Tell me about it, i had the one of mine, i think i have given i away three times locally, blasted thing keeps coming back.

T this point, I'm not sure if it is in my shed or not.

 

If you get a stock rear hook from a member it takes about 5 minutes to bolt on.

Installing the front factory hooks are a little more problematic. You'll have to remove the grill (no big deal. Write ups are on this site) You'll also have to remove your front bumper and cut axcess holes for the hooks to mount up.

The plastic bumpers may be cheap but they are a bitch to cut cleanly. If you can, see if you can buy a front bumper from another member that is already cut out for the hooks.

If not, there are writes ups regarding this also.

Here is the first piece of advise.

If you use the base bumper, it has little square indentations where the factory hooks come through. Do not cut these out completely. You only need to cut about half of the indentations out. The instructions that come with factory tow hooks says remove all of the indentation. They are wrong. Look at a JK with factory hooks on. You'll see what I mean.

The greatest thing about this site is how quickly you can get advise when working on a problem or a mod.

We are here to help you

 

Good advice, but you don't have to remove the grill.

 

yeah, you don't have to remove the grill to install the front tow hooks. the toughest part is cutting out the indentions in the bumper, however i discovered a really easy way to do this as well. use either a heat gun on the lowest setting or a hair blow dryer on the high setting to heat up the plastic nice and warm which will soften it considerably (one advantage of the 'cheap' plastic bumpers) then proceed to cut out the holes with a basic utility knife. The thin blade of the utility knife will cut through it nice and clean with relative ease. you might have to stop and reheat several times as the plastic cools and you might want a few utility knife blades so its nice and sharp with each cut, although i just used one blade. actually using this method the outside face of the bumper will cut through the indents like butter, its the thicker backside face that is a little more difficult but not terrible. long story short i wouldn't spend the money on another bumper just for the cutouts even if you are only just paying for shipping.

 

You know when I did mine, the directions that came with the hooks said to remove the grill. I just did it.

Looking back on it, I see now it's not nessesary.