Brush guards

[buck91]

Is it just me or does it seem like all the brush guard options on he market hear days have rather wimpy mount Mounting? I’d enjoy adding one to my truck but if it’s just going to fold up with a minor impact not sure what the point is.

 

[SVTCobra]

Ranch Hand grille guards can be full replacement. Only caution is my brother was in a wreck and the designed crush zones did not absorb the impact. Instead it twisted the frame badly and was without a truck for 3 months while the dealer repaired it. Ended up trading it in because it never really drove the same. https://www.ranchhand.com/grille-guard-front-bumpers I have one on my pickup (that I got from my brother) and he welded it to the frame.

 

[JeepWJ19]

Yepp. Same thing when I was shopping for them. Found a guy who made relocation brackets for WJ bull bars to actually protect the grille (all stock bull bars mounting arms run below the front bumper). His brackets which were thick slabs of steel are located in my frame horns, along with other brackets he made for DRing recovery points.

 

[AZjeff]

The name should tell you something. Deflecting brush or branches away from the front of your truck isn't the same as any small impact (define small impact?). You bolt/weld something to your frame horns that extends 2 feet up then run into whatever and it's supposed to not bend or stop your 5000 lb truck without moving, bending, damaging something? These huge ranch bull bars on ranch trucks are a different story.

 

[Kira]

Re "Bull Bar" episode. Friend's 2008 Nissan Frontier. Local place misread the Westin catalog and ordered the wrong item. Had to wait 'til opening time in California for the rep to tell us: 2008 Pathfinder YES, 2008 Frontier: NO. Local place ordered up a better quality one and ate the difference. Tip o' the hat to Lavine's in New Milford, CT. Friend is a good customer. Much thicker stainless steel...mounted similar to the Pathfinder unit (as best I could tell)...Made in China. It moves too much being it's mounted low. The hardware is butch to be sure but it's all down low. Since his neighbor raises goats we call it a "Goat Bar".

 

[nickaluch]

Not a fan. My friend got into a bad car accident front airbags didn't go off insurance adjuster blamed the front brush guard.

 

[AZjeff]

Truck bling like the roll bars bolted to the bed floor every other guy had back in the day. Nothing wrong with that for what it is.

 

[Linctex]

I have one because of all the dang deer! I have hit 7 deer in my life, and all caused MAJOR $$$$ damage when there was no grille guard/brush guard

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: JeepWJ19

Yepp. Same thing when I was shopping for them. Found a guy who made relocation brackets for WJ bull bars to actually protect the grille (all stock bull bars mounting arms run below the front bumper). His brackets which were thick slabs of steel are located in my frame horns, along with other brackets he made for DRing recovery points.

What brand did you end up going with? I wanted a bull bar ~8 years ago, but didn't want to sacrifice my factory tow points, hence why my IPF's are mounted on my front bumper. Briefly, there was a company who made milled WJ front end D ring tow points, but I think they sold the design to someone else. Easy design. Can't believe it didn't take off.

 

[dlundblad]

I wouldn't count on these brush guards helping during a vehicle collision, but a deer collision they certainly would take the biggest hit. Brush guards are just that though. BRUSH guards. You'd want a full replacement/ tow point unit such as an ARB model. There'd be no deer left at that point.

 

[JeepWJ19]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad

Originally Posted By: JeepWJ19

Yepp. Same thing when I was shopping for them. Found a guy who made relocation brackets for WJ bull bars to actually protect the grille (all stock bull bars mounting arms run below the front bumper). His brackets which were thick slabs of steel are located in my frame horns, along with other brackets he made for DRing recovery points.

What brand did you end up going with? I wanted a bull bar ~8 years ago, but didn't want to sacrifice my factory tow points, hence why my IPF's are mounted on my front bumper. Briefly, there was a company who made milled WJ front end D ring tow points, but I think they sold the design to someone else. Easy design. Can't believe it didn't take off.

I went with the prior known Texas Hunter bull bar. Forget what they are called now. They got bought out by a Chinese company and went with a "one size fits all" design so my bull bar wasn't at the right width for the relocation mounts. So currently it's offset by an inch but you can't hardly notice it unless looking straight at it and being very attentitive to it. I wanted recovery points like you did so bought his DRing tabs and they have come to really good use. The brush guard has held up nicely for the past three years. Could use a touch up in paint but was still solid after hitting a young deer, since it was mounted higher it forced the deer to roll under the Jeep and it was just a weird event because my Jeep straddled the deer when it was under. The deer seemed fine as by the time I pulled over it was gone. It has protected my grille from brush many of times here in the PA mountains. It was overall a good purchase. Currently drawing the wiring diagram for off road lights because it gets dark up in the mountains and a little extra light on some twisty and tight dirt/stone roads would help

 

[Johnny2Bad]

They are all bolt-on expensive junk (the worst kind of junk, at least cheap junk is cheap) as far as I can tell. Go to a good weld/fab shop and have them make one. It won't be more expensive than the Truck Store special and will work and will fit.

 

[AZjeff]

Are you calling this a brush guard? I'd call it a bull bar or a push bar. Brush guards as I know them have the extensions out past the headlights. You hit a whitetail with this and got no damage on either side of it? Lucky. Good looking Jeep BTW. Grand Cherokee HD. What part of Pa?

Originally Posted By: JeepWJ19

 

[JeepWJ19]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff

Are you calling this a brush guard? I'd call it a bull bar or a push bar. Brush guards as I know them have the extensions out past the headlights. You hit a whitetail with this and got no damage on either side of it? Lucky. Good looking Jeep BTW. Grand Cherokee HD. What part of Pa?

Yeah I just realized I got my terminologies mixed up but it has kept brush out of my grille lol! Yepp, it was a doe, not full sized but not a fawn. Hit it dead on in the center front of the jeep, straddled it, and she was gone. Weird how nothing was damaged, all I found was some fur. Thank you, it's an ever work in progress lol. South Central pa

 

[carloz]

Well, a bull bar will look good but it won't give the best front-end protection.

 

[BalticBob]

I loved the front grill guards on the Mad Max vehicles, great place to tie two guys to and haul around the wastelands looking for oil and gasoline.

 

[road_rascal]

I put bull/push bar on my Rav4 only because people here in MN can't parallel park worth a darn. I absolutely would not expect it to hold up in a major collision.