I recently purchased the Alternative Off road no cut hood mounts and Whelen micro pioneers from WSI.
First I will say the both vendors were top notch in shipping speed and packing. They were both to my door in 2 days.
Individually they are both great products.
I installed the hood mounts last weekend. They are no cut but you give up the ability to get a decent tool to the back bolt for the hood with the cowl still in tact.
I installed the lights this weekend. After seeing a few threads on the engine routing the electrical part was pretty easy. Hell, even the upfitter switches were cake compared to the rest of the write up.
So heres the issue. Whelens come with a carriage bolt
Heres a carriage bolt if you don't know.
carriage bolt, carriage screw definition
So you can see how there is the square part on a carriage bolt. On the whelens, that part fits into the bracket, and then some, which is the problem. So the first time I got the lock nut tightened, the square part of the c.bolt prevented the bracket from tightening and was loose because the hood mount hole was smaller than the square part of the carriage bolt. The fix here would be to have a bigger hole on the hood mounts.
I had 2 choices at this point because I was an hour away from town and a hardware store. Either drill out the mounted bracket, because the bracket sure the hell wasn't coming off, or get some washers to help the square part of the c.bolt stay up off of the hood mount. Seeing how some drill bits take off with metal on metal, I wasn't going to have the bit go off sideways when it went thru drilling into my truck. So I did washers, lol, I will get to that.
Problem number two was the c.bolt that came with the whelens was too long. I had to drill into my cowl so the bolt could drop down. Not happy. That's why I paid extra for no cut hood mounts in the first place.
Problem number three is tightening the whelens from underneath the bracket when the cowl is still in tact. There's no room to get a decent tool in there(again) without the hood cowl being cut. I had to wedge a wrench on the bolt underneath and use painters tape to protect the hood and pillars, and use the square part of the carriage bolt that fit into the whelen bracket, to twist the bracket until it was tight.
So, on to the washers. All I had for washers were some that I used to keep my amps secure on the back of my truck. These washers had 3/16 holes. I needed 3/8 in holes. So here I am on the 4th of july drilling out washers on a ******* vice, pretending that Im some super fabricator. 4 washers later I am ready to try again. I have never drilled a washer before. Its fun when the drill takes off, even when prepared, and slams your hand into the vice.
Because I have one point to tighten on the whelens, the lock nut, I had to twist, (using the square part of the c. bolt for leverage), the whole light bracket while holding onto/wedging the wrench. I didn't get the light as tight as I wanted. I can still adjust with my hands(can you adjust yours with your hands? maybe it is tight enough). One lock nut is starting to strip so I stopped.
What this comes down to is if you want this combo you need new hardware or you are going to have to at least cut, which is dumb, because there are cheaper mounts if you are going to cut into your truck. I f you want a true no cut you need a new hardware solution
I will be replacing the hardware on this when I can. The lights are tight but they will loosen. I will either get new hardware from whelen and try again, or come up with something on my own. With the one side starting to strip it will be sooner than later. The square part of the carriage bolt serves a purpose on the light bracket but I think it can be done a different way so I have two tightening points and not have to use the light as one. That way I can position the light and tighten the hardware like its supposed to be.
First I will say the both vendors were top notch in shipping speed and packing. They were both to my door in 2 days.
Individually they are both great products.
I installed the hood mounts last weekend. They are no cut but you give up the ability to get a decent tool to the back bolt for the hood with the cowl still in tact.
I installed the lights this weekend. After seeing a few threads on the engine routing the electrical part was pretty easy. Hell, even the upfitter switches were cake compared to the rest of the write up.
So heres the issue. Whelens come with a carriage bolt
Heres a carriage bolt if you don't know.
carriage bolt, carriage screw definition
So you can see how there is the square part on a carriage bolt. On the whelens, that part fits into the bracket, and then some, which is the problem. So the first time I got the lock nut tightened, the square part of the c.bolt prevented the bracket from tightening and was loose because the hood mount hole was smaller than the square part of the carriage bolt. The fix here would be to have a bigger hole on the hood mounts.
I had 2 choices at this point because I was an hour away from town and a hardware store. Either drill out the mounted bracket, because the bracket sure the hell wasn't coming off, or get some washers to help the square part of the c.bolt stay up off of the hood mount. Seeing how some drill bits take off with metal on metal, I wasn't going to have the bit go off sideways when it went thru drilling into my truck. So I did washers, lol, I will get to that.
Problem number two was the c.bolt that came with the whelens was too long. I had to drill into my cowl so the bolt could drop down. Not happy. That's why I paid extra for no cut hood mounts in the first place.
Problem number three is tightening the whelens from underneath the bracket when the cowl is still in tact. There's no room to get a decent tool in there(again) without the hood cowl being cut. I had to wedge a wrench on the bolt underneath and use painters tape to protect the hood and pillars, and use the square part of the carriage bolt that fit into the whelen bracket, to twist the bracket until it was tight.
So, on to the washers. All I had for washers were some that I used to keep my amps secure on the back of my truck. These washers had 3/16 holes. I needed 3/8 in holes. So here I am on the 4th of july drilling out washers on a ******* vice, pretending that Im some super fabricator. 4 washers later I am ready to try again. I have never drilled a washer before. Its fun when the drill takes off, even when prepared, and slams your hand into the vice.
Because I have one point to tighten on the whelens, the lock nut, I had to twist, (using the square part of the c. bolt for leverage), the whole light bracket while holding onto/wedging the wrench. I didn't get the light as tight as I wanted. I can still adjust with my hands(can you adjust yours with your hands? maybe it is tight enough). One lock nut is starting to strip so I stopped.
What this comes down to is if you want this combo you need new hardware or you are going to have to at least cut, which is dumb, because there are cheaper mounts if you are going to cut into your truck. I f you want a true no cut you need a new hardware solution
I will be replacing the hardware on this when I can. The lights are tight but they will loosen. I will either get new hardware from whelen and try again, or come up with something on my own. With the one side starting to strip it will be sooner than later. The square part of the carriage bolt serves a purpose on the light bracket but I think it can be done a different way so I have two tightening points and not have to use the light as one. That way I can position the light and tighten the hardware like its supposed to be.
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