Mr. Vorce: Yes, that helps a great deal; thank you very much. Now I know that a Westin is sturdy, AND installation can be modified slightly so that the tow hooks remain. Were you able to use all four of the town hook mounting bolts after you notched the tow hooks, or could you use only three bolts each? How did you notch the tow hooks -- with a hacksaw, grinder or torch? Also, since your Westin mounts at the tow hook level, how does it perform as a push bar?
A great difficulty in figuring all this out is that manufacturers merely say "No, you won't be able to keep the tow hooks," and dealers don't have examples of the various brands on their showroom floors for inspection. They have lots of catalogues, and can ORDER almost any brand, but there's no actual grille guard to look at when you visit a dealer with these questions in mind. So, the dealers merely repeat what is printed in the manufacturers' catalogues, and usually don't have any actual experience with installing a grill guard while keeping the tow hooks, unless it's a frame-mounted grill guard. Fortunately, I have a reasonably well-equipped shop -- if I know in advance that a successful modification can be made, I'm fairly confident I'll be able to do it.
There must be other brands of (tow hook mounted) stainless steel grill guards, besides Westin, which can be mounted after a simple modification to the tow hooks, similar to yours.
Has anyone out there done that?
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
