All,,,
This is just a little tidbit about the WAAG Frontrunner:
I bought the frontrunner, and the rear guard about 2 mos., ago, and had some small issues with their product... After all was said and done, I shipped back 3 frontrunners, and one rear guard... The VP of WAAG was so nice about the whole thing, he sent me some free clips for my WAAG Taillight guards, and a T-Shirt ...
Frontrunner:
From what the VP of WAAG tells me, the frontrunner was "patterned" after the 2500 frame, and when it was designed, it was prototyped on a 2500... There are some spooky issues with the 1500 that after I heard them, I was a little irritated... The VP of WAAG actually toured the plant where the Avs are built, to get a better idea of how they are built, and found that the cladding is sometimes not perfectly centered over the tow hooks... Mine was about 1/2" offset to the left... Now it's not known whether the front fascia is mounted off center, or if the body of the truck is purposefully mounted off-center... This he was told was normal, and this variance is different from truck to truck... Knowing this, the VP of WAAG includes 2 thick metal shims to allow for this... The brackets that the bar mounts to utilize the tow hook holes, and the brackets are pretty stout... I had to bend the passenger side bracket inward about 1/4" and use both shims that are 3/16" thick each.... Even then, the passenger side nuts were contacting and pushing on the cladding, and the driver's side had about 1/2" of clearance and was fine... Cosmetically, you couldn't tell when you stepped back and looked, but just the fact that it mounted up the way it did, bugged me so I removed it... The first 2 frontrunners had dents / scratches from the factory, and that's why they went back ... The rear guard went back because I didn't like the way the brackets "rolled under" the bumper ... It really killed the clearance the av has by about 3" ... They hung down pretty low... I talked to the VP, and he said they design their products as NO DRILL , and sometimes cosmetics/function can be a compromise ...
On a positive note though, I think they have the nicest "built" products as far as build quality, and uniqueness goes...
If you like the front bars, I might suggest the full brush guard, as he said that piece had no mounting issues like the frontrunner...
If you don't ming losing 20-30% of your departure/ascent angles, then the rear guard is superb, and looks totally cool on the av ...
The other benefit to going with the black powdercoat front and rear products, is that it "breaks-up" the over-abundance of grey cladding in those areas ... It really helps take the attention off the cladding ... That's why I did not go with the grey cladding color bars...!!!
11H
