And here's my driver side, the bumper is mounted on the inside of the driver side mount :
How is everyone else mounting their bumper to the brackets ?
View attachment 2563013
I remember this left/right issue clearly now. This all ties back to those frame welds where the rear brackets slide onto the frame. If the welds are built up too heavy, the brackets can't push towards the sides of the truck as far as you need them. I know on
@Mineral s install we had to do a couple of different rounds of grinding the welds before we could get the brackets pushed out to the sides far enough.
The reason this matters is what the issue you are showing is caused by. Like
@grinchy said the bumper should be centered left and right. The easiest way to tell if it's centered is by looking at the cutout for the hitch to see if the hitch is centered. The only way to achieve this is by having BOTH the brackets on the outside (towards the sides of the truck), and BOTH the bumper fin/mount thingys on the inside (towards the center of the truck). So, I imagine it'll make sense when you see these pics. It is incredibly hard to shove the bumper in with the brackets on the outside, but eventually, you'll get it. As I said, you may need to grind those frame welds down a bit more to push the brackets to the sides just a smidge. 1 thing to be aware of is if you do grind the welds, it's important to try to do both sides even amounts. If you grind 1 too much, the bumper may be slightly offset. On my install, we did zero weld grinding, but obviously, every weld is unique. We opted for the brute force method in the end. But it was a super tight fit, and I clearly remember trying the same mounting config you currently have (one bracket inside, one outside) because I figured there is just no way it could be this tight of a fit. But it is.
On mine once we got the bumper slid on to the brackets about half way, it basically felt like there was no way to get it pushed in further because it was so tight against the brackets. We ended up getting a mega ratchet strap out, attaching i think to the rear axle, and cranking and cranking as the bummer inched in. Then with the ratchet strap still tight, we tightened all the bolts, then took the strap off and everything stayed in place. So, not fun at all, was a 3 person job, but eventually, the end result was it is shoved in there so tight, it does not move at all hit after hit years later. There is just nowhere for it to move. Let me know if any of this is unclear, I'm sure there is other ways than the ratchet strap to make it happen, but the important part is you have to find a way that the brackets are outside, and the bumper is inside. I remember debating whether we should back the truck into a wall to try to push it in further, but the ratchet strap worked.
IMO the end goal should be to get the bumper-mounted as high up, and as far in as possible. Anything shy of that, as soon as you take your 1st big hit, it then has room to move. Like i mentioned, a couple years later mine has not budged and i thinks thats why
