My license plate brackets are just screwed into the plastic bumper skin. I wouldn’t trust the two screws to hold the weight. As far as the height, it wouldn’t be any lower than having it mounted to a bull bar.

 

I had something similar with 2 pod lights on it and hated it. It looked cool but really not practical. As you can imagine, the license plate bracket is not sturdy so when I was using these off road, the pod lights bounced all around. For refence, duck tape a flashlight to your current license plate bracket. When safe (of curious), drive around with that one and see how much it bounces around.

 

My concern is that the lower height will be less effective than something mounted over the cab.

You already know the answer. Add to that what @JVRaley and @giantsnation said above regarding the not-so-secure mounting area, and it's not something advisable for our trucks. A standard bullbar, White Rhino bar, or full roof mount would do much better and be more secure for sure.

 

Don't forget about the ditch light option too! Ditch Light Option

 

Fog lights are mounted low for a reason. Depending on what you want to lights for a low mount might be prefered.

 

Anyone else go this route? My concern is that the lower height will be less effective than something mounted over the cab. I'd like to hear your experience ...

If you have a 2nd gen with plastic bumper, there are two plastic body pins in the lower grill opening. They pop into the crash bar behind the bumper skin. They are the perfect spot to mount some cube lights or a light bar. I have some generic DOT LED cube lights mounted there and they don't shake at all. They also overpower the stock halogen headlights.

Roof mounted lights give better distance lighting, but I doubt you'd need that kind of performance unless you're racing through the desert at night. I'm talking like 60mph through whoops 3 feet deep. I had a single set of Rigid D2 lights on my F-250, mounted in the bumper in place of the OEM fog lights, and could see the tree tops down to the ditches and to the horizon line.

 

I'm running the same bar you're describing, but mine came bare, no lamps included. I have two aluminium stock bars running back to the radiator support area to brace the bar, as it did indeed bounce quite a bit w/o them. You'll need to decide for yourself if this is the solution you want to head down, or just get a full bull bar. The red gidget on the left side of the photo is an aluminium GoPro Hero camera mount for when I'm filming off-road. I have four cam locations total, this is just one. After the upgrades, the footage is quite steady ( that is as long as the whole truck isn't heaving LOL ), but was unusable due to shake, beforehand. YMMV.
Some will probably ask why I need so much forward lighting, is it just for show. No. It gets very dark in the Maine backwoods at nite.

 

Do you have any pics of how mounted the stock bars back to the radiator?