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Mounting Setina PB400 Push Bar on a 2018 DD R/T

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Urbish

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2018 DD R/T AWD
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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I ordered a Setina PB400 aluminum push bar to mount on my 2018 DD R/T about two months ago. It will be here in a few days. I have a long country drive to and from work each day on 2-lane roads winding between farms and encounter a LOT of deer.

I considered buying a brush-guard/bull bar, but they only have two points of contact to the vehicle down low. I figured if I clocked a deer with one of those on, it would probably cause the same amount of body damage as it would if I had nothing at all on the front. The police push bar has brackets that maintain 4 points of contact, but require cutting through the lower grille and two more rectangular slots through the middle of the bumper cover whereas the bull bar only requires cutting through the lower grille.

I haven't seen any posts that showed one of these mounted on a late-model R/T with the SRT styling as the brackets are designed for the Pursuit trim with the standard front clip. I will be detailing my install and any issues I run into here. I am hoping I don't have to fabricate or modify the mounting brackets, but am well equipped to do so should it be necessary. Stay tuned...
 
Discussion starter · #2 ·
And yes, I know this will interfere with my parking sensors. I plan to leave them shut off. My vehicle does not have adaptive cruise so I don't have to worry about that part.
 
#4 ·
Urbish said:
I ordered a Setina PB400 aluminum push bar to mount on my 2018 DD R/T about two months ago. It will be here in a few days. I have a long country drive to and from work each day on 2-lane roads winding between farms and encounter a LOT of deer.

I considered buying a brush-guard/bull bar, but they only have two points of contact to the vehicle down low. I figured if I clocked a deer with one of those on, it would probably cause the same amount of body damage as it would if I had nothing at all on the front. The police push bar has brackets that maintain 4 points of contact, but require cutting through the lower grille and two more rectangular slots through the middle of the bumper cover whereas the bull bar only requires cutting through the lower grille.

I haven't seen any posts that showed one of these mounted on a late-model R/T with the SRT styling as the brackets are designed for the Pursuit trim with the standard front clip. I will be detailing my install and any issues I run into here. I am hoping I don't have to fabricate or modify the mounting brackets, but am well equipped to do so should it be necessary. Stay tuned...
Click to expand...
I think I would rather get it repaired after hitting a deer that to make it permanent ugly. But if that’s what you like, then go for it. Different strokes.
 
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#9 ·
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Discussion starter · #10 · (Edited)
As promised, here are some photos and details from the install. The kit comes with instructions for all Gen III DD, broken up into four different booklets. The instructions are pretty much the same for all model years, but I took my measurements for the cutouts in the bumper cover from the 2019-2020 instructions as the DD Pursuit shared the same bumper cover with my 2018 R/T for those years.

I removed the bumper cover from the vehicle. Be careful when pulling the bumper cover from the clips at the fenders as the clips may break. Work this area carefully.

Depending on your model year, you may have to drill two plastic rivets securing the bumper cover at the front wheel wells on each side. The kit comes with some alternative fasteners to reinstall, or you can install plastic rivets of your own. More on that later.

You will also have to drill out one metal rivet on each side underneath that holds the outboard edge of the spats to the bumper cover. My spats are already mostly ripped off, so I wasn't concerned about replacing those rivets. They are NOT included with the kit.


Image


Once that was off, I was surprised how tiny the actual steel bumper is. The instructions say to remove and discard the foam insert. I suppose it isn't really needed anymore since the bumper cover cannot be pushed upon in this area after the push bar is installed. It also interferes with the push bar mounting brackets that come with the kit.

The next step is to loosen the bumper fasteners on one side and remove the fasteners on the other side. The bracket slips in between the bumper and the subframe horn. The longer leg of the bracket is at the top, and the jog of the bracket should be oriented toward the center of the vehicle. Once one side is loosely installed, you repeat the process on the other side. Before tightening everything, trimming of the plastic air duct is necessary to clear the brackets. I show my cut lines below in red.
Image


Image
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
The next step is to lay out and cut the rectangular holes in the bumper cover. Although there aren't any hard datums on the bumper to find the center, I did my best to mark the lower inside corner of each .5"X3" rectangular cutout with a grease pencil. I then re-measured several times, triple checking everything. I cut a piece of wood to the size of the cutout so I could trace the shape with a scribe tool.

Image


Image


After scribing, I used a utility knife with a brand new blade to score the bumper on the cut line. I then pierced the cut line, and very carefully wiggled the knife while applying controlled pressure to slowly work down the cut line. Do not just grab the knife and pull on it with everything you have as you may cut more than you want, miss your cut line, or have the blade slip free and gouge the bumper cover or slice yourself.

Image


With both rectangular cutouts done, I moved to the lower grille. In this case, I used a pair of diagonal wire cutters to clip the mesh of the lower grille. You will have to make the outboard ends of these cuts a little further outboard than I am showing in the photo below as the lower part of the bracket protrudes enough to encounter the jogged part of the bracket.

Image


Extend your cut line to the red marks in the photo below. So the same for the opposite side.
Image
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Before reinstalling the bumper cover, you will need to support the wire harness bundle going across the top of the bumper as it was previously retained by the foam that was removed. I zip-tied it to the plastic support, but realized I made a mistake when I reinstalled the bumper cover. The bumper cover has a mating surface that slips in between the two little posts you can see behind my wire harness below. Due to the way I zip tied it, my harness interfered with this. I recommend you flip the harness around so that it is situated behind the posts. The driver side post has a hole through it for a zip tie.

Image


At this point you can reinstall your bumper cover. The cutouts were about as perfectly placed as they could be.

Image


The kit includes 'christmas tree' push pins for reattaching the bumper cover in the wheel wells (where I had to drill out plastic rivets). I have a plastic rivet tool and extra rivets, so I opted to secure it with those instead of the push pins. Since my spats were already broken off, I cut off the mounting surface of the spats that sandwiches the bottom of the bumper cover so it wouldn't interfere with reassembly.

After that, it's a simple matter of installing your intermediate brackets and the push bumper itself, which was super easy.

Image


Image


This does interfere with my front ParkSense sensors. Rather than turning them off, I just get a warning on the dash every time I start up telling me to wipe the sensors. Even though the system is in an error state, the rear sensors still work fine and the fronts just become inactive. I am happy with this behavior.

And that is it!
 
#14 ·
I'm scrolling through the forum right now. What are you doing?
 
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#16 ·
Urbish said:
Before reinstalling the bumper cover, you will need to support the wire harness bundle going across the top of the bumper as it was previously retained by the foam that was removed. I zip-tied it to the plastic support, but realized I made a mistake when I reinstalled the bumper cover. The bumper cover has a mating surface that slips in between the two little posts you can see behind my wire harness below. Due to the way I zip tied it, my harness interfered with this. I recommend you flip the harness around so that it is situated behind the posts. The driver side post has a hole through it for a zip tie.

View attachment 118099

At this point you can reinstall your bumper cover. The cutouts were about as perfectly placed as they could be.

View attachment 118100

The kit includes 'christmas tree' push pins for reattaching the bumper cover in the wheel wells (where I had to drill out plastic rivets). I have a plastic rivet tool and extra rivets, so I opted to secure it with those instead of the push pins. Since my spats were already broken off, I cut off the mounting surface of the spats that sandwiches the bottom of the bumper cover so it wouldn't interfere with reassembly.

After that, it's a simple matter of installing your intermediate brackets and the push bumper itself, which was super easy.

View attachment 118101

View attachment 118102

This does interfere with my front ParkSense sensors. Rather than turning them off, I just get a warning on the dash every time I start up telling me to wipe the sensors. Even though the system is in an error state, the rear sensors still work fine and the fronts just become inactive. I am happy with this behavior.

And that is it!
Click to expand...
Thank you for the post. I bought the Go Rhino version with side bars for my 2018 Pursuit and your post was extremely helpful. Thanks again.
Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
Remi15 said:
Thank you for the post. I bought the Go Rhino version with side bars for my 2018 Pursuit and your post was extremely helpful. Thanks again. View attachment 135461
View attachment 135462
Click to expand...
That looks really nice. I am glad my write-up was useful to somebody. My Setina is still looking good and going strong. I had to move some huge wood crates at work a while back and we don't have a fork lift, so I shoved them to where they needed to be with the DD.
 
#18 ·
Urbish said:
Before reinstalling the bumper cover, you will need to support the wire harness bundle going across the top of the bumper as it was previously retained by the foam that was removed. I zip-tied it to the plastic support, but realized I made a mistake when I reinstalled the bumper cover. The bumper cover has a mating surface that slips in between the two little posts you can see behind my wire harness below. Due to the way I zip tied it, my harness interfered with this. I recommend you flip the harness around so that it is situated behind the posts. The driver side post has a hole through it for a zip tie.

View attachment 118099

At this point you can reinstall your bumper cover. The cutouts were about as perfectly placed as they could be.

View attachment 118100

The kit includes 'christmas tree' push pins for reattaching the bumper cover in the wheel wells (where I had to drill out plastic rivets). I have a plastic rivet tool and extra rivets, so I opted to secure it with those instead of the push pins. Since my spats were already broken off, I cut off the mounting surface of the spats that sandwiches the bottom of the bumper cover so it wouldn't interfere with reassembly.

After that, it's a simple matter of installing your intermediate brackets and the push bumper itself, which was super easy.

View attachment 118101

View attachment 118102

This does interfere with my front ParkSense sensors. Rather than turning them off, I just get a warning on the dash every time I start up telling me to wipe the sensors. Even though the system is in an error state, the rear sensors still work fine and the fronts just become inactive. I am happy with this behavior.

And that is it!
Click to expand...
I have the same bumper but the guy I bought from cut off and I don't have mounts could you get me a part number
 
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Remi15
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