Hella 500's

Not long ago I bought my first Jeep. It's a 2000 stock XJ and I love it! I just bought some Hella 500 fogs for the front bumper but am unsure where to mount them. I read an article (I think at the CarTalk site) that indicated that fog kinda hangs a foot off the ground, so the closer you mount lights to that level the better they will perform. Is it possible to mount them under the bumper without really messing up approach angles? I plan on mounting some tow hooks also but I wouldn't want the lights to interfere with them. Comments, suggestions, anyone?
Chris

I have IPF 868's that I mounted in front of the air dam, in place of my factory fogs. After seeing peoples rigs at Winterfest, I am removing them from there and am going to mount them on top of the bumper. I don't know how big the 500's are but the IPF's are 4x6, they will get in the way of approach angles and tow straps. I am thinking about getting the Hella Micro ion fog lamps and mounthing them in the bumper, since they are only 2" in diameter.

dont put them under the bumper, you will rip them off quicker than you can put them on.did you get the fogs or driving lights? if you want some light close to the road get some thin, cheap, rectangular lights and mount those under the bumper. that way you have less chance of ripping them off and if you do your only out 15 bucks instead of 60 bucks.

ive found that the hellas are too bright to run on the road, especially when you start lifting the jeep. i pulled my hellas off the jeep and put em on my sentra for driving these va backroads at night.

Hunter

If you look under the bumper where the factory fogs go you will see some holes under there, there will be on oval one in particular. When I mounted my 550's on my 98 I used a tapered drift pin to *gently* make that hole round till the hella stud would fit thru it, then I used two big washers, one on each side to reinforce that hole. I've had two sets of lights under there since 98, the 550's and now a set of 450's. I do agree though, those 500's are kinda big to be hanging under there if you ever take it off road. I buried the 550s a couple of times and hope to avoid that problem with the smaller 450's.

I mounted my 500s on top of my fore-runner bars (slightly about hood level) with mixed results. Using them in place of my high beams they work tremendous. I drove from Indiana to Utah and back recently and these, along with my Daylighters on the roof, would light up the whole highway. The negative is that by mounting them that high they were so-so in fog and terrible in a snow storm. They gave me that Star Wars hyper drive look. I think mounting them on the bumper would be a good compromise. They would be somewhat protected from rocks while low enough to cut through the fog and snow.

The 500's come in two different beam patterns, fog and driving. if you have the fog pattern, mount them as low and wide as possible and as comfortible you feel doing. Fog lights should be mounted low so that the glare that reflects off the fog isn't directed back towards the driver.