I have the 3" body lift on my truck, an '09 Sport 4x4 crew cab. As we know the tow hooks don't even come on the sports and after getting stuck a couple times I decided it was time to do something about it.
I started looking at the truck and I pulled off the black plastic piece in the bumper and noticed this nice rectangle of bolts and thought I could do something with that.
I was thinking just a plate bolted on there and then some hooks onto it, but the plate on the frame was pretty thin so I decided to bring it all the way back down to where the stock tow hooks bolt to. I took some measurements and got some brackets made out of 1/2" and 3/8" plate.
I took off the front bumper cover and then ended up taking the bumper all the way off to grind off the studs that are welded to it.
I used a cut-off wheel on my grinder and cut the heads off of the studs, then smoothed out the holes with the grinder and gave it a quick coat of paint.
From here out it was just a matter of bolting everything together. I will update and add my CAD drawing of the brackets next week(its on my work computer). Two things I would change if getting the brackets made are to lower the hook mounting tabs on the plate and/or make them slightly thinner up and down. The second thing would be to move the holes for the bolt in the back about a 1/4" further back and to the side, I had to drill them out. You can see in the finished pictures how these couple changes would make them fit better.
I started looking at the truck and I pulled off the black plastic piece in the bumper and noticed this nice rectangle of bolts and thought I could do something with that.
I was thinking just a plate bolted on there and then some hooks onto it, but the plate on the frame was pretty thin so I decided to bring it all the way back down to where the stock tow hooks bolt to. I took some measurements and got some brackets made out of 1/2" and 3/8" plate.
I took off the front bumper cover and then ended up taking the bumper all the way off to grind off the studs that are welded to it.
I used a cut-off wheel on my grinder and cut the heads off of the studs, then smoothed out the holes with the grinder and gave it a quick coat of paint.
From here out it was just a matter of bolting everything together. I will update and add my CAD drawing of the brackets next week(its on my work computer). Two things I would change if getting the brackets made are to lower the hook mounting tabs on the plate and/or make them slightly thinner up and down. The second thing would be to move the holes for the bolt in the back about a 1/4" further back and to the side, I had to drill them out. You can see in the finished pictures how these couple changes would make them fit better.