I decided to try and raise the new DV8 rear bumper to align with my 1.25" body lift. Because the DV8 bumper comes with its own mounting brackets that don't mount tbe same as the OEM bumper brackets I couldn't use the brackets supplied with the body lift kit.
To raise the bumper I simply needed to drill 4 new holes in the DV8 brackets, 1" lower than the existing holes. I marked where I currently had the bolts positioned and drew a line straight down 1". Because I don't have fancy tools that would allow me to make and elongated hole I did my best to make the round hole as accurate as possible while still maintaining my usual level of laziness. I also didn't anticipate doing before and after shots of this so I apologize for the lack of angle similarity.
This is how the bumper sat with the body lift before I modified the brackets.
This is how it sits after modifying the brackets.
Before
After
I messed up and drilled one of the holes on the drivers side bracket too low so when I tried to install it the top of the bracket hit the underside of the bed. So I took some material off in 2 places using an angle grinder. I covered the bare metal with self etching primer then hit it with protective enamel.
The 2 round holes I drilled on each bracket then primered.
These are the 2 spots, indicated by my index and middle fingers, where the bracket hit the bed. Don't be like me. Measure correctly so you don't have to grind. :)
Then primered the areas I had to grind down to clear the bed because I drilled a hole too low. Grrr
I'm finding a common theme with this whole lifted truck thing. My floor jack is never tall enough to jack up anything but the rear diff. LOL Ammo can to the rescue! Don't worry, it's just holding the unbolted bumper up on one side.
Once I got the main brackets attached to the frame again I found the bolts that DV8 supplied to attach the bumper to the bracket were too long now and they hit the frame in the new alignment. Double Grrr Thankfully I had a handful of 3/8"? OEM bolts leftover so I used those for the lower mounts and the DV8 bolts for the upper. You could simply cut 2 of the DV8 bolts a little shorter if you prefer or buy new shorter ones.
In all the work took a few hours but wasn't very difficult using basic tools most of us have. I'm going to submit my modification info to DV8 in hopes they can make the bracket work with trucks with and without body lifts. It would be very easy to do.
Note! I would not suggest raising the bumper higher than 1" in this way. The sides of the bumper where they wrap around the side of the bed are VERY close to the sheet metal because of the way the bed tapers narrower towards the ground. The higher you raise the bumper the closer you will come to closing the gap and hitting sheet metal. For those with the 1.50" body lift you may be able to raise the bumper by 1.25" if you pull the bumper out a little instead of as far in as possible like I did.
