Westin Sportsman Brush Guard Install on 2014 Tacoma

I recently installed a Westin Sportsman brush guard (part

$682 40-1605 Westin Sportsman Grille Guard

40-1605). It's main purpose is to reduce the chances of radiator damage after a deer hit. We recently had an $11,000 deer hit on our other truck, and the damaged radiator stranded us far from home. I do not care if the guard might spread the body damage from a small hit, and I like that the factory crumple zones will still absorb a truly huge collision as this guard will bend back and fail.

It is rock solid and does NOT vibrate when driving. I am very pleased with my choice. The black finish looks good, and I like how the back of the vertical sections are contoured to match the lines of the truck.

The brackets are very thick: the bottom brackets are 1/4" thick and the top brackets are 3/8" thick. The most visible bolts and nuts which attach the front end of the top brackets to the guard are entirely black, to match the black finish. These contours, brackets and bolts are shown in the 3rd picture below.

The instructions list the required tools, and are incomplete. In addition to the wrench and socket sizes mentioned, I also needed 17mm and 19mm sockets to fit the included nuts.

Many of the holes in the mounting brackets are actually ovals to allow position adjustment. This gives a lot of flexibility in guard location, including how far it is from the bumper. I wanted the guard to be fairly close to the bumper, yet not touching.

To accomplish this I loosely bolted the guard to its brackets, then sandwiched two small wood blocks between the backs of the vertical guard sections and the top of the bumper front edge. These wood blocks were temporary spacers which could be pushed against the painted bumper without damaging anything. I had my son press the guard against these blocks as I tightened the bolts and torqued them. After removing the blocks I had about a half-inch of space between the back of the guard and the front of the bumper.

I took a few pictures of my installation.

 

Nice what's the finish warranty. I know in mass that thing will rust out quick after any rock chips etc etc etc.

 

Question: how much space do you have from the front edge of the hood to the top bar that runs horizontal to the hood? I have the OEM bug guard on the hood, wondering if it's going to hit the top bar of the guard?

 

Looks good. Westin makes a good product. I hope the finish holds up for you as sometimes they fade off pretty quick. I had a Westin bull bar on my Tundra that needed to get powder coated after 2 years.

I wish I would have had that yesterday when I hit a very large 8 pointer dead center on the front bumper of my new TACO. I launched him over the guardrail and down a hill into a creek. The SOB actually got up and disappeared into the woods.

My Sport was 4 weeks old yesterday with 450 miles on it.......cracked grille, bumper cover, headlights and a few trim pieces. My passenger fender was pushed out and the hood would not open....the passenger headlight was pointing towards the radiator. No mechanical damage that I could see. I am still sick about it.

My son's a ASEC Toyo Master Tech. My dealer has a good auto body shop that I trust. He took the truck last night and I told him I do not want to see it until it is fixed. He took pics for the insurance company and posterity.

Donald

 

Unchained_5150: 5 years warranty against manufacturer defects in several things including the word "finish", excluding damage caused by gravel, etc. Seems reasonable. I plan to touch it up as needed. Since taking the pics, I have painted the 3 big bolts visible in the 3rd picture where the guard attaches to its brackets. I used spray primer then flat black in that bolt area - took lots of masking tape and newspaper. Mainly done for cosmetics, those zinc-colored bolt heads were ugly in the middle of all that black metal.

ArmyRetired: The smallest gap is just over 2" from the closest (lower) edge of my chrome upper grill piece to the lower of the 2 horizontal top bars of the guard. You could make this larger via the adjustment range in the initial installation - just have the entire guard be more vertical and less leaned-back towards the grill (see my section on the wood blocks).

3rail: I'll keep it touched up with black paint as needed (probably a car touchup kit with the tiny brush). Sorry to hear about the deer, I hate them, we have them all over where I live, I saw 4 of them a few hours ago out my living room window. Our deer hit took 3.5 weeks to fix our 2006 Lexus GX470 including waiting for parts. Work was done at a great Ford dealer far from our house but near the site. State Farm gave us their name, and has them in their "Select Service" body shop program (meaning those are great body shops - and they were - it is like new). We got a new radiator, battery, and entire front end body and paint all on a 120,000 mile truck - a mid-life upgrade out of the stress.

 

Can you remove the headlight guards? I really like the look of the push bumper but don't like the coverage extending to the headlights. Looks great though!

 

Yes and no.

Yes: the thin headlight guard bars inside of the thicker outer bars are removable, though I have not done that. These 3 thin bars are one assembly (per side) which attaches to the thick outer bars with black bolts with allen heads, separated from the thick outer bars with small black spongy "gaskets".

No: the main thick bars protecting the headlights are welded on.

 

Westin products are great! look great, really tough, pretty much all i have used for the last 15 years! they started out in Australia making guards for cars and trucks that run highways. over there apparently they have a big problem with kangaroo's (i think thats how ya spell it) jumping in front of headlights at night like deer do over here. good choice!

 

Looks good I like it, nice choice in your tires as well,..

 

Looks good.

 

I have one like yours but in stainless steel . It is my opinion that unless you upgrade those two flimsy upper brackets to withstand the force of the impact of hitting a deer, I highly doubt it would get you back home. Hitting a turkey, you'll be ok. Hitting a deer, that damn thing will crumple like noodles.

 

I just ordered the Weston Max winch mount that bolts up to the frame. Supports up to a 12,000 lbs winch. As well as a TMaxx EW8500 winch with synthetic cable on sale for black Friday. Everything for $600 shipped! Here are a few pictures, not on my truck.

 

I like it, although I am not fond of hanging stuff off the front end....BUT...deer are a problem around here too, and I often wonder if I should invest in some additional front-end protection.

I think the install, fit and finish look appealing....Good Job!