Best Bumper Conversion for the $$$?

HiWaYman92 said:

So you don't have to buy a new cooler, and all that stuff? All I need to buy is a bumper and foot board supports? What other steps do I need to take?

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some people will take there stock cooler and flatten it, but many dont. the stock cooler will hang down just a tad under the bumper maybe 1-2" but that is all. I didn't flatten mine out and have never had any troubles

HiWaYman92 said:

So you don't have to buy a new cooler, and all that stuff? All I need to buy is a bumper and foot board supports? What other steps do I need to take?

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Going that route you'll need some fabrication skills to finish the job.

The cooler will need to be flattened and tubes cut, tunnel and foot boards shaped and cut to fit bumper and gussets and a snow flap modded to fit the new bumper.

If it were me, I'd buy the rear tunnel cap and tail light/snow flap in addition to the bumper and gussets. Flattening the cooler shouldnt be to hard.

89sandman said:

i love my bdx...

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Sandman, what did you do with your tail light? is that a small led or is that just a piece of plastic covering the holes that are under the original tail light position. maybe you could pm me some close up pics of that.

thanks
jason

HiWaYman92 said:

So you don't have to buy a new cooler, and all that stuff? All I need to buy is a bumper and foot board supports? What other steps do I need to take?

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Are you talking for the '09 setup? The answer is yes, BUT that depends on how or what you want to do about the flap and light. If you want to keep a factory type look then you pretty much have to get the '09 flap and light too which greatly adds to the price of just a bumper and gussets (relative speaking). I just did mine 2 weekends ago with stock tunnel and flattened and remounted stock cooler on '08 M8 but otherwise complete '09 setup. First a thank you to ACMtnCat for having answered some of my questions ahead of time and the pictures (my sled is 400 miles from me so I wanted to have a really good idea of everything needed prior to getting to it and he was a big help). Here is my as unbiased opinion as possible. If you want to simply drill rivets out, and pop rivet everything on with minimal cutting and/or fabrication then you can buy all the '09 stuff (rear tunnel piece, cooler, end plate, flap, led light, gussets, bumper, screws, rivets). If you don't mind some more cutting and fabrication (while doing a bunch less drilling and rivetting) then you can easily keep the stock tunnel and cut it and still put on the new cooler. Finally you have the choice to keep your stock cooler and either leave it bent and remount or flatten it and remount (but the tunnel has to get shorter so at minimum it has to move). Flattening and remounting does include some more cutting but I personally like the final result better. To me, and i'll admit I have built an aluminum airplane so my fabrication and fitment levels are probably well above average, keeping the stock tunnel and rear cooler and the added time of modifying them is more than well worth the money saved. Actually in the time it would take to drill all those extra rivets you would need to drill to install the new rear tunnel section you probably could get lots of the extra cutting and fabrication finished. In the end the time may not be a whole lot different you're just doing different stuff. The way the rear end cap fits to the bumper and where the bumper attachs in the front is a set thing so as long as you understand those 'set' things then there really is no guessing involved just the labor to do it. Flattening the cooler was NOT a big deal. Yes there are plenty of people who like to make their comments because they choose not to and that is their opinion which is fine. After having done it I have ZERO concern that the cooler is ever going to give me trouble because of it. I mounted mine solidly by using the original 4 rivet locations (moved forward of course) in the front and conduit hangers in the back (going around the pipes just after they come out of the cooler). In the end you wind up without the big hole on the top of the tunnel and the only way you would know what was under mine was by looking up from the ground or knowing the rivet spacing between the two. I cannot remember exact pricing but it saves $135ish by not buying the tunnel piece and cooler but all the other '09 parts.

For the BDX kit you are cutting the stock tunnel. You still have the same options as far as coolers I guess. Keep stock and don't even move it, keep stock and move it, flatten and move, or '09 or other type of new cooler. Since the bumper on the BDX is so much longer you have the option of not even touching the cooler at all, BUT IN MY OPINION, not having the rear end cap greatly reduces the strength of rear end back there and one of the things I don't like about the BDX setup. You can add the rear end cap but then you will have to at least move the cooler. For the flap and light you have choices and depending on your choice depends on what is involved in the job. If you want the '09 flap and light then you need the end cap and have to do something with the cooler and have basically made the '09 setup with a much more expensive bumper and gussets than the Cat parts. If you want to cut and fit the stock stuff back on I believe I have seen pictures of where people have done that. It just becomes a matter of what you want.

One final little note if going to the '09 LED light the wiring connectors are different so you'll need to cut them off both sides and splice the 3 wires together. Each side has a blue and yellow and those get matched and then one side has brown and the other black and those get matched. Not a big deal.

ACMtnCat said:

Going that route you'll need some fabrication skills to finish the job.

The cooler will need to be flattened and tubes cut, tunnel and foot boards shaped and cut to fit bumper and gussets and a snow flap modded to fit the new bumper.

If it were me, I'd buy the rear tunnel cap and tail light/snow flap in addition to the bumper and gussets. Flattening the cooler shouldnt be to hard.

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Did you replace the tunnel rolls/sides also ??? To get the gussets to slide in proper/fit or did you just grind down the gussets to get them to slide in and rivet ??? On the Crossfires those sides/tunnel rolls , there holes are pretty small - Not alot of area to get those gussets to slide in proper - With all the grinding involved , might weaken those gusset ends , not alot of support

Looks nice - Thanx Scott 2006 Crossfire

I'm thinking I want to modify my '07 with the '09 rear bumper. I have a 162. I want to keep my stock cooler and I don't mind that it hangs down a bit, so I am not going to flatten it. I do want to use the '09 flap and light. Do the
'09 gussetts fit right into the '07 rolls? How far back from the rear tunnel section do you cut the running boards? How easy is it to move the cooler forward? Is 4" exactly how much shorter you need to cut the stock tunnel extension?

Thanks.

yes i mounted the led light where the stock one was. used part of the tunnel cut off for a mounting plate. with the inside supports bdx has added to the kit i can't see anyone being able to crack the tunnel...

Blk88GT said:

If I'm reading this correctly, it sounds like I can reuse my 05 tunnel extension and just update the following:

- New snowflap
- New bumper
- New rear cap
- New tail light
- New gussets

Then I can cut the stock tunnel, flatten the cooler and I'm good to go?

Can anyone confirm?

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From all that i have found out that is correct, however flattening your cooler is not 100% necessary, especially if your sled is an 05-06 because they have smaller coolers than the 07 and newer.

VE for me

VE light weight rear bumper and VE cooler it looks like

RockyMtn.Kris said:

VE for me

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Did you just buy that from VE or is that an older version of the piece?? I have been looking for the one with just round holes in the sides instead of the squares and cannot find one.

That cooloer looks to me like it would be a bit on the small side, when i do it i am going to try to use the stock cooler because of how it hangs down i think it will grab snow better. But then you need a better snow flap like the 09.

Good job on the install!

Blk88GT said:

I took my stock one apart just now, I don't see how you can not use the new tunnel extension. There are holes in the sides of the stock one that are covered up by the stock flap assembly.

Also, how are you guys flattening the stock cooler and still mounting it? The rivets for the rear mount are right in the middle of the cooler if you flatten it!

Lots of misinformation floating around here....

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Look closely at ACMtnCat's pictures. Your cut happens around that "hole" in the side. The bottom two rivets of the end plate to bumper do not go through the tunnel because well there isn't a tunnel right there, that is where the "hole" is. Having the end plate up and attached to the tunnel and bumper is plenty strong and MUCH better than the "stock" BDX setup without even having the end plate, in my opinion. That won't be the weak point.

To me the easiest way to explain this is to go ahead and rivet those bottom two holes on each side of the end plate to the bumper. Now drill out the bottom rivet (again look at ACMtnCat's pics) near the running boards where the front-most holes for the bumper are going to be. After you do that then it is a matter of cutting off the necessary amount to be able to make it fit right. Does that make sense or help at all?

When you flatten the cooler it has to then move forward for two reasons, A) you will have cut a few inches off the tunnel and B) it's flat now and takes up more space (realize the entire machine gets a few inches shorter if you do the '09 setup). So after you get the end plate and bumper on figure out where it needs to sit and backdrill new holes and rivet. No matter what you are drilling new holes to move the cooler forward if you do the '09 bumper.

What is all the misinformation? The problem is more that there are many ways to skin the cat and different people do different things. If you want to keep stock tunnel and cooler then read what I just wrote and follow with ACMtnCat's pictures. (edit: if you are wanting to change to the '09 setup this is)

rmk dude

if you call mike at ve and want round holes thats what youll get,and i see what blk88 is saying on 07 and 08 the mounting for the rear makes the cooler hang down still i just went with ve

RMKDude, I run a digital guage with the probe in the return line and I noticed no change in temps with the smaller cooler