Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans - Barricade 3.0" Bull Bar w/Skid Plate

Recently I ordered the Barricade 3.0" Bull Bar with skid plate. Some of you may or may not know that American Muscle is the exclusive retailer of Barricade products for the F-150. What was enticing about these products was the fact that American Muscle has always been a good vendor to work with. I used to use them for all my Mustang needs. I no longer have a Mustang so I was thrilled when they started carrying F-150 parts and accessories.

The Barricade stuff all seems to be very affordable and the reviews I've seen, although not numerous seem to be positive. Having some knowledge of how product reviews end up with some bias, I do take them with a grain of salt. Still you can infer some truths from such content and glean some useful information from even biased articles. At a price of $149.99 the Barricade bull bar seemed almost too good to be true. If the quality was decent it was a win/win choice as it's the cheapest one out there and looks good in all the photos. The bull bar arrived with a box shaped like a Tetris block. The box showed some definite shipping wear. I'd post pictures of that but I didn't take any. I also didn't get pics of the product sans being installed on the truck either. Oh well.

Some background on me: I'm 37 years old and do most of my own vehicle maintenance and modding. I've owned nearly 20 vehicles over the years. I've owned 4 F-150's including this one and even an Expedition along the way. Needless to say I'm familiar with the F-150 and working on them. I've installed bull bars, brush guards, step bars and the like on a lot of trucks for myself and friends. I've used products from the usual list of suspects such as Lund, Westin, etc.

I chose the black satin finished version of the product as I despise chrome. Aside from the emblems my truck came with none as it has the sport appearance package. I've even ditched the chrome emblems but that's another topic. The product packaging was sufficient to keep it safe and it arrived with no damage. It came with a ton of bolts, washers, nuts and lock washers. The thing also came with two mounting brackets.

Once aspect of the design I noticed right away is that the gauge of the metal used isn't particularly impressive. I don't think it will hold up to more than light strikes. I don't think it's much if any worse than some of the competing products I've seen. The skid plate is bolted on and is removable if desired. Like all non-total bumper replacement solutions designed to provide vehicle protection, the bull bar won't survive any major trauma, but is good for routine type bumps. It's also a good place to mount lighting accessories. To that end there are pre-drilled holes with rubber or plastic plugs in place to make this easier. According to the parts sheet, everything that was supposed to come with the bull bar came with it. Confident I had what I needed to complete the installation, I pulled the nose of the truck into the garage and got to work.

Because my truck is an 4x4 / FX4, I had front tow hooks. The instructions are clear about removing the tow hooks but don't cover the topic of removing the tow hook condoms that appear to be in place to either reduce aerodynamic drag or keep water out of the area. The latter doesn't seem important, but the former might. In any case I figured out how to remove the tow hook condoms in short order. I also pulled off the unsightly and ridiculously low hanging air dam.

The mounting brackets installed relatively easily. Due to the shape of the bumper and the holes for the tow hooks, using an impact driver wasn't really an option for the front bolts. The rear most bolts were easily removed. There is a mounting plate in the frame which has the ends sealed. Therefore you don't want to pull out both bolts. The instructions are clear about this as well. You only loses the rear bolt. This keeps the mounting plate for the tow in place. The instructions tell you to reuse the factory tow hook bolts, which I did. These bolts are 12mm threads with 15mm hex heads.

Once the brackets were in place I lined up the bull bar and went to put the supplied bolts through it only to find out that they pass through the mounting bracket, but not the bracket on the bull bar itself. The holes are about 2mm too small or so. Checking over the parts list again and again it seemed to me that the parts included are just not correct or that the holes for the bull bar's attached mounting bracket are insufficient in size. While I intend to follow up with American Muscle and potentially Barricade on this matter, I didn't let this stop me. I ran off to the local hardware store and picked up 10mm threads which were the same size as the U-Bolts included for sealed frame installs without tow hooks. I also picked bolts with a hex head that has the same size as the smaller hex head nuts included for use with the U-Bolts. The local hardware store had some matching bolts that were grade 8. So this is what I used to finish the install.

With that problem solved it was relatively easy to center the bull bar and put it into place. I put in the back bolts and hand tightened them. It was easy to tilt the bar into place and put in the rest of the bolts. The bar was light enough to support on my knee while I did this. I was able to complete the installation alone in a little over an hour. The time could be cut dramatically by virtue of now having done it before.

The instructions recommend waxing the product to protect the finish. This is a good idea as the finish scratches easily. I had a piece of cardboard to lay on while I did the work and while it was relatively clean, it had enough debris on it to scuff the bull bar when I dragged it into position. Some Meguires paint restorer took care of that, but it's something to watch out for. You can just leave the packing foam taped up around the bar until it's in place and ready to be centered.

Before Photos:

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After Images:
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End Results:

I have mixed feelings about this product. On one hand you can't beat the price or prompt shipping by American Muscle. On the other, the finish is very delicate and the right mounting hardware / bolt holes weren't included or weren't right. While my expectations weren't huge for something that was $149.99 with free shipping, I think having the correct bolts in the box was one reasonable expectation. The installation instructions were decent and easy enough to understand. The actual installation aside from my bolt problem was a good enough experience. I'd probably buy this product again as I don't think you can beat it for the price, but it's certainly not the best bull bar on the market for your F-150.

I am also eyeing Barricade's 5" oval step bars with 60 degree ends. I think that's one of the best looking step bars out there, but I do have some quality concerns despite the fact that those aren't necessarily cheap. I'm not a fan of running boards, and prefer the tubular steps. I'm not sure if I'll ultimately end up with another set of Barricade's given this mixed experience. I support that may come down to how the company addresses the issue I had, if at all.