R51 Front Tow Hook Hack

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PF Flyer
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 4:34 pm
Location: Jacksonville, FL

R51 Front Tow Hook Hack

Postby PF Flyer » Fri Aug 30, 2019 5:23 pm

For those of you who do not have a front tow hook, want one, but do not want to spend ~$70 for it... I may have a solution for you.

It was killing me to not have a great source of a recovery point for the front of the Pathy but also did not want to drop $70 on a large hunk of metal and also wanted something somewhat visually appealing.

After some research I figured out that a racing recovery strap for "race cars" might just do the trick. And it did! I will try to post a pic later but here is the product I got:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011M ... UTF8&psc=1

I also nabbed a couple frame bolts off of a Titan in a nearby junkyard for the install.


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palmerwmd
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Location: Mid Atlantic

Postby palmerwmd » Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:23 am

Good job!!.. thanks for posting!!!! :D

Amoun
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:14 pm

Postby Amoun » Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:13 pm

Where would you even install this guy?
Asking because there are no caps to pop on the bumper, yet manual says there are 2 spots

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ShipFixer
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Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 9:52 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Postby ShipFixer » Mon Feb 24, 2020 8:38 pm

I Googled around a bit. If you Google "Nissan Frontier tow hook" you will find a lot of hook options on the Frontier forums. After that, I would look closely at a Frontier's bumper and look to either a.) buy Frontier lower front plastic (it's probably pretty cheap) or b.) neatly cut out a hole in the plastic where the hook goes.

My plastic has a spot where the hook could go, but it's solid. I would not be afraid of cutting it if I really, really wanted to though. If it went bad, I think the center spot (which I just replaced) was something like $80.

Amoun
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:14 pm

Postby Amoun » Tue Feb 25, 2020 8:30 am

ShipFixer wrote:I Googled around a bit. If you Google "Nissan Frontier tow hook" you will find a lot of hook options on the Frontier forums. After that, I would look closely at a Frontier's bumper and look to either a.) buy Frontier lower front plastic (it's probably pretty cheap) or b.) neatly cut out a hole in the plastic where the hook goes.

My plastic has a spot where the hook could go, but it's solid. I would not be afraid of cutting it if I really, really wanted to though. If it went bad, I think the center spot (which I just replaced) was something like $80.
That is actually not a bad solution.
So wait, are the Frontier front and the post-face-lift Pathfinder front identical?
Not sure what you mean bout the center as the bumper is solid throughout. Not scared of cutting holes though.
https://cars.usnews.com/static/images/A ... ntview.jpg[/img]

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ShipFixer
Posts: 769
Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 9:52 am
Location: San Diego, CA

Postby ShipFixer » Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:33 am

It's several pieces - look at the part diagrams on courtesyparts.com. The air dam is three pieces of black plastic called "spoilers" in the list. They go below the body paint colored bumper cover. The center piece has a couple of round spots where I think the hooks should go in the front cross brace.

I just replaced mine and I am pretty sure it was about $80. Not sure about 05-07 vs later (I have a 2005). They might be the same...probably are. I usually cross walk the part numbers at Courtesy Parts to check.


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