Hunter Truck Wholesale Grille Guard

IMHO the looks are great, but the damn thing shakes. I'll go through the bolts again, but actually stripped a couple be cause I was tighting so hard. Might have to fab up an additional brace and weld the sucker good..but that is going to suck.

 

here is my 04 with my hunter brush guard.....................



mine is good and tight.......................it shakes a bit when i crank the truck up, but on the road...........its pretty still. it may shake some if riding on some real rough road/gravel......but it aint too bad....atleast mine aint.

 

My Westin shook from side to side, the Manik I had on my Chevy shook the same, so I think this is just what brush guards do. There's just no horizontal bracing. It's all vertical.

My All Pro bumper doesn't shake though!!

 

The 1st gen ones look just like westin guards. if i found the hunter one before i bought my westin, i would've saved a whole lot of cash.

 

Well I made new frame mounts for mine out of 1/4inch stock I had around and it helped with the shaking, but only a little. Definately not worth the time to make the mounts. Next I made a horizontal brace that bolts at the spot where the upper brace bolts to the guard. (the piece that runs through the bumper and bolts behind it). The other end bolts in one of the holes in the radiator support. It's tight behind the support, but I cut a large washer to fit in the channel and welded the bolt to it so it's captured. I'll get a pic in the daylight if anyone wants. Basically it triangulates the grill guard with the frame. It has worked really well. The grill guard now shakes about the same as a normal grill guard. Before I did this it was unacceptable. I've had grill guards on 6 trucks I've owned, and none shook NEAR as bad as the hunter.

 

Yeah I agree with this one shaking like hell. Your idea about fabbing up some cross bracing is the way to go. If you do have time to snap some pics let me know. But for 200 buck shipped to my house I feel that the hunter will do the job of protecting my truck from a deer, small branchs and especially the guy in the parking lot who likes to either back into your truck or catch the corner panel.

 

Here's a pic. To your far right you can see where the brace bolts to the grill guard at the same place the top bracket supplied with the guard bolts. To the far left you can see where I bolted the brace to the core support. It's the bolt with the large washer behind it. I used some 1/2 inch square tubing and some flat 3/16 inch thick metal to make mine, but I would look better made with round tubing. I had those materials laying around and wanted to make sure it would work before I put some actual money into it. It would probably look better if it was braced on both sides(driver and passenger sides. Mine is just on the driver side), but I decided it wasn't worth the extra work and is hardly noticeable if your not looking.



Here's a pic further away for better reference

 

dude more pictures?? of the overall look??

 

his about the same as mine....go up a few posts for my pic.

 

Sorry the truck is filthy. It finally rained a little bit the other day.

 

if it's not dirty you don't use it!! haha
i can't find a light bar for the price of this guard.

 

does it stick out to the sides of the headlights alot??

 

There is 2.5 inches of space between the headlight and the guard at the closest point, and a little over 3 inches of space and the farthest point. That pic makes it look like there is alot of space between, but it's just the angle of the pic.

 

Thanks for the pics, I'll have to check it out. Do you still get some shaking..did it cut down on it quite a bit. Even my wife asked, " Is that thing supposed to shake that much"

 

My wife said the same thing, that's what really worried me. She doesn't usually notice things like that. That's how bad it was.

It still shakes some, but now it's like most grill guards, just a little shake on the harder bumps. I'm satisfied with it.