s-10 tow hooks installed - my notes | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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s-10 tow hooks installed - my notes

JuBean

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Joined
December 22, 2013
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City, State
Roxborough CO
Year, Model & Trim Level
2002 Sport Trac
Finally got around to installing these based on midnightrebel's recommendation but wanted to add a couple of pics for future searches.
After installing the PA body lift the stock tow hooks would come through the bumper cover nice and low and since I am a mall crawler I cannot have this! in this first picture you can see the difference between the stock hook and the S-10 and the upward bend that helps to clear the bumper.

In the second picture you ca see the hook being held in place on the factory bracket but I did not like a few things such as the gap on the back of the hook due to the front resting on the bumper itself and it was just to tight to the bumper cover.
 

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The fix is really quite easy and all you have to do is trim the factory bumper mount below the body lift bumper bracket to allow the s-10 hook to slide in and on top of the factory hook mount
 

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Of course now that your 30 minute project is done you have to test it out by trying to pull a heavy object.:D

I will also reiterate what others have said in that if you expect to use the hooks a lot do some additional welding the allow for more support as I would not like to yank on the factory mounts from the side.
 

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Nice, glad to see someone finally took my advice. Definitely weld the factory bracket to the frame better, those stamp welds rip out fairly easy as Lono and myself learned the hard way. I see you figured out that you need to mount them from the top of the bracket to clear the bumper cover completely, you can mount hem from the bottom but like you stated they do rub on the cover that way.
 






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