In search of custom bumper/grille guard Ideas

[Eraser475]

I regularly drive through a river valley that is full of deer and I do not want to find out how much damage it would do to my square. I need some help on fabricating a bumper and the bumper mounts themselves. Any Ideas/pictures would be very appreciated. I was thinking on making the initial grille guard from 2" square steel tubing.

[johnwaynejeep]

Your best bet for grill guard ideas would be an off road site, see what other people are building and how. There's a full size Jeep web site where a lot of people make their own products and some members have started companies solely to support the FSJ community, so there's lots of information and interaction that may be helpful. The FSJs are full figured vehicles with a pretty flat nose, a lot like our Chevys. I think this is a great place to look at bumper ideas. Both the FSJ and Chevy had factory brushguards available that you may be able to use on your truck, or adapt it to a home made bumper.

WWW.IFSJA.ORG

If you're going to make your own bumper then you can use round tube which will give you a nice finished product, the hard part is getting the bends correct and then shaping the tube where it connects with other sections, a hole saw and a press works well for making a nice round cut. You can also use square tubing which is easier to cut for forming corners and connecting points and it may look better based on the square body lines of the truck. It's all personal preference.

[farmall]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-Winch...6e8a78&vxp=mtr

[soulman67]

I built this one out of 1 1/2 square tubing on a 4" pipe base. The mounts are 1/2" thick plate using factory bolt locations on the frame.

[tucsonjwt]

I like the idea of replacing the bumper and getting the whole thing down a little lower, since deer can easily cause more damage when dragged under the vehicle. Of course, I have known several people who have had deer run into the side of the vehicle when they get spooked - no prevention for that problem.

I would replace the bumper with a maybe 4-5" c-channel angled back at the outside edges and build up from there.

[Eraser475]

Are there any certain things that I should incorporate into the design to make sure that if I do hit a deer, that it doesn't in turn take out all of my front end?

[johnwaynejeep]

A grill guard should protect your front end from the body of the deer. The issue is the head. The head still carries some weight and traveling at 40mph it can do some damage. I would incorporate some expanded steel around the sensitive areas like the headlights and the area in front of the radiator.

don't forget deer avoidance too. A good set of fog lights pointed in the right direction will give you real good visibility and you can avoid hitting the deer altogether.

If you have a lift kit then a deer can possible get thrown under your vehicle. Look under your vehicle and ask the question, can I launch a bowling ball under my vehicle with a cannon and have it survive? the start making skid plates to protect vulnerable pieces under your vehicle as well.

It's hard to protect your vehicle from every possible scenario unless you wrap the entire front end in expanded steel and tubing. The more protection you have the more you offset the look of the truck. It's a give and take. I have fog lights and I mounted an aftermarket bumper/skid plate to my Jeep and if that's not enough, then so be it. Anything more and I'll start looking like Mad Max.

[craig113]

other ideas

http://buckstop.biz/

[Eraser475]

Should I be worried about the weight on the front end? I already have the 6.2L diesel which isn't in any way light, so is a extra hundred or more pounds going to add unnecessary stress to my front suspension and steering components?

[andrewmp6]

Something like this http://offroaddesign.com/catalog/GMfrontbumper.htm And how strong it is http://www.offroaddesign.com/catalog/subbumpervselk.htm

[bns454]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1415443317

[andrewmp6]

What train did that cow catcher come off lol.

[mrolds88]

Wow!!!!

[Eyegore]

With that much weight on the front how does the rear get any traction.

[mattybilt79]

Offroad Design has some cool bumpers, used to have a pic on their site of one that took on a deer. I had a bumper similar to their design from blazin off road on my 88 burb but they have gone out of business last I heard. There's also diy4x4 that builds bumpers for squares. Big thing is boxing the front frame like ORD's bumper does.

[Gordonr1973]

Originally Posted by Eyegore

With that much weight on the front how does the rear get any traction.

Easy....fill the bed with cement :-)

Bumper does look cool but I agree, how much does it weigh?

[bns454]

the manufacturer states 65kgs ive got a similar design bar being made in alloy for my c30 that makes that one look tiny 9 uprights (instead of 5) and 4inch tube (instead of 2 1/2) the same as these it will come in around 50kgs
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1415625641

[motornut]

old army style?
meat hooks removed....