What to do for deer collision protection.

You an arfcommer, or did you come across that thread via Google search?

 

Just go to work in this. Never hit a deer again!!

 

Carry a .45, some deer are big but it all tastes great with onions.

 

Coax main gun, self sighting

 

True. I keep mine at $0 and pay 12$ a month... Worth it to me.

 

While overall informative, I can tell you from working in advertising and PR, this is most likely a "syndicated content" article that was paid for by the companies mentioned in the piece. There is no author or date noted, and "buying tips" is usually a red flag that it's a paid ad rather than genuine content.

 

You have to admit though, they're made for a different purpose. Bull bars, as far as I know, stemmed from farm use when farmers needed to use their truck to give bulls and cows a nudge or push to get them moving. Farmers in my hometown in NW IL still use them that way.

It's not so much the sound, it's the headlights that mesmerize them. They keep looking at the headlights because that's where the sound is coming from, but the time they can discern that there's something behind the lights, it's too late. Deer whistle's only work at high freeway type speeds and will never work on country, gravel, or back roads.

As others have said, the best practice is to slow down and when you see them, flash your lights on and off and more importantly, honk your horn. Blaring your horn will sometimes snap them out of the "stare".

 

Agreed. But there is a huge difference in nudging a standing animal at idle, that you have no desire to injure, vs smacking the same at 50mph.

I'm sure a few folks around here are ranchers and might use them that way.

But I'll bet 90% of bull bar owners have never driven in a pasture, nudged a bull or even milked one.

Which makes the bull bar as useful as a level lift. Looks only.

 

I’ve milked a few cows in my lifetime! Never asked thier names either...

 

I've never milked a bull, but I've driven through a pasture. Are you saying that you milk bulls?

Reminds me of this...

 

might help you out. It is alot more rigid than a standard brush guard. It was $600 without the winch

 

this is a Westin HDX. Very stout. Big tubes,mesh in center. Around 600.00 plus. Autoanything on sale. Mounts to the frame. Never hit a deer with it but thr ARB's are nice but very spendy.

 

The deer I have hit are not mesmerized by headlights unless standing in the middle of the road...Otherwise, they seem to wait in the dark hidden at the side of the road until headlights light it up and zoom across! Rutting bucks don't give a flip about headlights or whistles...they simply go after the doe you just missed. Deer whistles are inactive under 35mph according to the instructions. I think they are inactive period! Remember the silent dog training whistles years ago? But gotta remember...deer were here a million years before you were.....It's like airport neighbors who recently buy a house and complain about high airplane noise from a WWII built airport!

 

Apparently they also help cause additional damage to the front end in a collision. But at least they increase overall vehicle length and decrease approach angle. And with regard to aesthetics, yes, they very much affect aesthetics.



Get an ARB.

 

Lower deductible helps a lot, with the right insurance it's not even that much more.

 

The best way to go to work and not hit a deer....

 

Unless that mounts through the grill area back to the frame, (and not just to the frame under the bumper) it doesn’t really matter what it’s made from or how strong it is. The mounts will fail when you hit something like a deer. It’s simple leverage, way too much of it is unsupported where the body mass will hit.

 

This or something similar (real full bumper with integrated bull bars) is the only viable option. Strangely enough a lift also helps, you want to get the carcass either under the vehicle or to the side, not over the hood. Since a snow plow is probably not a viable option, under the vehicle is preferable to over the hood and a lift will help that, it will also mean that the body mass will hit lower on the vehicle hopefully in the frame area and not grill area.

I hit an elk at about 50mph in my 1ton van, lucky it’s got a 4x4 conversion and to get a front Dana 60 axle under it, you need to lift it a lot. Running 35” tires factory steel bumper, pushed the elk under the van. No front damage, but it did bend the trans mount, and bent the axle of the trailer I was towing. Still a lot cheaper that front end damage.

 

The instructions show the main vertical bars attaching to bent brackets brackets beneath the bumper onto OEM bumper stubs that point down from the frame. So that will not transfer impact force directly into the frame, but onto little subs just below it. I imagine tearing them off in the process.

But the upper grill guard brackets attach to the radiator support, which is inherently flimsy and prone to cracking from stress during offroading.

https://www.westinautomotive.com/images/ePIM/original/75-1054.pdf

So yeah, I would not trust that against a deer at 50 MPH. I can't believe they attach winches to them.

 

Attach a small BBQ to the front. That should scare them away....