Hit a Deer :/ Any recommendations for medal bumpers?

I think a lot of people would rather get punched in the face with an airbag, then drive around with that ugly ass bumper on their truck. Also if you hit a big enough deer at the right speed it’s not gonna matter what kinda bumper you have on the truck. The Tacoma isn’t a dump truck, and physics will have the bigger say in the matter.

 

So many people get so offended when I point out that the ARB is the only tested bumper with a crumple zone.
Just like when they list their 22 year old, dry rotted tires and I call them out on that.
Oh well.

 

LOL its just a fugly ass bumper but tons of research done and im sure its a very good and functional bumper

 

I hated the look of the ARB Bumper. Then I did a boatload of research trying to decide what the best bumper was. Everything pointed to the ARB. The rest are just sheet/plate metal slapped on the front of the truck. An ARB is designed with the crush cans (that are replaceable) to work with your vehicle's airbags. If protection from your everyday highway wreck is what you are looking for, ARB is the winner. If you are wheeling hardcore, and constantly rubbing your bumper on rocks and trees and whatnot, get a simple (quality) plate bumper.

I went with ARB, and honestly, it's grown on me. The hoops also look great with the hoops on my Brute Force Fab rear high clearance bumper.

 

I have the Body Armor desert series bumper in the rear that I plan on keeping. They actually look, I think, not too bad together. Actually Blazing Blue by the way, 2017.

 

In a prior repair I used a State Farm preferred body shop. With these shops SF accepts the shop's estimate and doesn't send an estimator. All of the payments from SF go to the body shop and I just have to pay the deductible. I wanted something different and the shop said "no" it has to be done as OEM. The vehicle was older than 2 years.

Last year someone gave my truck a parking lot kiss and pushed in the rear quarter. This time I used a smaller repair shop that's in SF's network, but not preferred tier. I had to use the SF photo tool to get their estimate. The check came to me and not the shop. I asked the shop owner if he could leave off the TRD sticker and he said no problem. Now I'm in a similar situation as the OP. Hit a dear at about 45mph that caused a lot of plastic damage. When I was talking to the small shop's owner about the repair, I mentioned an aftermarket bumper and he was open to the idea. He did point out that many bumpers require a CMC chop and was ok with doing it. He said let's get the estimate done first then we'll talk about aftermarket. Also added, "Keep in mind I run a body shop, not a mod shop so don't go to crazy."