Bent Frame or No Damage - Experience with aftermarket bumpers?

[lifeisgoodsteve]

Hi All,

A friend who works at a body shop says they see a lot of bent frames when there's a deer/animal hit on an aftermarket bumper.

How many bent frames have you all seen vs. bumper and frame fine when hitting an animal?

Always good to hear actual experiences.

Thx

s

 

[Thinkingman]

I don't work in a body shop or insurance adjuster so take that for what it is...
When you hit something, that energy has to go somewhere and factory bumpers are designed to deform somewhat to dissipate that energy over a larger time and area.
Once you make the structure more rigid, the energy absorption gets transferred to the next assembly...the frame....Newton's Second Law.
I have seen photos of rear trailer hitches transferring energy to the frame where they're mounted, causing frame distortion so the same should hold true for the front where the beefy steel bumper mounts to the frame.

 

[wytx]

Have a nice grill gurad on our trucks, frame mounted. Spouse hit a deer, she went between 2 of the round bars, I guess the areas was for a winch. Bent the bumper and it's brackets. Grill guard was fine.
Took grill guard off and replaced bumper and brackets pretty easily.
Frame had no issues at all, had it looked at.
Maybe because it did not hit the grill guard square on it did not damage frame, no idea. It has 4 mounting points on the frame though.

 

[displacedtexan]

Hit a mule deer doe with the side of the Top Gun bumper I had.

Bent part of the frame horn on that side, broke part of the flange on the frame. Tweaked the other side a tiny bit.

I welded it back up.

 

[rayporter]

take your choice=total the front end or take a chance on bending the frame.

 

[Reburn]

100 lb whitetail does fold up fairly easy. I generally hit 3 or 4 a year. I honestly dont even swerve or let of the gas anymore. 2500 duramax

 

[Ucsdryder]

100 lb whitetail does fold up fairly easy. I generally hit 3 or 4 a year. I honestly dont even swerve or let of the gas anymore. 2500 duramax

Do you grind them into delicious burgers?

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Grilled venison.

 

[cuerro viejo]

Hi All,

A friend who works at a body shop says they see a lot of bent frames when there's a deer/animal hit on an aftermarket bumper.

How many bent frames have you all seen vs. bumper and frame fine when hitting an animal?

Always good to hear actual experiences.

Thx

s

F250 with Tough country apache bumper, I hit 1-3 deer a year, and a few elk cows over the years, I normally put 30-40k a year on my truck.

now ball joints, thats a different deal. I can wear out some ball joints.

Ive never seen a bent frame from a deer, did see one from a tree, but bumper kept truck from being cut in half and putting engine into the cab.

 

[cuerro viejo]

I would be careful putting one on a half ton, most 1/2 ton IFS trucks dont have enough spring weight compared to a solid front axle 3/4

they are a ball joint killer regardless

 

[strikerfired]

I’m curious, is the bent frame issue more common on 1/2 tons vs 3/4 or 1 tons with a heavier frame?

I have a factory bumper but have been looking for a heavy duty deer jerky maker for the truck lately.

 

[Silveroddo]

My buddy was at a first responder training and this got brought up in the context of newer vehicles with different crumple zone designs than previous generations. Didn’t mention model’s specifically but sounded like it was becoming more prevalent.