Front Grill/headlight/bumper guard

Yoby · Dec 9, 2017

Over the years I have been fortunate, knock on wood, to only hit 1 deer and 1 pheasant. The deer wasn't too bad with a headlight and hood needing to be replace and the pheasant was into the grill and radiator support.

So I am debating now that I have a vehicle that I plan to drive for 10- 15 yrs should I spend the money on a front gaurd. Thought process is a 500-700 guard vs 5-7k work of body damage. Anyone find an actual functional purpose to a gaurd?

Auggie · Dec 9, 2017

Ive had them on my past 2 pickups. The night after it was installed on my last pickup, it was needed and payed for itself from a deer. I haven't needed it yet on my Tundra, but will have this pickup for 10 years, so I'm sure the grill guard will be needed at some point.

Wild and Free · Dec 9, 2017

Have put full ranch hand bumper on the last 3 pickups i have owned and they have paid for themselves 2-3 times over in saved Deductibles from deer collisions. Too many to remember in the last 10 years. Trick is to hit them dead center and not try and dodge them if it is a given you are not going to stop in time that way they blow off to the side or go under rather than spin around and take out a door and fender ect.

I have looked at a ton of brands and ranch hand has always come out as the best bang for the buck no pun intended. If you don't want a full front replacement bumper they make really heavy grill guards too that are beefier than most of the el cheapo chrome jobbies.

Allen · Dec 9, 2017

If you are going to keep it for more than 4-5 years, make sure you get either a chrome or SS one. The black ones with powder coated paint only last about 4-5 years before they look like hell.

Yoby · Dec 9, 2017

My eperience as of late with chrome or SS is that I haven't been able to find the real things. The SS usually turns out to be a poor mixture and have rust pits within a year and the chrome ends up flaking. Any brand recommendations? I know the last couple running boards have been chrome but ends up being fiberglass covered crap.

Wild and Free · Dec 9, 2017

Allen said:
If you are going to keep it for more than 4-5 years, make sure you get either a chrome or SS one. The black ones with powder coated paint only last about 4-5 years before they look like hell.

This is definitely an issue with ranch hand, they are very hit and miss with powder coat quality or possibly metal prep before powder coating application. I have one that is over 10 years old and looks like new and the other one is about 6 years old and getting surface rust already. I have seen some only a couple years old with almost no coating left on them too but not limited to ranch Hand brand only though. When i redo mine I am going with a smoother type spray on bed liner coating instead.

dust in the wind · Dec 9, 2017

I’ve got the ranch hand grill guard -not the full bumper though. It is very solid and fortunately I have not had to use it but I did have it powder coated again after 5 years. I stripped it down myself and will not do that again.

at the time I got it, I couldn’t find any ss ones that were set up the same as the ranch hand which is why I went with that one.

Velva_zv21 · Dec 10, 2017

So seems like the smart thing to do is rhino line it rite after you buy it and then put it on the truck..... lasts for years and then beats having to take it off 5 years later to make it look pretty again....

BrokenBackJack · Dec 10, 2017

We had 3 ranch hand cow catchers on pickups in the past. Only had to use 1 once and hit the deer square and wow did it explode that deer and saved the front end. They are spendy but they are made or were made out of good materials. They are heavy and that weight is way out front. Haven't put them on our last 3 pickups as we have sensors on the front bumper so can't use one. Beside i drive much slower now and way less deer to worry about. Watch as i will probably hit one next time out now by saying this.
I would get it coated with some sort of bedliner before installing now. They are using way too much salt and beet juice on the roads now too so that isn't good.

AR-15 · Dec 10, 2017

If you live in unit M10 and do a lot of night driving, you better have a heavy duty one, maybe #80 2" pipe, with a 12" extension on top with lots of lights to stop the dam moose from going thur the windshield

Front Grill/headlight/bumper guard

Yoby

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Auggie

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Wild and Free

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Allen

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Yoby

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Wild and Free

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dust in the wind

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Velva_zv21

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BrokenBackJack

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AR-15

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