I just bought a 06 S and I will be using it for Hang Gliding transportation. Where woul;d be a good place to attach a bracket that will go up from the front of the vehcile and support the nose of several hang gliders? Can itr be bolted on to some place? Where do they attach the brush guard?

Thanks,

Welcome to the forum.

I just replaced my stock bumper with a Shrock Bumper. Frankly the whole front is plastic and the bumoer is attached with plastic clips.

The only place you could mount something is to the frame. Look on the front passenger side at the bottom of the bumper and you will see the tow hook installed. This hook is bolted to the bottom of the front frame member for your reference.

There are matching holes threaded in the same place on the drivers side frame.

Right above the tow mount on the front of the frame end is a steel cross member that runs between the passenger and driver side frame ends.

These are probably the only points on the front you can find to attach something to.

I am not sure how you would get the brace attached and then go up to support your rack.

Hope this helps.

Yeah - the front frame is behind a ton of plastic...running guy wires, etc, would then run over your hood/front facia plastic, rubbing holes in it etc, unless you sleaved the lines with something soft, etc.

If you are talking about carrying several gliders on the roof, and do it often enough to want a convenient solution, depending upon if you offroad or not, you could do a new bumper, like the shrockworks discussed, or, if you limit yourself to pavement, you could try a front receiver hitch mount (Hidden Hitch, Reese, etc...), which would protrude enough to attach a front receiver mounted bike rack, cooler rack, etc...which in turn would be convenient for guy wires. (The hitch would be reletively unobtrusive by itself, as the racks could come off when not needed for daily driver duty, etc...)



If handy, a metal tube curving up from the frame horn tow hook mount, up in front of the front clip, and rising high enough to meet the wires w/o rub, or something following that concept, could also be a solution.

Again, if its a once in a while thing, you could just run the wires through a sleeve to protect the hood/plastic, down to the frame.

Don't do a brush guard though!

I used to hang glide, back in the '70's. Its a rush, ain't it!

Get an ARB bumper:


the top tube has a couple of tabs on it to mount lights, cb antenna, etc:


That would be a good place to mount a bracket
(Thanks Kevin for the use of the pics)

They make a Y mount bracket that will fit in the rear hitch. It comes up from the hitch and then goes horizontal and then up again. great for carrying long peices of lumber or anything thats longer than your X. Couldnt you mount your hand gliders the opposite way and let it overhang the rear?

??

Thanks for the info. I am going to install a front receiver and get a rear extender and just reverse it to an upright rack and plug in. Then I will see if it needs stabilizing. If it does can I run a piece of sheet metal rods out from the top of the hood or somewhere so I can hook it with the rack and remove it when I don't carry the glider? I would rather have a rod then a cable if I can.