I had a "deer guard" on my truck since I bought it and the previous Dodge also. I like the receiver hitch up front and the safety here in Elk country. I get a lot of looks and comments as they are not real common here in Arizona. I have pix in gallery.

Latety I noticed a lot more flex and vibration in the bumper and after checking, found some serious cracks in the frame due to metal fatigue.

When i first bought the bumper from Quality Bumper in Prescott, it came with two "kickers" about 14 inches long and made of pretty thick steel. (three eighths inch thick by 2 inches wide). after mounting the bumper with the 8 supplied grade 5 half inch bolts I couldn't find where, exactly these kickers mounted. I also thought because of the abundance and size of the mounting hardware that they wouldnt be needed.

well it turns out that the weight of the bumper can cause the frame of the truck to flex and cause a resonance that will eventually lead to cracks and a total ( and obvious) failure of the bumper mount. i've had it since the summer of 2003, so it took 4 years and about 90,000 miles, but if I had installed it properly, it probably would have outlasted everything else on the truck.

I fixed the problem by removing the bumper and welding the cracks in the frame. I then fabricated two kickers to further secure the bottom-most portion of the bumper to the frame and prevent the resonant vibration and flex that caused the failure.

just figured anybody out there with a "texas deer killer" bumper might want to know...