To check inside the mounts where you can't see, scribe marks on the chassis where the new mounts stop (furthest point from the front of the chassis) then remove the bumper and take a measurement from the scribe marks to the end of the furthest point on the chassis, then compare that to the inside length of the bumper mount.

 

Thanks again Tom. I'm loathing the idea of taking the bumper off again but I really have little choice I suppose. I'm not even sure how I can get it off now given the hammer-and-block-of-wood persuasion I've used to get it on this far. I may need to wrap my tree strap around a tree and then slide my old log chain through the loops and connect each end of it to each of the two newly-installed swivel eyes, then back up slowly until it is pulled off the frame and drops to the ground.

And drowssap, do you have the Terrafirma bumper or are you talking about another bumper? And when you say clean up the frame horns exactly what do you mean? Did you go at them with a grinder? And if so I presume you primed and painted them before installing the bumper. Part of my problem would be figuring out just where to grind.

For all the beatings the ARB mounts take on these forums they were far, far easier to install and remove.

 

yes; it is a TF bumper.
yes ; grind down any protruding welds on the horns, then hit them with rustolium or whatever you choose.
those plastic inserts from the old bumper are not used you can just cut them off were the bumper rides.

using your pictures on number 4, the brace that runs from the horn to the radiator support needed a bit of grinding on the vertical weld in order to slide all the way in.

if you still have problem you my want to put a framing square on the frame horns and see if they have been tweaked and do the same to the mounting bracket on the bumper

 

Well, the bumper is off the truck again. I love innovating.

 

My plan now is to follow the advice of drowssap to “massage” the frame horns with a grinder to allow the bumper to fit readily. Justin at L8 said the same thing when I spoke with him late yesterday. He said that of the many TF bumpers they's installed there've been only a few needing this work. The others have bolted right up. Whatever. Just my luck.

Once I do so, presuming I am successful, I’ll once again remove the bumper to clean up and paint the frame horns which will presumably have a good amount of bare metal showing after the $14.99 Harbor Freight angle grinder has its way with them.

The attached pics can be difficult to follow but hang in there.

The first pic, TF22, shows the Terrafirma mounting holes from the RH, passenger-side view (U.S.-centric of course). You can see that the lower hole is lined up pretty well (bumper needs to move down a 16th or so perhaps) but that the upper hole needs to move both back (i.e. left in the pic) and down maybe an 1/8th or so, maybe 3/16ths. The next two pics, taken from the opposite or inner side of the RH farme horn, show roughly the same moves needed to reach The Promised Land. Thats’s good news; I’d been concerned (still am a little) that the holes in the bumper were misaligned even with respect to each other and would never line up with the holes in the frame horn. The circumstances on the other side of the truck are quite similar.

Tom wrote about scribing marks to help identify where the hangups are but I think these pics should help a lot to provide the same guidance.

 

I purchased this same bumper. I had somewhat of an issue mounting it as well. I haven't mounted a winch on it as of yet but I did see on this forum or another LR forum that the metal strip u spoke of would need to go for a winch to be installed, I also had to trim my grill about a 1/2 inch, will be even more when the winch goes in. as for the holes not lining up, I used the method described in said post that showed the metal strip being cut out. 1 bolt hole on the passenger side needed to go back bout a 1/16th or so to let the bolt slide in, after reading this thread the grinding method would have been better, but I went with what worked for the guy who posted his install which is find a tree and give it a push. probably a dumb idea but hey it worked, especially after an hour or so balancing the damn thing on a floor jack trying to get it to go. I also wrecked a few 2x4's beating the **** out of it before going with the tree. I also had some issues with the washer bottle guard lining up. I've since deleted the install pics, all that's left are a few of it on with the grill trimmed. but where you have a winch much more trimming will be needed. here's one with it on though.

 

A grinder isn't going to help the bolt hole alignment as much as is needed. If the bumper just needed to be rotated up or down, pivoting on the lower hole, then yeah, it would.
In TF22 if you pivot on the lower hole it will correct the horizontal alignment but will make the vertical alignment worse as the upper hole will move up.

It looks to me like either your chassis horns are tweaked or the bracket holes were drilled or punched wrong.

Be careful grinding the welds. Take off as little as possible because what you're grinding off is the weld reinforcement.

 

This. Thread. Is. Awesome.

 

Well, it's mounted, and it's mounted well. Grade 8s and all.

But it's only mounted. I have yet to trim the bottom of the plastic grill, which will be more than the inch that the AB and Rovers North product descriptions indicated. And in addition the body-color headlight finishers that fit under the headlights will need to be trimmed. [EDIT: This was not the case; the headlight finishers will not need to be trimmed.]

I'm too tired tonight for a full description of what I had to do, but I'll tease by saying that the new Harbor Freight angle grinder got used for a lot more than just cleaning up some welds. I'll do my best to get out a more complete description in the next few days.

Bottom line --- quality control for the TF mounts was awful. Others have suggested that my problems may have been due to my frame having been tweaked in the minor accident that led to me buying the TF to replace my ARB, but given what I found that was clearly not the problem. More to come.

 

You have had your issues with that bumper, mine only told minor cleaning up of the welds and it slides on and off by hand. Those brackets definatley look like they are not drilled correctly. What did whoever you bought the bumper from have to say, thays not normal installation. I have never had to touch the grill and certianly not the headlight trim