolFire
The bar I got from Amazon since KC Hilites wanted a REDONKULOUS amount of money to buy it directly and I got the driving lights on Amazon. I got the long range lights from Quadratec since they had them in stock and I got the grille from American Truck N' Auto Accessories. The awesome thing about any KC Hilite product has got to be the 23 year warranty but with how solid that light bar is I will never need it...
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02-13-2011, 08:22 PM
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Originally Posted by VolFire
$270 and free shipping from Truck & Winch on Amazon
How's the build quality?
