Bullbars?

Just curious on if anyone here has any recommendations for a bullbar; a full front bumper replacement isn't really in the books right now for me + I don't off road enough to justify it to myself, but the hooved terrorists known as 'deer' are thick as flies around where I live this time of year and during springtime, and I get tired of seeing the bug-eyed car-destroying ungulates staring at me on the side of the road, just waiting for an opportunity to kill themselves and destroy my front end. One also literally jumped over the hood of my Kia last year, so I guess you could say the terrorists have won and put the fear of the Deer God of Destruction into me a wee bit.

So yeah! Any recommendations? I prefer something with minimal (preferably no) cutting involved, and maybe something modular with the possibility of brush guards added on for the headlights in the future. Light bar/addition capabilities don't matter much to me. If anyone has one, please do post pics!

 

just my .02 but...
Go with a bumper, Bull bars/brush guards are known as damage maximizers for a reason. often times those kind of brush guards or bull bars will just pretzel into the bumper or grill causing more damage than would originally have happened without it. the price tag on a bumper is hard to swallow for sure but it's worth it. honestly, you might just be better off without until you can afford a full bumper. the only one that i might trust would be a ranch hand bar. heard pretty good things about those. only thing though is that those usually run about 700 dollars and at that point i'd just spend the extra money and get a full bumper

https://www.ranchhand.com/grille-guard-ggt16mbl1.html

 

Makes it look like this



I’ve never seen a Tacoma with a bull bar that I thought was actually used for anything purposeful or that I thought looked good.

 

Most people on here are gonna recommend against bull bars/ brush guards. I wouldn't recommend one personally. I had a Westin bull bar for a couple months and I can tell you that it would have completely destroyed my front end with anything more than a love tap. Mounts at two points at the bottom, anything hits the top too hard and it's gonna pivot right into your grill. Like he said already, you're probably better off without one in the case of an accident

 

Yeah I mean if you're gonna drop $700 on a bull bar you might as well go with one of those streamlines from SOS or something similar.

 

There are a few companies that make lower bumper winch mounts and some have a bar on it. I went with the Relentless Fab Lower Stingray Winch Mount and X20 Wireless Winch. I had a Bull Bar years ago and it crushed in the front pretty bad with minimal contact.

 

I second this. Better off running stock and saving for a SOS streamline or full bumper. There are always bumpers and such going up for sale on the forum. Worst case scenario you eat a deer with the stock front end, get paid by insurance and use that money to replace the stock bumper with a nice plate or hybrid bumper from SOS or one of the other fine fabricators you can find here on TW.

 

Those tires/wheel combo make them look sooooo aggressive. LOVE the look, and the bumper insert too!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-sos-concepts-streamline-bumper-nc.632648/

I think this made its way up to Overland Expo East if you were interested.

 

I recommend reading this thread and then getting a full or low profile bumper over one of these things.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-to-support-grill-guard.632737/#post-21726839

 

I assume you mean my ride, thank you.

 

1 word,DONT !

 

Put that on and if you get into a bad front end collision you might end up with the steering column becoming one with your chest. Those bars totally negate the crumple zones in your truck! I'm speaking from experience, 3 weeks after I got my new 2017 Taco TRD sport I was hit at 60 miles an hour by a distracted driver. I was able to get out of the truck and walk away and the front of the Taco was obliterated. The frames crumple zones folded like an accordion, the engine mounts gave and the engine dropped to the ground instead of being hurdled into the cab. Just typing this I get shaky because if I was driving the truck with a bull bar I could have been killed. The crumple zones would not have worked,the airbag deployment might have been delayed by a fraction of a second and the front of the truck would have become one with me. The police were shocked that I walked out of the truck and I think I sold a bunch of Taco's to cops that day! PLEASE don't install these on your trucks!!!! I don't care how cool they look your life is worth more than a cool looking truck.