badlands and trailgear front bumpers

Due to an unfortunate incident my baby is now at the truck hospital for a few weeks. i will need a new bumper and decided just to go ahead and pull the trigger on a steel bumper. I like both the trailggear low profile and badlands front bumper because they look good, they are within budget, and they both provide significantly more protection than the stock bumper. My question is, has anybody used these two and what is your experience? has anybody been stuck and had to been pulled out by the front bumper? how about hitting deer and such? I do not feel that i can afford or need a full sized plate bumper because my truck is a DD so I do not do much extreme or hardcore stuff. mostly just trails and smallish rocks and such.

 

I really like my TG bumper. It's been banged around a little with no complaints. I've used it as a winch archor for pulling out some stuck buddies. It has good mounting so will be fine for recovery. I like the front reciever in the TG bumper for that reason as well.

 

im with boxrocket, trailgear bumpers are pretty cost effective. i havent been pulled out yet with the front hitch but its well designed and they look great. fitment was my only issue but it just took a little elbow grease and it was on.

but either way i think your going to be stoked

 

one more question before i pull the trigger on this thing. you have an 03, just as I do. on the trailgear instructions they say you need to remove the frame horns? are these just bolted on or do they need to be cut with an angle grinder? the reason I ask is at this point in my life i do not have these kinds of power tools and i really dont want to pay some shop 50 bucks for 2 minutes of cutting.

oh, and thanks to both of you for the good feedback. exactly what I was lookin for

 

I didn't have to cut anything off on my 01. It all unbolted and the new support bolted right up. I've heard you have to cut them off on 95-00 but not on 01-04. Trail gear does make a kool bumper, I like the look it gives the truck plus it didn't break the bank buying one. Good luck with it. Post some pic when you get it.

 

as promised, here are the pictures. the bumper went on fairly easy, just had to snip the corner off the radiator mount. took about 4 hours to remove and put this one on by myself

 

tiny pic fail.

 

Agreed with Box.