Has anyone reinforced their factory front bumper? I live in deer suicide alley. Tagged one yesterday, fortunately I barely caught his butt on the very corner, so no damage.

I'm thinking of trying to bend and weld some 1/4 inch tubing to the contour of the inside of the bumper and welding it in. I need to repaint the bumper anyway due years of rock chips.

I have zero interest bolt on crap or one of the monster off road bumpers.

I know it's not going to make it bulletproof, but just maybe reducing damage to things behind the grille. My wife hit three at once a couple years ago and destroyed her Odyssey.

 

Understanding that you said you have no use for that bolt on crap, aren't you basically just looking for a brush guard?

 

Brush guards are made from thin walled tubing. They really don't add much in the way of protection. Plus they only really cover the center. I know nothing is going to eliminate any damage, especially at highway speeds, just trying to minimize damage, because it's only a matter of time before it happens. It won't take much damage to total a 18 year old truck.

 

they aren’t all the same. Check out ranch hand brand. Statements above (for
the most part) don’t apply to them.

Simply reinforcing bumper will provide minimal protection for your radiator/engine (anything above bumper).

if you do fab something up, please share pics/description of how it turns out. Good luck

 

I have a Westin Sportsman style guard that I am going to put on my truck, but I'm custom fabricating my own mounts to make it a bit more solid. From what I am seeing and how heavy it is I can't see it not helping unless I hit a moose at 100km/hr.

 

Keep in mind the truck was designed with impact and crush points/crumple zones for accidents, so you don't turn into a pile of gel on impact. It would take the G's off your body and let the truck actually deform to take the impact forces. If you make the bumper way more rigid than designed it could impact the safety of the truck especially for a real impact like a head on collision, etc.

I would leave it alone.

 

I purchased my first F 150 7 months ago, after 2 months I hit a deer at about 55 MPH at 5:00 am on my way to work, here is what it did. Put a little twist in the bumper & broke the upper bumper cover. I am thinking about getting a bull bar when I replace the front bumper.

 

I hadn't thought about it being too stiff and transferring throughout the truck.

I don't think 1/4 wall tubing would have that big of an effect, but definitely something to think about.

It's always going to be a threat living here, so I have to do something. I need to investigate it more.

 

With all the factory brackets especially if you have fog lights there's not a lot of room behind there for a reinforcement tube unless you are good at fabrication, or you replace the factory brackets with your reinforcement tube.

 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It sounds like you need some of these for you and for the wife: