What to do for deer collision protection.

Autoanything sells the ARB too.

https://www.autoanything.com/grille-guards/arb-deluxe-bull-bars

Not cheap, but it has a far better chance of saving your truck and possibly you and your passengers.

it eliminates the OEM aluminum "crash beams" (bumper) and attaches directly to the same mounts on the fron t of the frame rails, plus includes some additional side brackets.

https://b.cdnbrm.com/images/info/ARB/3423150.pdf

 

Reminds me of how you get 500 cows in the Barn. Just yell BINGO!

 

I have a Relentless bumper on my 2nd gen and have hit two deer within the last 7 months. The only damage sustained was a scrape in the powdercoat down the zinc primer. Both deer dead after the hit. I think that I should get a rebate check from the insurance company...

 

I’ve done a bunch of research on offroad bumpers. This one came up in the top 3 for most rugged. Start there, or try the deer whistles. I’m in NH as well. Welcome.

 

I’d like to see anyone milk a bull. That would be the one for prime time TV!

 

I ran over several deer at various speeds with my ARB on my old 07. They push the deer down and under the truck. The highest speed impact was north of 40mph and it did not cause any damage or movement of the bumper. In fact I purchased it with insurance money from a deer strike, rather than replace the plastic bumper you can pick up with two fingers. It added a few bucks but saved me countless hours of downtime and paid for itself in my opinion. I bought it specifically for deer strikes, no other reason.

 

Ranchhand 500-700 alternative

 

Like a few others have said, get a good set of driving lights. I’m from NH too and also do a lot of driving in Maine, where moose are a big issue too. I’m running the @bajadesigns squadron sports in my oem fog slots. I wired them up via relay and a switch in the cab to be on when the switch is flipped AND the high beams are on. When a car comes around the bend, I cut the high beams off the usual way with the stalk on the steering column and the driving lights cut off too. Flip the highs back on, and the driving lights come back on. You get great side of the road coverage and distance, giving you advanced notice of what’s lurking on the side of (or in) the road. The handy thing about deer is their eyes light up nice as little warning “lights”. Bajas are not cheap as far as lights, but if it saves you from wrecking your front end and putting in an insurance claim, you’ll be happy you had em. My .02

 

True. A friend of mine was behind a van when a buck ran out if front of them. It hit the bumper and grill but still came through the windshield. Cut the body in half, the head, legs came through the windshield and horns went though the woman in the passenger seat. No bumper can protect the windshield. The little girl in the backseat was never the same after seeing her grandmother die so horribly slow. The little girl's mother was driving.

 

After a buzzard took out my front end at 65 mph, I switched my deductible from $500 to $50. Not much difference in premium

 

That with the winch mount plate would work very well against deer

the winch mount plate replaces the bottom of our brush guards with 1/4 in plate frame that connects to the frame horns behind the bumper in 4 spots

 

the winch mounts much differently

 

https://www.carid.com/images/westin/items/pdf/45-93880-installation-instructions.pdf is the mounting instructions if you have a winch. the instructions are crappy, They don't really show how hard it is to get the fish plates under the radiator mount.

 

https://www.ranchhand.com/toyota.html

 

Animal strikes are the reason ARB bull bars exist. I think it was primarily kangaroos. They were conceived to protect critical stuff so you don't get stranded 1,000 miles from nowhere in the Australian Outback.

I think you meant to say sensors are inertia driven, it takes a certain amount of inertia to trip them. You are right that they are mounted at the bottom of the radiator bib, not in the bumper, so they will work regardless of which bumper you have or even if you have no bumper at all.

But the design of the bumper still does matter because how it absorbs energy and transmits it into the frame and truck can change the timing of the airbag. That's I think what ARB means, that in a crash the airbags will trigger at the same time as stock. The timing of when the airbags trip is important. Too soon and you haven't starting going forward so they'll be deflating before you even reach them, too late and it's like getting into two collisions.

One thing to mention is ARB an Australian company and has to comply with their regulations, which I gather dictate that when you fit an aftermarket bumper the vehicle must still have crash test (ANCAP, similar I think to our IIHS) data. You'll see down there the OEMs offer a bumper when you buy the truck. It's sometimes an ARB, sometimes their own or both, but no matter someone will have tested it so they can retain (or adjust?) whatever rating the stock vehicle had from ANCAP and set your insurance rate.



Since there's no law here that says you must have an approved bumper so I'm not sure ARB actually crash tested Tacomas with them. IOW, I don't think they always write off a vehicle for every bumper. On the trucks they sell in Australia (like a Land Cruiser or Hilux) it's probably been actually done and they probably design and simulate all bumpers based on the test data they do have. So a Tacoma ARB will be more likely to trigger airbags like stock comparatively but I don't know if that's true based on an actual crash test. I still went with one because of that, but whether that means anything to an insurance company or court, I dunno

 

^^^This. Listen to this guy.

Exactly, that's the joke! Whoever I quoted said something about milking bulls. If you don't recognize that gif, you should probably watch Kingpen...or at least that scene.

 

I have USAA, and we pay a very good price for our coverage options. I'm not looking to change (hopefully ever). I just need something to piledrive any deer dumb enough to leap from a snowbank into my vehicle at 40mph (looking at you, doe from last winter).

 

I do have deer whistles, haven't had a collision yet. I do want the "insurance" of having something covering the front though. A full bumper replacement seems to be the consensus, though I don't like the aesthetic too much. Bull bars really didn't look good to me either though. Guess I'll dig through the available aftermarket bumpers for something rugged in performance but less... boisterous looking.

 

Processes the venison at the same time