I have a 2000 EB Expedition and am thinking about mounting a pair of off road lights (perhaps KC Daylighters or similar) on the front. Have looked at behind the grille arrangements, grille guards with mounts, etc. but am wondering why I can't just drill the front bumper on the top and mount the lights right on the bumper.
Has anyone done this? How tough is the bumper to drill? Seems like pretty tough steel...
Thanks, KenP

 

It's definitely an option. I mounted them behind the grill on my F150. I didn't want the reduced ground clearance and extra length on the front of the truck from a grill guard.

The other option was a bumper set-up like you are thinking. In fact, the box my hella lights came in have a picture of a Lighting with them mounted just as you describe, it looks very nice. Just a bit too permanent for me. With mine, should /I change my mind or sell it to someone who doesn't want them, it's simple to remove with no immediately visible traces left behind.

I like the slight protection that the grill gives to them too. Plus, I have chrome bumpers and didn't want to risk flaking. We mounted some on my Dad's van with chrome and it turned out fine though. If it's what you want, do it.

I'd recommend a driving beam over the typical KC spot beam for most situations.

 

On my 01, I made some brackets that attach to the backside of the bumper and a tab comes out between the bumper and grill. There are bumper bolts conveniently located to attach to. Hella 500s mount to the tabs. Use fairly stiff metal on the brackets to reduce vibration. Also used some small rubber washers between the light posts and the top bumper skin to help stabilize. Easy to do, and you're not drilling any holes.

 

DMB, any pics?

 

I put some PIAA's in the airdam cutouts just below the front bumper (see gallery). This alleviated the need to fabricate anything.

 

Good choice for fog lights, higher is better (to a point) with driving lights though. The beam angle is important, even 6" higher can make a big difference in effectiveness.

 

Thanks guys. This gives me a few ideas to work from.
If you mount them behind the grille, how do you clean them? I like the clean look of doing that, but don't immediately see how you can get to them for an wiping or cleaning now and then.
I thought about the option of putting in the air dam cut outs under the grille, but there are two small radiators right there for the trans cooler and the steering cooler. Didn't want to block the air flow when I tow.
And, I agree, with driving lights, getting them up a bit from the road is a good idea.
Thanks, Ken

 

I use a wheel cleaning brush (large pipe cleaner) bent a little and stick it through the holes in the grill. Every once in a while I pull the radiator cover off (really simple, takes ~3 min.) to really scrub and give them a coat of RainX to keep them easy to clean. I pick bugs out of the condenser at the same time.

That, and I usually use a car soap with "wax" in it. It helps to keep you from having to really scrub them clean most of the time. I have a cheap spray bottle with distilled water for the final rinse, no spotting that way.

Sounds like a pain, but it's really not that big of a deal for me.I admit, they don't always come out spotless (bug wise) but it works pretty darn well. Sometimes bugs still get baked on and they need some more direct finger scrubbing. Even without, they still look clean from a few feet away .

I've pulled some pretty heavy loads in the summer here and never had a problem with cooling. Mine doesn't even have the towing package. I figure they can't block much, if any, more air than some brush guards. I see your point on the oil coolers though.

BTW Hella 500's fit just about perfectly in the gap (there's a plastic and metal panel about 6.5" apart inside). My lights are hung "pendulum style" and there's about 1/8" to spare.

 

Relatively speaking, they are pretty low when mounted below the bumper, albeit, on mine, I have the front end up a few inches so I sit level and much higher than most Expy's.

I always liked the looks of lights mounted behind a grille and actually installed some on a car I had many years ago (grille was very similar to the Expy's). While I have to give two thumbs up for the "kewl" effect, I have to give two thumbs down for the light output...yep, the bars in the grille block a tremendous amount of the light. Oh, and cleaning was not easy either....we get lots of juicy bugs down here in South Texas.

 

I could see that happening with a fog light beam, if that's what they were. I've played with one mounted on the bumper of my rabbit and one on the truck behind the grill. I honestly couldn't tell much, if any, difference. There has to be some blocked, but with the near fully forward beam, I would be surprised if it was much more than 5% (10% max) of the effective pattern. I think the Expy has a slightly tighter "square mesh" vs. the more open honeycomb on my truck, but I wouldn't expect too much difference.

I've read of others having similar experiences to mine.