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1) Its an ARB, I have run them before and can say nothing bad about them at all, one of the best and if you get tired you can sell it with no problems, they will beat your door down.
2) Not running one now, run the RanchHand, made in Shiner, Tx and its about the only bumper you will see here in S Tx ranch country. Great bumpers, its my second one.
That is one of the bumpers I am considering at the moment
The other was a Iron cross and fab four
I am going to paint which ever one I end up with to match the two tone paint I have.I just nailed a deer and destroyed my bumper
The factory bumper took a good shot
I was surprised when I looked at the damage it was ONLY the bumper
Good luck and post a pic when you are done
I was hoping more people would have posted pics a couple weeks ago when I started looking at options
That is one of the bumpers I am considering at the moment
The other was a Iron cross and fab four
I am going to paint which ever one I end up with to match the two tone paint I have.I just nailed a deer and destroyed my bumper
The factory bumper took a good shot
I was surprised when I looked at the damage it was ONLY the bumper
Good luck and post a pic when you are done
I was hoping more people would have posted pics a couple weeks ago when I started looking at options
Yeah, we have deer, bob cats, hogs (the 300lb type) illegal aliens, drug mules, and terrorist we need to avoid hitting down here..
Seriously though, i am going to install a heavy duty brush guard for now and take my time deciding which replacement bumper i want. The ARB one is great, but sources tell me its not the best for taking heavy strikes. Ranch hand, Frontier, IronCross, Road Armor, and several others have more 1/4" and 3/8" plating to help them. The ARB might have too many parts that could get damaged.
Plus, part of my selling point on opting for the Platinum was the color matched front bumper and how much i like it. Sooooooo, a nice brushguard allows me to display it proudly to the wife......thus keeping the world in order.
Iron Cobra,
I live up in the Hill Country, we GOT deer. Other day a guy hit a deer and killed it, in front of the Wal Mart; a policeman hit a deer, lots of damage to the patrol car and killed deer. Where, try downtown in front of the police station.
Its for those reasons that we put RanchHand on the front of our trucks, it works.
Sidebar: Over the years heard a few folks talk about waste of time for the big bumpers, after all how much damage can any animal do to your car? REALLY????
I was with the Sheriff and Chief Deputy coming back from a gun show over in Ft Worth. It was late at night, around midnight and we were driving on Interstate. A car passed us driving about 70 mph to our 65 mph. We began to take a hill and as we crested I saw one of the worst highway traffic accidents I have ever seen in my life. The top of the car was peeled back like a sardine can, there was a dead horse in the back, a near dead horse in the front seat and a dying horse on the highway.
We grabbed road flares, turned on our lights and the Chief Deputy took a rifle out of the trunk and put bullets in the head of 3 horses. There were 3 dead people in the front seat, 3 dead in the back and one alive. I have only seen carnage that bad a few times in my life and that was in Vietnam.
The scene was unbelievable, bodies mangled beyond all recognition, heads ripped off shoulders and blood everywhere.
I totalled a full sized ford pickup hitting a moose...and yes i was hurt as well.
My uncle was killed by a deer he hit with his PT cruiser.
My neighbor 2 doors down totalled her bmw 3 series last year hitting a deer.
Anyone who thinks hitting a deer is not so bad, hasn't been in an accident with one yet.
I am putting a huge bumper on both of my pickups for the animal crashes.
And run very bright driving lights to help spot them at night.
If not for animals on our highways all too frequently I wouldn't run driving lights or big bumpers.
all bad situations when that occurs
I replay it in my head the past week and wonder if I could have done anything different. I Think I was lucky I didn't get hurt or anyone else but man that happened quick.
So for the "bang" for the "buck" what is the most effective bumper out there ?
I can't spend $5000 for the moose bar but I will go $1500-$2000 for a quality piece
And there ain't a bumper out there that could take a 50mph moose hit...
The deer we have up here are pretty good sized with the Does getting upwards of 150# and another 50# on them for a buck.. Elk are pretty darned big too!
Anyone who thinks hitting a deer isn't that bad hasn't smoke checked one on a motorcycle doing 60 MPH. I have hit deer 2 other times with trucks, once was in Montana with a cheap westin grill guard, it saved my radiator and headlights and I was able to make it to the east coast, the grill guard was trashed. And once with my last F250 that had a Ranch Hand grill guard on it at 60MPH. The deer exploded and went under the center of the truck, got home and hosed everything off, checked for damage to the undercarriage (found none) and called it a day. The Ranch Hand grill guard barely had a scratch on it. Some folks say they don't like the aesthetics of the Ranch Hands, I'll take function over fashion any day.
Anyone who thinks hitting a deer isn't that bad hasn't smoke checked one on a motorcycle doing 60 MPH. I have hit deer 2 other times with trucks, once was in Montana with a cheap westin grill guard, it saved my radiator and headlights and I was able to make it to the east coast, the grill guard was trashed. And once with my last F250 that had a Ranch Hand grill guard on it at 60MPH. The deer exploded and went under the center of the truck, got home and hosed everything off, checked for damage to the undercarriage (found none) and called it a day. The Ranch Hand grill guard barely had a scratch on it. Some folks say they don't like the aesthetics of the Ranch Hands, I'll take function over fashion any day.
So was the Ranch Hand a complete bumper grill guard replacement or the grille guard only?
09-18-2015, 10:49 AM
what is the most effective bumper out there ?
