To those out there for clarification. The Bumper Bush Guard combo is made by Ranch Hand out of Texas. Its there summit series. Which is diamond plate, powder coated Black. From my research months ago, this was the only option without totally relocating the adaptive Sensor, Like other manufacturers would have ya do. Yes, the tow hooks are gone but how the bumper is tied to the frame, I'm sure i could pull or be pulled from it. But i am looking for a way to install some. Might have to get ones of a GM or Dodge product. Mine was purchased from a EBAY seller 21-Motorsports.

There's a difference between a brush guard that mounts where the tow hooks are, and a full bumper replacement. A brush guard is for just that, light brush. They will fold back and cause more damage, PLUS damage your frame where the tow hooks are. A full bumper replacement shouldn't fold back like that, if it does then you hit something HARD.

The bumper mount points are still pretty damn close to each other, and if you consider the torque applied at the top of a full guard like that versus how little movement is necessary to rotate back into the grill, it still seems like an impact at the top of a full guard could cause enough rotation and/or bending to become a damage multiplier.

Or at least that's my operating theory and part of the reason I went prerunner-style—if the prerunner bar moves far enough to wrap back into the grill, I'm pretty sure there was enough energy involved to do serious damage without the bumper on. The prevailing wisdom in these parts is that aftermarket bumpers do work, but I'll readily admit that I've never seen any testing to compare road-speed strikes with and without (that would be very interesting, albeit expensive, data to have).

I'm actually kinda surprised NHTSA hasn't performed testing like this. They wreck plenty of new vehicles, they could test 2-3 bumper styles easily...

They may still be a damage multiplier, but I'm sure it wouldn't be as much as one that just attaches at the tow hooks. They rotate on their bracket and push back into everything. I had a bullbar on my '07, and had to get pulled by it one day. I was barely stuck, but it still moved the bar with a slight steady pull.

I had a similar brush guard on my first-gen XTerra, installed by the previous owner. I pulled it after the XTerra died and realized that I was very, very lucky I hadn't taken any real impacts on it—it had upper and lower mount points, which seems like a great idea, except that the upper mount points were (a) not actually bolted in (previous owner's fault), (b) less than half an inch from the radiator, and (c) something like 1/8" sheet steel—they very clearly would easily punch through the radiator if pushed back.

It did a great job holding a pair of off-road lights, though.

Yeah that's pretty much all they're good for; mounting lights and pushing light brush aside. I had a ton of mods on my 2nd Gen Xterra, lifted and all, but I was never going to put one of those on. Also, my lights went on the roof ;)


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Sorry to kick up an old thread, but I live in deer country and really want to get something for my '13 STX that will protect it the most from 'idiot bombs'. My warranty will be running out fairly soon, and this baby has to last me for the rest of my life! I do not go offroad and am not interested in that sort of thing, but I drive a lot in really remote areas that are infested with big retarded deer. Some of our Kansas bruisers can get well over 350 lbs, buddy of mine shot one a few weeks back that was 363# on the scale. Yikes!

Would any of you recommend a full replacement bumper? If so, would you give me some links to check out?

I know this might sound crazy, but I found that Deer don't like LED lights. I don't know if they can detect the frequency like the cameras do, but so far I have had at least a dozen of them come to a complete stop at the side of the road, turn and stare and run the other way, every time where normally they would have just bolted across. Happened last night in fact. One ran across a distance ahead of me, and I slowed, just in case, and sure enough another was just about to bolt across, stopped and looked at me, then spun about and ran the other way. Other times, have had a group of 2 or 3 come to a stop as I approached them. They watched me go by then ran across, right in front of another car coming up behind me with regular lights and HID.

Ugh, I feel your pain. I did exactly the same thing on my 07. Huge buck, lots of damage.