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I wouldn't buy that for the mere fact that they have an American flag with it but actually ships from China.
Chopped the frame horns in prep for the bumper
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Installed a radius bumper made by mazzulla offroad. Very high quality stuff from Chris and his crew
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Nice and clean looking!!!
Installed the Dee Zee tailgate assist shock. I threw away the stupid nutsert it comes with, removed the plastic tailgate panel and used an extended 10mm open wrench to secure a lock washer and nut on the ball-joint bolt. Used RED Loctite so the little f'er doesn't come undone. I'll let it sit for a whole day to dry and cure well before I open the tailgate. I'm hoping that little ball-joint bolt holds up. I'm no engineer, but that seems to be a lot of pressure on that single spot to hold up the entire tailgate weight. Haven't read of any failures though, so I should be OK.
I need to go in there and put a bolt on the end of the ball-joint. My nutsert broke and the thing has now moved out of position and I had to disconnected the strut.
It's a simple fix. The most time-consuming part was removing the million screws on the plastic tailgate cover. I guess it beats using clips though.
I opened my tailgate yesterday, after a full day of letting the red Loctite dry and it works great. Looks like there's more extension remaining in the strut too, so no pressure on the strut itself when the tailgate is open. Although it looks like the cable would get tangled with the strut when closing the gate, there's plenty of space between the gate and the body, so no tangles.
I still think there's an insane amount of stress on the ball joint where it's placed. It seems like too narrow an angle, but I guess it's the only place to put it so the gate closes properly. I guess time will tell.