Removing or relocating grill support strut?

Superjay5

TJ Enthusiast
Lifetime Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Messages
468
Location
Michigan
Curious on your guys thoughts about removing or relocating the passenger side grill support strut. Before I get flamed, this is my situation.

I have the poison spyder highline fenders in steel, Would’ve loved to snagged some aluminum ones when they were still made, but no dice. The passenger grill support is the only thing causing me issues with retaining the factory airbox. I currently have the airbox zip tied to the grill support, it’s temporary but it works. I had planned to do a windstar airbox, which I have one in my hands but I think I would prefer to retain the factory airbox.

So, with having the steel fenders, do you think I could safely remove the passenger side grill support without any ill effects? Or at the very least could I relocate the grill support? I would retain its location on the grill, but would need to move where it mounts on the firewall, I would angle it more to the center as that would give me the space for the factory airbox.

Thoughts?
 
I'm not sure what those grill support rods actually do on a TJ. I definitely know what they did on my CJ with it's fiberglass fenders and the grill that pretty much just balanced front to back and left to right on one center mount but that Jeep isn't like your TJ. With your steel highline fenders and a those rubber(ish) support things under each end of the grill, I bet moving one, or both of the rods wouldn't be a problem. I'd probably just unbolt one end and try to move the grill around. If that seemed OK I'd drive around a while to see if anything questionable happened.