Radiator support tie bar too weak to support grill guard

I'd have to look to see exactly what but it's in the upper radiator inlet area on each side

 

Sell that thing. I had one on a Ranger years ago. I was turning around on a logging road, rolled the front end of the truck into a very soft dirt bank and the hole brush guard folded over. When it did that, it caused damage to the truck. As slow as I was going, I never would of thought I would of caused the damage that I did. At most I thought I would just have some dirt on the bumper.

 

Okay, I’m finally back with the follow-up and resolution. I’m first going to respond in general to the comments. Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. I appreacheat it. For those with just negative comments, well I’m not going to spend much time on those. I’ll just say I live in deer country. After seeing a lot of frontend damage to vehicles from deer and having hit one with a prior vehicle I’m sold on the idea of a solid grill/brush guard to prevent other damage. This is a full brush guard, not a bull bar. “Right”, I should have questioned the directions more (a friend helped me install it according to the directions), but I found no issues with the research I did and made the mistake of trusting Toyota’s and Westin’s quality of product. Live and learn. Westin ultimately stepped up to resolve the problem, but I still I’m not happy with the weakness of the body steel Toyota uses. Particularly, for inner supports like this one, on a truck. I’ve had other concern arise with the body medal used, but I get they have to cut weight to meet MPG guidelines. Anyway, so this started in about October of 2019. The long and short of it, Toyota was not going to do anything about it. I contacted Westin to see what they had to say. I really wanted to find out about their research concerning the mounting to the upper crossbar. I sent them all the pictures and a repair estimate at their request. The estimate the dealership had obtain was about $500, the estimate I had obtained from a locate shop was about $300. I called and spoke to customer service about every other week. I really thought they were just blowing me off, which made me mad and left me no reason to not just keep at them. In February 2020 they sent me the new design for the mount they had created. Apparently, there had been a couple of other people with the same issue. The new mount attached to the frame and then to the bottom of the grill, like the old one. Another section of the mount ran up behind the grill and created a place, a bit more than half way up the grill, for another support to bold into, replacing the cross support connection that had caused damage previously. This is a very solid design, much better than the old one. I then keep calling Westin because they said they would send me a check for the body shop repair. Much to my surprise, in June 2020, I received a check that was a full refund for the grill. So thanks to Ray Napoles with Westin Customer Service for eventually getting me taken care of. I wish more people with Toyota were like Ray. I’m still disappoint in the overall quality of what I expected from Toyota and the quality of service from the dealership, but that is another topic. The attached picture shows the new and old mounts. The new is on the plywood. The “J” like brackets are basically the same. They run from the grill to the upper support. You can see on the new mounts that part of the “Y” is longer, that is the piece that runs up to connect to the upper support. The small “L” bracket bolts into the frame next to the mount to offer cantilever support for the mount, since it is now holding all the grill guard’s weight. I’m sure there are other guards out there that function better, but this was the right price for what I want it to do.

 

Man, you got me scared a little bit. I bought a grill guard very similar to your's from Blackhorseoffroad.com It's their "rugged heavy duty" version:




I bought the truck used, but it came with a Westin bull bar. I'm personally not a fan of bull bars. And like you, live in deer country in rural Mississippi. I've had a couple close encounters. So a grill guard made sense to me.

For now, mine hasn't been rattling as you described. But I'm certainly going to be listening a lot more. The roads around are fairly decent. But mine does bolt as you described on the cross beam in front of the radiator. I've had to tighten the bolts up once after installing only because the instructions say to after a few hundred miles (which I have put almost 1200 on since putting this thing on).

I guess either time will tell or the Good Lord will keep me safe.

 

Hi, is yours a Westin brand?, looks good

 

No. It Blackhorse brand

 

Best of luck. I purchased my grill guard in 2018 and did not have a problem until 2019, but by 2020 Westin had a new-better mount design, so Blackhorseoffroad.com might have a new design too. This new design is much more solid than the old one. Otherwise, good move to keep checking those bolts and metal from stress cracks.

 

The fault with the bar lies with Westin 100%.

Toyota is NOT at fault here, the crap-tastic "engineers" at Westin are.

The Westin bar was/is attached to the frame AND the rad support with a "solid" mounting system, no flex....

I wonder if anybody at Westin is aware that the radiator support is mounted to the body.

The body is RUBBER mounted to the frame and moves (the reason that NOTHING is tied to the frame from the cab/body with a solid mount from the factory) around A LOT on those mounts. On the original mounting system the movement between the body and the frame flexed the rad mounts (something had to give when the two were tied together) to the point of failure. Kind of like flexing a beer can till it cracks.

The new mounting system is kind of like Harley engineering. If it fails, make it 3 times as big and sell it.
It WILL fail again.

YMMV RON

 

I guess that is fair enough to say, but Westin did step-up to address the problem. Maybe I just expect too much in quality from Toyota too. I would have still liked to see the research Westin had on the grill mounting to the crossbar. Even if it was available, I’m sure it would cost too much, but as far as I know Toyota stopped offering a brush guards back in 2005 or 2006. We shall see, but I really doubt that it will fail again, it is very solid now.

 

The cracks in your radiator support is just god's way of punishing you for installing a grille guard on your truck.

 

Well, if real medal was used it would not have damaged anything, but since “U” shaped body medal was used it will be easy to clean-up and repaint. Really, all it did was make a hole bigger. I might run a piece of “L” shape medal across there to give additional support. Still better to have a guard than replace the front-end if need be. Granted it might not prevent any damage, but it should take the blow of the impact and transfer that energy to the frame instead of twisting up plastic and thin medal. One of those images was from Tacoma World.

 

How people expect these kind of things to sustain ANY kind of abuse is beyond me.... If you got it for looks, great... but to expect it to withstand any kind of abuse is asinine

 

I’m not looking to argue about the value of a guard. I posted the issue just to let others know about it. I expect the guard to deflect a deer if I hit one and save the front-end from being damaged. If it doesn’t, well, lesson learned, if it does I just saved a lot of repair cost. Hopefully, I will never need to test it. Although, I would comment that I like the idea of being able to use the push bar on it too, if needed.

 

these are all impacts from a deer. They will not save your front end, most times they create more damage as what their mounted to gets torn and bent in the impact. It’s a “brush guard” it’s meant to deflect light bushes and tree branches. And if you use it to push anything other than a garbage can it’s going to collapse in.

 

Deer can do plenty of damage but why lie?

Blazer hit a Tacoma of all things

https://www.reddit.com/r/Trucks/comments/67nyvc/its_a_sad_day_brothersm/

And F150 a downed tree.

https://www.ranchhand.com/blog/2020...-100-have-a-ranch-hand-product-protecting-us/

 

Use this for anything in your way, even deer

 

Lmao. I googled generic pictures of brush guards vs deer. Lmao

 

Ha, and all I did was reverse google image search your pics. That damage you could tell wasn't from a deer.

Regardless the guards are hideous but good on Westin for standing behind it.

 

I actually read this one lol. Hit a deer doing 40 straight on. However I only read the first paragraph. Feel free to fact check me lollll

 

Hate do it again but... that pic doesn't go with that story.

https://www.ranchhand.com/blog/2018/01/18/hit-a-deer-at-40mph/

January 18, 2018
HIT A DEER AT 40MPH
Dear Ranch Hand: I wanted to thank you for donating the Legend Grille Guard prize for the Canyon High School golf tournament, organized as a fundraiser for the team. We were the winners, solely by the luck of the draw, and it sure took the sting out of those bogeys on our scorecard. Before we won the grille guard, our 2017 F-150 (thats not an F150) had just come back from insurance repairs to the (unguarded) front end. After hitting a big buck near work in Canyon Lake, it cost approximately $6,000. Shannon and his crew at Outfitter Truck Accessories in New Braunfels graciously installed the grille guard for us while we waited. It wasn’t a day too soon because the next evening we smacked into another deer on the same road and almost the same spot, just on the other side of the bridge, going about 40 mph (a little slower than the first incident, being a little gun-shy now at that location). Suffice to say, the Ranch Hand grille guard performed like a champ! Made a low hum on impact, but neither it nor the front end had so much as a paint scuff. I can heartily recommend your product to anyone living in Texas. Best insurance you can have. Won’t drive naked (w/o a Ranch Hand Grille Guard) again! Many Thanks! -Mark, New Braunfels, TX