ARB Bumper questions

I installed my ARB bumper last night and I'm loving it so far... I just have a couple questions that I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me with. I'm sure these answers are out their in the blue forum somewhere, but there's wayyy too many threads to search through, so I figured local knowledge would be best... plus I trust you guys a lot more than the randoms out there on the west coast lol

1.) The inner fender wells protrude a significant amount below the bumper, and even get snagged on the tires during turns. I know the install directions talk about cutting them, but there's not much detail on where to cut them. I want this to look as clean as possible. I've heard of people zip-tying theirs up under the hood somehow (I'm not afraid of cutting it, but options are nice to have). Have any of y'all done this? If anyone can provide pictures of their work, that'd be great!

2.) The marker lights on the bumper... Are these meant to be wired to the headlights or turn signals? I'm thinking it would be best wired to the headlights. I am by no means a skilled electrician, but I can make simple connections/splices/solders (don't know much about wire guages/fuses/etc). With the provided wiring harness, would I just splice into the wires going to the headlights, or is it more technical than that? If I can just tap into the headlight wires, where exactly would be the best point of contact?

Thanks in advance for the help! Here's a rough picture of my newest install:

I will address wiring the lights. If I were to wire them I would wire them as detailed below. I use this method because IN GENERAL OEM manufacturers figure out the capacity of a circuit based on only what they include on that circuit and do not leave much room for additional load on that circuit.

I would run a fused circuit either from a secondary fuse block or direct to the battery through a relay to the lights, I avoid any tie in to the OEM fuse block when possible. I would then tap into the OEM running light circuit to fire the relay. The power used to fire the relay is very low and will not even come close to over loading the OEM circuit.

Thanks for the quick and detailed response! While that doesn't sound TOO technical, and I want to do it right the first time, I don't think I'd be comfortable trying that for the first time on my own. Time to seek assistance!

I really do want to learn how to wire these types of things though, because I plan on adding two more sets of lights to this bumper.

Wiring would be like that sketch in the attached link

http://forum.ncfjcruisers.com/t1742-how-to-wire-auxiliary-lights-for-the-electrically-challenged-individual

Only difference is there would be no switch. Your existing parking lamps would tell the relay when to trip. I would use the parking lamps so that they came on when the parking lamps do.

Doesnt seem to look too bad cut straight across.... I guess these are not ARBs though

http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/4x4-off-road-tech/28718-help-trimming-front-fender-wheel-liners.html#post467486

Adam, you're the man! I'm gonna have to analyze that diagram and figure out what relay to get, as well as how to run the fuses... hopefully it'll make more sense when I'm not at work and actually looking at my setup.

And the straight across trim looks MUCH better than I expected! I'll most likely do that this afternoon and coat any sheetmetal with PlastiDip to make it look nice and clean. Thanks for the links!

Trimming- I just grabbed a black Sharpie and drew a line where I thought it would look good. After that, I grabbed the jigsaw and cut the plastic away. I don't have pictures, but I left it low enough that I wouldn't get too much water spray from the tires towards the lights when driving in the rain.

Lights- The provided amber marker lights don't match the stock amber bulbs' color and really bothered me, so I removed them altogether and installed some inexpensive driving lights with higher quality bulbs. Here's a very basic description of what I did. Later, I changed the light bulbs out to some PIAA Plasma Ion yellow bulbs and they are awesome for driving in rain and snow.
http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/interior-exterior-visual-tech/153594-arb-bumper-lights-not-4-round.html

If you can wait, Rigid is supposed to be coming out with the SR-Q2 LED lights that would fit in that hole perfectly and provide lots of light. Well, you can wait on them to come out, me to buy them and then sell you my current setup as well...

Ahhh Ryan, just the man I was hoping to hear from (because we now have somewhat similar setups... minus your billion-lumen light setup)!

With the trim, I was concerned with the spraying rain water/mud as well, so I am gonna get under there today and see what kind of cutting I can do with my jigsaw.

As far as the lights go, your aftermarket lights have been my top idea when it comes to wiring them up, so I wouldn't mind waiting for you to snag those new Rigids and I could buy your current ones (btw, any idea when the new ones come out?). Once you're ready to sell, do you think I could meet you in your neck of the woods sometime and you could show me a thing or two on proper wiring technique for them? Like I said earlier, I am planning on installing a couple more sets as well, so I want to get this done correctly. I pay generously in beer.......

Beer is the accepted form of payment, so long as I choose the beer I see some sites already offer the LEDs for sale, but I don't know if they have any in stock yet. I'll keep you posted though!

Speedrye wrote:

Beer is the accepted form of payment, so long as I choose the beer I see some sites already offer the LEDs for sale, but I don't know if they have any in stock yet. I'll keep you posted though!

No problem at all! Just as long as your beverage choice does not include O'douls or Smirnoff Ice

I wouldn't put you through that kind of humiliation at the grocery store, don't worry.

Haha I appreciate that!

dude...just cut it straight across at the very bottom of the fender flares...i used tin snips and jsut cut straight as you can...

I erred towards leaving too much to start with. If it doesn't look right, you can cut more. I'm with Mike though, just get in there and start cutting!

its jsut a huge chunk of plastic...!!

Haha enough, enough already! I already knocked it out with the jigsaw this afternoon! Even rounded the corners to make it nice and purdy...

Very nice! Did you get your frame brackets from ARB already?

Yessir! Got the whole thing mounted last night!

That looks real good! Nice work

Thanks man!

Mitch! That looks great man!

Why thank you sir! Got a few things to add to it, but it's a start!

looking good man...changes the whole "attitude" of that truck..

bigdogdewey2 wrote:

looking good man...changes the whole "attitude" of that truck..

Haha thanks man, sorry I don't have any other pictures of it yet. I think it looks a lot meaner too!

did you happen to measure your fender height before and after putting the bumper on?? just curious...