Deer protection for front of car

A small, "slimline" bumper will likely do little to nothing in the event of a high-speed deer impact. Depending on truck height/deer size, it will go under the vehicle or right up onto your windshield, and that's if you hit it straight on. More likely, you hit it at an angle, or it runs into the side of your truck.

Best policy here is safe, slow, and alert driving.

 

Different state. Such a freak accident I guess. Sorry you had to witness it

 

Truth. A buddy of mine in Austin had one jump off of a MOPAC overpass onto his hood.

 

every single encounter I've had with deer on freeways is cause they hide in the tree line then decide to jump out right at the last second in hopes that you end their life.

 

2 of my favorites...

 

Everyone needs to call their state road department office and tell them to stop putting those deer crossing signs on heavily travelled highways!

 

Thank you. Why indeed. It's worse than those front porch bumpers they used to put on 70 series Cruisers in Japan.

 

What?! Also this looks like a terrible/terrific idea;

 

I live in an area where there's many deer as well. Just keeping alert and driving cautiously has worked for me and seems it has for you up to this point.

 

Oh man - talk about an earth shattering kaboom. Nice 70! I miss mine.

 

I hear ARB bumpers have taken 60mph deer hits with not damage. Slim bumper won't do any good as most damage from deer will be above the bumper; grill headlights...arb shields all those. It's not cheap but if it can do what they say in the "post impact" thread in armor then it's worth it. I have one, just need to install it :\

Staying alert won't help either, I'm super alert, deer appear out of no where, they will literally run INto you, the deer I've hit all two of them were unavoidable...first one was at 10pm, totally dark, I was on a turn, woods were RIGHT by the road, slowed from 55 to 35 and crossed into oncoming lane...damn deer followed me and ruined my accords front fender. Second deer it was foggy and 2am...a jeep swerved into my lane, full on into my lane, I went from doing 55 in a 70 (because of fog) to 40...he got back in his lane but I was eyeballing him just in case he did it again...turns out he was swerving because of a deer...after he passed I got back up to about 55 when one appeared RIGHT on the roadside out of the fog, barely had time to even hit the brakes, I wouldn't have seen it even if I was staring at that spot...slammed into front right headlight with me doing about 40. Now I've avoided MANY MANY possible impacts on clear nights by seeing them and because I was alert and looking BUT only because those roads had a lot of land between the road and the woods...on backroads and backhighways that won't happen, I've only hit deer because either I couldn't see well (fog) or because the area between the road and woods was thin. It's not "I wAs aLErt sO I doN'T hIt dEer" it's you've been lucky is all, don't fool yourself.

 

deer whistles don't do anything but make the front end look trashy...legit they don't actually "work", plenty of research into it

 

My low quality dash cam deer hit video from 2014. This did just under $8000 in damage to the 2010 Tacoma I had at the time. I was on a city street and going around 25 to 30 miles per hour at the time.

 

Are deer 1 foot tall where you live?

 

If you add the hoops it may help but OP said he doesn't wanna cut anything and that he's just gonna take his chances so kind of a moot point anyways.

 

Hook em Horns, and keep on going.

 

op doesn’t have to cut anything to put an ARB on, it’s purely for cosmetic reasons that you do. if op wants to truly protect their truck from deer hits then an ARB style is the only option...if they don’t want to cut then they’ll have to live with some gaps.

slim bumpers won’t do shit...not sure why they even exist honestly aside from “looking” cool because they are totally pointless even for brush while offroading...total waste of money unless looks is all you care about. sure they’ll keep you from cracking a plastic bumper if you bump into something but in a real accident/impact they’re useless

ARB includes a template and it’s not that big a deal really, a few good vids out there...installing the bumper mounts is harder than the bumper cutting

 

I’m sorry but I laughed way hard as I thought “Do a barrel roll”

jesus like he was just rollin rollin rollin WHAT

kept rollin rollin rollin

 

I run a slimline for the winch mount and attachment points. It looks better than the plastic underbite thing that came stock as well. Also not as heavy as full bumpers. Not everyone uses their trucks the way you do.

 

Uhm...you mean driving down the highway? Look I'm not trying to hate on looks only mods...ok yes I am I HATE looks only mods...but I understand wanting something that looks better than the underbite stocker...and you're right it does look like that XD

BUUUUUT that said a slimline is for looks only, sure it's tougher against buggies and grandma caddy pulling to far into a parking spot but for anything else it's totally useless. I had a dude in a duelly back into me and a slimline wouldn't have prevented the damage his rear bumper caused. I don't offroad much but a slimline wouldn't do anything for you against anything but stingweeds because anything of consequence will hit your grill. Just saying...if you are really worried about deer hits a slimline is less than useless...just facts...I can buy you a hemorrhoid pillow if that reality bite bothers you THAT much

*edit...ah winch mounts...guess they do serve SOME purpose...not much though