2003 FX4. I picked this up back in November and it came with these hideous plates on the front where I believe the tow hooks should be. What are they and what should I replace them with?

Thanks!

 

Looks like someone welded some steel into some sort of bracket and bolted it to the tow hook mounting points. I will take a guess and say your Ranger may have been towed behind an RV before. That is just a guess however and I have no idea, atleast for certain.

 

I was gonna say the same thing. Looks like it was towed behind an RV.

 

Yep, my guess as well.

 

I recall the carfax indicated it was registered as a commercial vehicle for a short time. It's quite clean and is wired for trailer lights with a recessed round plug under the front bumper. Should have added these details originally.

I'm gonna throw them in the recycle pile and look for something a little less ugly.

 

Take em off and put the stock tow hooks back on it.

 

it could maybe be for a snow plow?

 

Regardless of the original intention, removing them is critical, they are hideous

I'm guessing snowplow. Look for extra wiring going to the grill valence area, they could have been for the plow lights

 

Can you believe I've been driving with them for months? They haven't gotten any better looking. Did the FX4 come with different tow hooks stock? Will look to see what I can find. Maybe something flashy to make up for the months of ugly. Taking suggestions...

 

I'm actually worried the PO welded to the original tow hook location. Crawl under the bumper and take a look

 

Well, a squirt or two of PB Blaster, some choice words, and a few bloody knuckles and they're off.

Looks like someone welded angled steel to the possibly stock tow hooks. I need to find new ones now.

 

thats just sad...

 

Well, that's one way to do it (whatever it was that they were trying to do)

 

It's a shame they ruined a perfectly good set of tow hooks like that

 

The FX4 Tow Hooks are different.

They are getting rare.

Check out the Classified FS there are some for sale.

 

Paint your front bumper while your at it. But yeah those things don't look safe.