damage to the truck then if you had no guard. Well, I hit one last night while doing about 55MPH by the time I locked the brakes for a moment. I felt the impact and a thump and I went over some part of him, but my headlights stay on and the truck ran fine, so I just continued toward town. I pulled into the car wash to take advantage of the lights and there was a lot of hair and "stuff" but no major damage.

Mine is a Ranch Hand (I think) that is bolted to the frame. I'll try to get a picture and see if I can figure how to post it.

 

Bull Butter. Why would having 180 lbs of steel in front of plastic and construction paper thick sheet metal cause more damage. I think you proved it last night. I hit a deer with a relatively cheap brugh guard and winch and no damage at all to my old Ford. Then again, maybe someone has a different experience. I know I would rather hit a deer with my Ranch Hand on that without it. Glad you did not have 2K dollars damage. Your Ranch Hand just paid for itself.

 

I think its more a matter of WHICH brush guard you have.
that light weight auto parts store brush guard is more for decoration.

 

I guess I could see that. Possibly pushing the cheap metal into truck?

 

I have hit 2 deer so far with my Ranch Hand at approx 55mph and not so much as a scratch, i'm sure that the ones that bolt to the bumper that are real flimsy probably do get pushed back into the grill area, but having something up front is better than nothing at all, a guy i work with hit a elk not long ago in his truck,stock, approx 60 mph..damage was BAD, grill, hood, both fenders etc etc..a Ranch Hand would have saved him alot of $$, short of a custom built one the RH's are nice.

 

recently saw a semi run over a massive bull elk- only the bull got caught under the cab and got dragged underneath for about 1/4 mile. when the truck finally pulled over, the bull was still underneath- what a mess!

 

My BIL, who works at a body shop says the biggest damage comes when they are welded to the frames. There's no give to them, so the front arms of the frames curl up. When they are bolted on, the bolts shear or bend and they absorb most of the impact and have far less vehicle damage.

 

Front Ranch Hand: McDonald's yellow pole thingy, tree at 1mph (thought I was clear! ), couple small animals, can of rustoleum gloss black... Good as new!

Rear ranch hand: 1 totaled Audi, 1 totaled BMW (1 year at SMU dumb girls kept running into me!! that stinger destroyed their car on both occasions!!.. It ok sure daddy bought a new one...), couple trees/stumps , same can as above... Perfect

Really no dents, dings, or scratches... Wont own a truck without them!!

 

Well I hit a deer at 3 in the morning going 93 mph!!! Long story.... With my bumper and all it did was pop out the headlight and pushed the bumper down about 3/4 of an inch... with a stock bumper my whole front end would have been trash!!! Probably totaled...

 

Some of the brush guards are made poorly, my grandpa had one he hit 3 deer with before he finally had to report a wreak to insurance because it messed up the fender, but the one they put on to replace it is bolted on very odd. I figure it will be junk if he every has another deer jump out in front of him.

On the other hand i hope the ranch hand one i just got will be good...

 

Ranch hands the only way to go, I have one on my truck and wont have another without it. You can also have some fun with them to, theres a guy at school who kept smarting off to one of my buddies, he finally had enough and we went down to where the guy works (local grocery store) and he was pushin carts inside. I used the ranch hand as a push bumper and moved a couple of those cart racks to the other end of the parking lot. We droveby later and he was out in the rain dragging them back. Just one of those things you do when your bored at college.

 

The "brush gaurds" that hurt things are the ones designed to attach to the bumper so the air bag will deploy. They are mostly just a light bar.

 

I gotta ranchhand. No deer yet. Not many around here. But when I am up in Wyoming there are. My brother actually hit a buffalo in his semi at about 2AM. He was haulin too. No one on the road and needless to say there was a good bit of damage.