May 18, 2015
By WA Staff
From the Outback to Your Full-Size Truck For a hard-working truck that really needs a lot of front-end protection, most grille guards on the market just won't do the job.
ARB has made body armor for years, but these new Modular Bull Bars are different. They allow you to tailor their level of protection to suit your needs. The Basic Bull Bar's center section doubles as a platform to accommodate a winch up to the size of Warn's Heavyweight 16.5ti. Outboard of the center section are steel wings with integrated (and fully submersible) 51-watt halogen foglamps. The Bull Bar retains the truck's front tow hooks, has mounting holes for auxiliary lights, and even has notches for jacking points.
Adding a center upright hoop to the Bull Bar bumper turns it into the Sahara Style Bull Bar. This puts steel bars in front of the truck's grille, protecting the radiator, auxiliary coolers, and other critical front-end components.
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Finally, the Full Deluxe Style Bull Bar adds outer frames to the hoop that wrap around the truck's headlights. Tabs on the frame's top bars can mount radio and CB antennas.
ARB offers the new Modular Bull Bars for 2011-newer Ford Super Duty pickups and 2010-newer Ram Heavy Duty pickups. (Chevrolet applications are in the works.) These aren't one-size-fits-all parts but components designed around each truck's distinct styling. Plus, ARB engineered these Bull Bars to not affect the pickup's airbag sensors. The company does its own crash tests to ensure that vehicle occupants don't sacrifice their protection while saving their sheetmetal.
Australian bred and born, ARB knows a thing or two about making bumpers and bull bars that not only look good, but add a level of protection not always found on the market. Crafted from steel and modular in design to fit various levels of protection, Ford, Dodge, and Chevy (coming soon) owners can now protect their front end from deer and elk to — as the name implies — rogue bulls.
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Now, adding that much beef to a truck's nose is a sure way to make its stock tires and wheels look tiny and just might strain the front springs and shocks. OME, ARB's suspension division, can fix that issue with a number of suspension lift systems for heavy-duty Fords.
Each kit has taller springs and shocks that have been tuned to improve ride quality and maintain load carrying capability. With the springs and dampers come brackets for relocating the front radius arms and panhard bar (to retain the truck's stock steering geometry), extension brackets for the brake lines and sway bar, and a caster correction kit to properly realign the front wheels. Not every lift kit manufacturer provides these extra bits, but they are what make OME's kits work as a comprehensive system to maintain a truck's handling, ride, and tire wear characteristics, even when it's sitting on taller rubber.
For 2011-newer Super Duty pickups, OME offers 3- and 4-inch lift kits. For 2008-2010 Super Duties, OME has those options as well as a 2-inch "leveling" kit that brings up the front end without changing the rear leaf springs, other than to add new shock absorbers.
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