Hi all,

I am not nearly as experienced with car work as some others on here. I am trying to install a Lund Bull Bar on my 15 F150 SCREW. I realize I have to take the tow hooks off. Here is my question though (don't laugh if this seems silly)

The tow hooks are enclosed in a rubber housing,that seems to surround them in such a way that I would have to take off the plastic bumper cover (directly below the bumper), but this too seems like an almost impossible task because the bolts that hold that on are small, and hidden behind other supports.

I am probably overthinking something, but aif nyone who has removed the tow hooks that could guide me in the correct direction, I would appreciate it.

Thank you in advance.

Kevin

 

Try this one. I used it to remove my hooks.

 

Ok so if you're going to do all that it would be way easier to just take the bumper all the way off - there are about 15 bolts that hold the under valance (not the air dam) in place and there is almost no way you would be able to get to all of them with the bumper on.

If you just buy a plastic pry tool you can pry off the plastic center portion of the bumper and there are two bolts on the front on each side and one bolt in the back on each side that hold the bumper on.

Once you have the bumper off it's just two bolts to take the tow hooks off.

You could also try just pulling the rubber surrounds for the tow hooks off and see if you can get a wrench in there to get them off. Would be a lot less work.

I went the opposite route - I have a 2wd and wanted tow hooks so I had to take off the air dam, then bumper and replace the valance with one that had holes in it for the tow hooks - your job shouldn't be as hard - it seems daunting to take the bumper off but it's really not bad.

Edit: just saw the link to the video above - that does a good job of explaining what i was trying to say...

 

Nothing retains the surround around the hooks, no clips, no bolts, it just sits in there. Two ways it comes out, either just just rip it out the front bending it whatever way necessary and maybe damaging it or pull the bumper and it just slides off. It takes about 5 minutes to pull the bumper, it's easy.

 

Watch the Video... It takes 10 min a side to replace the hooks, Cant hurt the rubber surrounds, Leave the bumper alone.

 

It's a pretty straightforward procedure. I removed my black front tow hooks and replaced with chrome to match my grill and bumper on my '17 Lariat. I did not remove the bumper but used a long screwdriver to carefully pry out the boot around the tow hook from the back bottom. After removing and replacing which took about 10 minutes a side, I found it more difficult to get those back on than it was to get them off. All told it took a long handled screw driver and 15mm socket and the entire job was about 35 minutes.