The front bumper/brush guard is a great place to mount your Hi-Lift. I read above you would rather not, but the front is one of the safest and easiest places to access it. I guess it depends on how often you think you will use it. I am moving mine from the rear swing-out tie carrier to the front as soon as I have a winch mounted.
I'm a little late to this party, but I'll point out what will be blindingly obvious to hopefully everyone here. However, just in case ...
Do NOT attach your Hi Lift to your bumper using zip ties!
No, not even the "heavy duty" zip ties.
I was in Death Valley for a couple days with a guy who had a Hi Lift attached to his front brush guard. None of the rest of us really looked to hard at his mounting setup, until he came back to camp at the end of the data sans Hi Lift. We asked him about his mounting system and he told us he'd zip tied it on.
No, for the record, this person wasn't me. Like others here, I have used my Hi Lift mostly for farm and home use. Its last use was also to lift up the corners of my shed to level it. I have used it off-road once or twice but I've also used a bottle jack which is handier in other circumstances, like when high-centred on a rock.
Currently mine is mounted on my roof rack as you can see in the photo. It only goes up there on trips, and even then is left at home half the time. I'm not happy with the mounting location due to the high centre of gravity. I'd rather have securely mounted inside the truck. On the other hand it's likely to be accessible where it is, unless the truck is on its side. The mounts came with the rack so I use them.
- Andrew.