2500 rear bumper on a 1500

superdave160 · January 30, 2021

I have a 2017 Silverado WT. It came with the dull black painted bumpers. I wanted to replace the rear bumper with a chrome bumper, and found one from a 2018 2500 on Craigslist. I have read several posts that claim it will fit, and several that say it won't fit. This is what I found.

Before I purchased the bumper, I looked up the parts that make up the bumper assembly and found that the "face bar" was the same part number for one of the same style (with corner steps and without park assist). The step pad is not the same part number. I could tell that there was a "step-up" on each end. The bumper mounts are not the same part number either, but I didn't know why.

I purchased the bumper and brought it home. Comparing the step pad to the one on my 1500, I could tell that it was also taller in the center. So tall that it would cover the Putco light that I had installed under the tailgate. I have read at least one post about trimming off the extra plastic in the center and it appeared that it could be done.

Next, I removed the bumper from my Silverado. You do have to raise the bed so that the bumper bracket will clear when you pull the bumper out. Then I compared the mounting brackets from the two bumpers. I hoped that the difference between the brackets was that the 2500 brackets were more robust, but shaped the same. THEY ARE NOT. They look very close to the same and the holes are generally in the same location, but a closer inspection revealed that the distance between the holes is not the same. The 2500 bumper uses 4 bolts that screw into nuts welded to the bracket. The 1500 bumper uses a "twin bolt" with nuts that thread onto the bolts. If the holes lined up, this would not be an issue. But, as I said before, the holes don't line up. One of the attached pictures is of the 2500 bracket laying on top of the 1500 bracket. The top holes are lined up and you can see that none of the other holes line up.

Since the brackets are not interchangeable, they had to be swapped from the old bumper to the new. To do this, the step pad had to be removed. This proved to be a difficult task. The access point for the spare tire winch had to be removed. To do this, a one-time use clip had to be cut off. The replacement clip is 2 pieces and $40.00 at the dealership. The pad had a bunch of clips and latches that had to be released in the correct order. Since I had to remove the step pad anyway, I decided to move my step pad to the new bumper so I did not attempt to trim the 2500 step pad to make it fit. Once the step pad was removed, the mounting brackets were easy to swap, 5 bolts on each side. With this done, I installed the step pad and the bumper was ready to install.

The chrome bumper installation was straight forward, and with a little help from a jack, the bumper lined up with the body lines.

So, in my experience, a rear bumper from a 2018 Silverado will not directly bolt onto a 1500 Silverado. The mounting brackets must be changed first.

Edited January 31, 2021 by superdave160

superdave160 · January 30, 2021

I couldn't get the pictures to attach to the original post. The picture attached to this post shows the two mounting brackets. The one on the left is the 2500. The one on the right is the 1500. Also attached is a picture showing the differences in the thickness of the top lip of the step pads. The one on the left is the 2500.

mikeyk101 · January 31, 2021

But you are confirming that swapping out the mounting brackets from your original 1500 bumper to the 2500 bumper does work and allows you to then mount the 2500 bumper?

superdave160 · January 31, 2021

11 hours ago, mikeyk101 said:

But you are confirming that swapping out the mounting brackets from your original 1500 bumper to the 2500 bumper does work and allows you to then mount the 2500 bumper?

Yes, swapping the mounting brackets and the step pad effectively converts the 2500 bumper to a 1500 bumper. The chrome bumper is currently installed on my Silverado 1500.

Edited January 31, 2021 by superdave160