Deer proof bumper options???

I went to school in Nac-a-nowhere. Back in the day we used to use 204 as one of our bicycle rides, it was pretty country. Full of critters for sure. Never once nailed a deer in my years out there, but came close a number of times. All I can say is, drive slow and be ready to lock the brakes.

Lol, the great cities of Reklaw and Sacul. Only because Walker and Lucas were already taken.

 

we used a deflated football or basketball to blow out dents in the doors of my brothers 66 Tempest. South Texas Coastal Deer aren't very big, but they will dent the hell out of your vehicle. Edna, Victoria, and surrounding areas.

 

I’ve always heard you shouldn’t brake hard because then you’ll nose dive and have a higher chance of the deer entering the cab through the windshield. I’ve heard speed up. I’ve never hit a deer either. I’ve made a few cross country road trips, one in my first gen from CA to VT and back (~6k mikes), and the night driving always had me on high alert.

What about some pointable auxiliary lighting on the front that you can toggle on and off with a switch? Point them towards the left and right sides of the road for increased visibility. These lights on my push bar are so bright I rarely have cause to use them, but they do pivot and would light up the sides of a road very well. OP, not saying you want to hit one of course, but I would invest in detection and avoidance rather than absorption of an impact.

 

Go old school locomotive. Build a Cow Catcher on the front. Or find V type snow plow.

Yeah, I know....neither are practical. About the only thing you can do is slow down, make sure your insurance will cover a deer strike or find a alternate route to drive.

Nothing will be "deer proof". Any impact will cause damage.

 

Ive hit plenty of deer with my coastal offroad bumper all at freeway speeds and its held up great. And my 4runner has an all pro tube bumper, it didnt hold up as well as the tacomas bumper but still saved the rest of the truck.

 

You killed Bambi!! I can`t say if I killed any for the most they stick out their tongue laugh and run away.

Who knows if they fell over dead in a few hundred yards tough evil creatures.

 

Ive got an old 97 taco that I have a TJM t17 or 15 cant remember regardless it had no hoops. I used it and a good set of offroad lights IPFs I think to ward off 2 deer strikes. The only thing it ever did was push in the little trim piece under the headlight. I hit one, one night going about 30. I used my OR lights all the time. I wired it up so it got the hot off the relay from my brights. So I could run the big lights while driving on rural roads of course and they would go off when I dimmed. If I did not want to run them at all I just turned the switch off and they would not work at all. I found lighting things up real good helped the see the sneakers and creepers that headlights would have missed.

 

Having grown up around these dumb tick transportation devices, nothing get me more than the city squids stopping in the middle of traffic in Yosemite to take a picture of one.

 

Here they tend to do that for yard sales .

Think because they are in the country it is fine to stop in the middle of the road jump out and run like it is a Kmart Blue Light special.

 

700lb springs and shocks linking your bumper to the body ought to negate some damage

 

and send the deer flying into the next county lol

 

Personally, Id go with the C4 Bumper. Tubular and somewhat still lightweight. The bull bar should add some protection as well. and could keep a deer from going up and over your hood. Not sure how it will hold up vs deer, but I know they hold up pretty good when bashed on rocks.

 

I'd also consider a lighting upgrade. add some ditch lights, upgrade your fog light and throw a bright light bar up top, that way you might see them before they're under your truck. I drive down a dark country road at night and my lights have saved me a few times from hitting some deer.

 

*exploding fist bump*

 

A steel bumper will fair far better than the stock bumper cover and stock low push bumper beam, which leaves all your heat exchangers and headlights open for damage.

I am happy with my BruteForce Fab plate bumper (2nd gen tho)

If you have the ability or friend who welds, you could do a DIY front bumper build project

 

If there's no one behind you, sure, do what floats your boat. But yeah I see so many people just slam on their brakes because they're about to miss a turn or whatever. I hate that. Like let's cause an accident because you can't wait 30 more seconds to slow down and take the next road or make a u-turn.


okay, wait, what were we talking about. Bumpers?

 

Nah. If you build a super strong bumper system, you'd just liquefy it.

At that point, I'd rather it be an insurance job. I'm not really interested in cleaning minced deer guts out of every little nook and cranny of my truck.

I hit a vulture once back in highschool. My car (and my mountain bike that was on the roof rack) stank for like 3 months. Didn't matter how many times I took it to the pressure washer. Those things freakin smell. Like bad.

 

I looked at all sorts of bumper options for my truck because I head to the White Mountains multiple times a year and have almost struck deer & elk a few times. Honestly I know you hate how they look but the only bumper I would recommend would be an ARB. They're the only airbag compliant aftermarket front bumper for our trucks and when you install it you literally see the crumple zones in the mounts for it.

I can't and wouldn't recommend anything else. I've heard horror stories of other companies bumper's either setting the airbags off to early, late or not at all in accidents.

Just my .02

 

They are the only "certified" air bag compliant. Although even then, there are a lot of aftermarket companies out there, and I can't say with confidence they're still the "only" company out there with that status.

But since our trucks don't use censors mounted in the bumpers, it doesn't really matter. Plenty of people with aftermarket bumpers have been in accidents and had their airbags deploy as intended.

 

I went with the ARB for the same reason and was looking at the Coastal bumpers because I like the hoop which would keep the venison carnage from getting up close and personal and the way they look, but ended up with getting helluva deal on a ARB with all pro rear bumper and sliders as a package. I’ll admit the look isn’t what I was going for but the build quality is stout and fits perfect and if I did anything it would be to put a pre runner hoop out front if I bend it up traveling through Georgia from NC on a deer or hog.