My 98 had the oil filter up in the front of the truck like that. You couldnt really ask for a better spot when changing it but man it is a horrible spot for debris to hit or somethin happen like it did to shmuck. I had a stainless cover made for it. It was basically just a 5 sided box that was mounted around the box. Dont know if it would have helped your situation shmuck but it kept rocks and other flyin object thrown from the tire from hittin and puncturing it.