Well, I was eating dinner last night when my buddy called me, asking for me to pull his hummer outa themud. When I got there I thought it'd be an easy job. I saw the water he was in was high, but I underestimated the depth. Yada yada yada... now I'm stuck too. Whole right side of truck, suspension, lift, muffler, in the ground. EEFFF!!!!! Left the truck over night (friend's property) and went back this morning to shovel it out. Anyway this f-250 (twin turboed) with about 1000hp, shows up to help. He tells me he'll tie the chain and told me to get inside my truck, so I did. Well, what I didn't know was that he tied the chains to the bull bar. You can probably get the picture now if you haven't already. Bull bar is barely still attached on one side. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to put it back on but I don't know if I should. It was a pain to get to the tow hooks because the piaa's on the bb were in the way. Btw, piaa's are gonners now too. Bad bad bad day. Should I put the bull bar back on? Ranchhand aint an option, too expensive. I;m thinking of a lightbar, is there any that don't get in the way of the tow hooks?

 

Put the lights behind the grille.

 

If you're gonna play, which is perfectly fine btw, then I'd lose the decorative bull bar and winch the front of it. There really isn't any excuse not to these days with so many affordable Chinese made winches on the market. Back in the day when it was Warn and Ramsey, you'd have to come up with $1000 for a 9000 lb. class winch, but now you can get decent winch that will pull 10,000 lbs for under $400.

You could also do what I did with my Jeep and go front receiver hitch (can be had for around $150) and a portable cradle for the winch (under $100). Thisaway when you don't need the winch, you can basically put ANYTHING for a receiver on the front or simply weld a 2" square pipe and drill a pin hole and ANYTHING becomes mountable on the front. The front receiver becomes basically a swiss army knife if you will.

You can fab up a light bar as I have or simply mount lights behind the grill as so many have.

With the stupid high price of those damn factory tow hooks I don't know why more guys don't just spend the same money or even less on a front receiver hitch. Hell, then you can just carry a hitch mounted clevis or hook in the back of the truck and slip it on when you need it. 10,000 lb. hooks on a receiver can be had for $20...

 

Idk I just love this look

 

And I know winches are super helpful, but Ijust don't really like the look of a winch on a truck. Plus my buddy has a winch on his h1 (different hummer than the one I was pulling) and I will always mud with him, he just didn't have it yesterday so he drove his h2.

 

I'll probably just put lights behind the grille cuz they are good and protected there. Could I fit 4 Hella 500's behind the grille? And would I need to worry about plastic on the grille melting?

 

Sorry to hear. Good luck with everything.

 

I'm sorry for your loss 4 should fit back there, I have 100w bulbs in cheapo lamps from advance auto and no melting.

 

The bull bar may be repairable, if so I'll put it back on, but I don't think I should put lights on it again because the lights go directly in front of my hooks.

 

Sucks about your bull bar, but if it were me, I would find something else anyway so you can use your tow hooks. My old bull bar crumpled up like a piece of paper in a collision I was in that wasn't even fast enough to pop the airbags. I was very disappointed in how flimsy it ended up being.