OT: Deer Guards

loco_engr

Hello All!
Looking for recommendations for a deer guard for my 2007 Chevy Silverado.

FATC1TY

Assuming you mean a brush guard ? 

What your budget? Do you want a new bumper with it. Or no? 

BikerBob

If you mean the deer whistles, I saw a flat sidecar where the deer when hit, loaded itself and right next to the deer whistle. It made a good pic-a flat sidecar loaded with a deer.

loco_engr

I'm looking for a deer guard that would be hardy enough to stand up to a deer collision from front headlights all the way to other side.

WeberWho

Just remember those guards only do so much. Pretty much only good for lower speed impacts. I don't think you'll be able to find one that holds up hitting a deer 60+ mph. You'll still end up with significant damage hitting a 150lb deer with a top tier guard. 

The heavier and more stout you go the better chance you lose MPG. I heard of guys dropping as much as 3 mpg. 

Not to be a Debbie downer but just wanted to make sure weigh the pros/cons of one. 

loco_engr

WeberWho said:

Just remember those guards only do so much. Pretty much only good for lower speed impacts. I don't think you'll be able to find one that holds up hitting a deer 60+ mph. You'll still end up with significant damage hitting a 150lb deer with a top tier guard. 

The heavier and more stout you go the better chance you lose MPG. I heard of guys dropping as much as 3 mpg. 

Not to be a Debbie downer but just wanted to make sure weigh the pros/cons of one. 

TY . . . something I totally didn't consider

RRP

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Battleborn

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

alaskanassasin

Battleborn said:

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

Come to the Midwest, we will show you how we roll.

nolaegghead

Battleborn said:

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

That was my first thought.  Hopefully not in the far left lane.

Legume

nolaegghead said:

Battleborn said:

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

That was my first thought.  Hopefully not in the far left lane.

turn signal on

RRP

Battleborn said:

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

Because it was a 4 lane “highway” inside the city limits and the LEGAL speed limit was 35MPH. Even the police report said I was OK.
Har Har … I was in the right lane  going the 35 and even tried to dodge that dumb doe by whipping onto the shoulder! 

hoosier_egger

Lighten up, Ronald. I can like a comment without warranting a PM from you. 

R-E-L-A-X

nolaegghead

Sorry...when I think "highway" I automatically think it's the same as "freeway", "interstate", "autobaun", etc. with speeds of 55 and higher.  35 mph road would have cleared that up, although I think "highway" is also technically correct.

nolaegghead

Just so I'm adding something useful to the OP:

https://thecustomtruck.com/are-grill-guards-worth-it/

Hansm

AprèsSki

loco_engr said:

Hello All!
Looking for recommendations for a deer guard for my 2007 Chevy Silverado.

While visiting my niece in Montana the day after she hit a dear with her same era Silverado I was able to see how much damage the deer guard did to her truck.

She would have been better off without a guard that deformed and took out most of a front corner of the truck. 

Make sure you get a strong one or only hit small deer.

TideEggHead

From what I have heard, the Westin type brush guards don't do much for protection. You would need to step up to an aftermarket metal bumper/guard like ARB for strike protection. I could be completely wrong though.

nolaegghead

Vehicles are either body on frame, unibody or some hybrid of the two.  The structure of a modern vehicle is designed with crumple zones to absorb crash energy to protect the occupants. 

There's usually a "bumper" that connect to the unibody or frame with some mechanism to absorb energy.  Depending on the severity of the impact, the damage designed into the system moves from front to back.

Some of the bolt-on brush guards and other bolt-on systems will bypass the bumper and transfer kinetic energy directly to the frame and will cause structural damage that's equivalent to a more severe impact...damage that is more expensive and harder to fix.

So be forewarned.

loco_engr

AprèsSki said:

loco_engr said:

Hello All!
Looking for recommendations for a deer guard for my 2007 Chevy Silverado.

While visiting my niece in Montana the day after she hit a dear with her same era Silverado I was able to see how much damage the deer guard did to her truck.

She would have been better off without a guard that deformed and took out most of a front corner of the truck. 

Make sure you get a strong one or only hit small deer.

Do you know the brand of her deer guard?

AprèsSki

loco_engr said:

Do you know the brand of her deer guard?

No idea, truck is long gone

RRP

Unless I missed an earlier post then I have always wondered why people think that those tiny bumper mounted “whistles” would ever make a dumb deer think “golly darn…I sure don’t want to run and jump in front of that whistling vehicle!”

fishlessman

to hit a deer at moderate speeds you need a fabricated bumper with heavy duty brush guards, then you need a heavy duty truck with a heavy duty frame, half tons wont cut it. aftermarket guards just look pretty. now that heavy duty bumper and guard adds weight to the front, plan on more maintenance on the front end, ball joints, wheel bearings, shocks, etc.    never hit one, dont want to....tagged a moose in the nose with my side view once, almost flipped that truck avoiding it

HighHeat

RRP said:

Battleborn said:

RRP said:

I hit a small doe at 35 MPH at 9AM on a wide open 4 lane highway! Besides crushing my grill, and hood she rolled on up my hood and cracked my windshield! Cost me $1k and All$tate another $7k.
Guess I may have saved other drivers a bunch of dollars having killed that dumb doe from having reproduced more stupid deer! 

Why were you driving 35 MPH on a 4 lane highway? That is criminal. 

Because it was a 4 lane “highway” inside the city limits and the LEGAL speed limit was 35MPH. Even the police report said I was OK.
Har Har … I was in the right lane  going the 35 and even tried to dodge that dumb doe by whipping onto the shoulder! 

Did the deer call the cops? 

lkapigian

RRP said:

Unless I missed an earlier post then I have always wondered why people think that those tiny bumper mounted “whistles” would ever make a dumb deer think “golly darn…I sure don’t want to run and jump in front of that whistling vehicle!”

Back in the day when I rode my motorcycle daily, Linda would often ride on the back with a skirt on, I told her "you know when you do that, it puts out a high pitched whistle and keeps the deer away "  she said " no it does not " I said " have we ever hit a deer ?"