Last night I installed my stock skid plates and new low and high beam Philips HIR headlights.
First off I am not too happy with the 5 spacers BIO provided for the front stock skid plate drop. There are just sections of thin walled tube that have been roughly cut to length. You have to get them in place then adjust them so that they are centered on the bolt. This is in my opinion a cheap way to lower the skid plate. I very much doubt these spacer will hold up to any force. Not that the stock skid is a bash plate but it will hold up to a dirt berm. A solid spacer would not cost very much and would be a lot better. I’ve been really impressed with the quality from BIO but this just seems out of character. I am going to source some solid spacers and toss the other ones. While installing the front skid I had to purchase a bolt from the hardware store to attach the large square spacer on the front skid. Not sure if I lost one bolt or if it was just missing from my kit.
The stock rear plastic skid was a pain to get on. The bolts holes did not want to line up. I had to purchase one longer bolt for one of the middle bolts that attach to the diff drop. The stock length ones could not reach the threads in the diff drop. It took a lot of effort but I was finally able to get all 8 of the bolts in and bolted it up. One thing I did notice causing interference with me lining up the bolts holes was the U-bolts for the step sliders. Honestly I do not see any purpose for the stock rear skid plate. This thing is not going to hold up to anything, it’s plastic! Since I know I am not going to wheel this truck hard (for while) I decided to keep it. Maybe this item will help me get my gas mileage back, not!
My new headlight bulbs showed up this week and I was a little anxious to get them in. I purchased them through amazon.com. I got 2 of the Philips HIR1 9011 Standard Headlight Bulb for $17.40 each and 2 of the Philips HIR2 9012 Standard Halogen Headlight Bulb for $19.53. This was the cheapest price I could find on these. When I removed the current ones they were Sylvania’s. Not sure if these are the stock ones or not? Can someone confirm this? In any case I installed the Philips ones on one side (both high and low) so that I could compared them to Sylvania’s (stock?) ones. I also used the Sylvania ones as a template to cut the Philips ones down to size. This was very easy to do, I used a Dremel and made short work of it. You will need to remove the battery to access the driver’s side ones. I suggest you do the passenger side first then remove the battery and do the drivers side ones. The Philips ones were defiantly a lot brighter, both the low and high beams. The Sylvania’s (stock?) low beam was a dull yellow and did not hurt you eyes when you looked at it from 20 feet. If you tried that with the Philips you were blinded, light color changed as well to a bright white. This was the same scenario with the Philips high beams with one exception. The difference in light was even more apparent, the new ones were really producing a lot more light then the Sylvania’s (stock?) ones. Please keep in mind the Philips HIRs are not a HID, so do not expect that type light output. What they are is a reliable and legal upgrade to your stock lighting. I drove around last night and noticed quite a bit of improvement with the low beams. Keep in mind I live in the city where there is quite a bit of ambient light. I think I will really notice a difference when I get away from all of the ambient light sources. The Philips high beams just plain kick ass, I really noticed a difference even with all the street lights. They pretty much just lit up everything for ½ to ¾ of a block. What I really liked was how well they threw light low and to the sides of the road. For $73.86 delivered to your door this is a plug and play no brainier mod.