I bought a second hand Grille Guard for my ‘97 Ram 1500. I was told it came off a ‘97, but seems I was duped as it came off a 2016. I just bought the truck and hadn’t looked at the bumper mounts so I didn’t know. Now upon looking I see there’s a conversion bracket to allow installation of a Gen 4 bumper on the Gen 2. Can I get the conversion bracket and install the guard with that even if I have to buy a Gen 4 front bumper? I just want the grille guard to fit considering there’s crap out there for this year and I’ve already spent a pretty penny on what I did buy. TIA

 

Unless you have very good fabrication skills, installing that grill guard onto a 2nd gen truck appears to be more trouble than its worth. Might want to consider re-selling that grill guard to a 4th gen truck person and finding a 2nd gen grill guard that will fit your truck.

Several years ago, I picked up a used Westin grill guard for a 2nd gen truck. Unfortunately, it did not come with the necessary mounting brackets (two on top to mount the guard onto the bumper and two L shaped brackets on the bottom). Luckily, I was able to research what those mounting brackets were (plus part numbers) and ordered them through Summit Racing.

 

I believe without those brackets I would just need brackets that mount to the Jen too but I know they make a GEN four conversion bracket. I was wondering if it would mount to that or what all it would take. I can always put a looking for fabrication, if needed, as I’m not too confident myself as welding. I was just wondering if anybody’s ever done it I know I can’t be the first one lol.

 

I'm not 100% familiar with the Westin guards but typically this type of guard clamps or hangs of the stock bumper itself. If you purchased a 4th gen bumper and conversion brackets the possibility is high that everything would work, however I feel I have seen this done before and the 4th gen grill guard much like the bumper just sits differently and the headlights don't line up well with the headlight hoops on the guard..

The conversion bracket is very simple just a 90* plate iron because the 2nd gen mounts parallel to the frame and the 4th gen mounts perpendicular. Getting the height and angle right would be the challenging part of building your own.

I've been here before, buying one thing ending up getting something else. It burns but usually I've found best to just reset to zero and find the right thing.