Deer/bear resistant front bumper, what do you like?

What have you gotten or want to get as a replacement front bumper that can hopefully withstand hitting a deer or that rare bear hit? I should have fewer chances now as I'll retire at the end of March so won't have a two hour commute to Nevada once a week at O:dark thirty. Over the last 11 years of working out of town, I've hit two deer with my 07 Civic within three weeks, only having to replace the expensive headlight pod on it with no body damage luckily and did some fair damage to my old 4X2 93 Toy pu after hitting a bear at 55 mph. The new '16 Taco I got may be high enough that the only added protection I need is a bumper with the hoop in front of the grill. I was originally thinking of a bumper with the loops around the headlights too, but not totally thrilled with the look. Your thoughts, suppliers? Would love the weight of aluminum as I plan no hard core off-roading, mostly for camping and firewood cutting. Relentless is close to me, but I don't see any new products from them. Could call I guess.
Duane

 

ARB saved my fj when hitting a dear on highway. Was probably still going 55 after slowing at impact. Stopped to look and had no damage. Could even tell. I swear by ARB bumpers now. Havnt made a decision on what to put on my truck yet... Might go with something a little lighter.

 

Gotta look out for the deer, and bears, and the dreaded combo known as a beer.

 

I think ARB is the only "strong" bumper that is airbag compliant. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I saw one style I like, has the front loop protecting the grille, then has a bar coming off that horizontally, sweeping around the headlights, does a 90 down and is welded to the bumper where it meets the bumper. Don't care for the curved headlight protection that basically only covers the front, not wrapping around the sides a little. I'll check out the suggestion and stay away from Beers while driving.
Forgot, some years back, the above pickup had hit a deer too, doing $2500 damage, so it's seen some action. The deer spun down the side, crunching the fender, door and front of the bed.
Duane

 

I'm not sure anything would do much for a bear if you are going more than 20mph. This grill guard is pretty popular in Texas and is good for whitetail deer.

 

I want some meatier protection for the headlights, support at the end of the loop, worried about the loop getting bent back.. Your whitetails would be bigger or as big as the deer in my area of Kalifornia.
Duane

 

Maybe you should look into something more like this:

 

Texas deer are small, that Ranch Hand is useless against 250 to 300lb Northern Whitetails.

 

Just cuz I love this movie
Seems like this would do the job.

 

I wonder if I could borrow a train from the train museum? I'll look some more, at least posting gets me moving.
Duane

 

ARB.

 

Yea, ARB makes high quality stuff ... but uh, the 2016 version ...


I dunno, it's just kind of ... big



The proportions are just kind of awkward to me.

 

Any of the Aussie bumpers will be airbag compliant or at least tested to show they gov't they are. As I understand the tacomas have inertia sensors so changing the bumper has no effect on airbag settings.

 

ARB is the best, then down the line of other plate bumpers like pelfreybilt, ect...

 

ARB as far as I know is designed for critter impacts. I don't remember where I read it, but their philosophy is if your in the middle of no where and you hit an animal, the most important area to protect is the radiator. If you peirce that you're SOL, so the idea is to have the most protection around the center with lights being secondary.

 

ARB

 

JoeRacer, that's pretty close to what I'm looking for, a little different in front of the radiator. I also notice the tubing across the top is one piece, bent to fit. The whole thing makes sense though.
Duane

 

Need something that will stick into the deer and take it with you. Its always road season.

 

Is that a boat anchor?