Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Value of Cow Catcher Bumpers

Driving home this weekend we had a head on encounter with an oncoming van. I was on the brakes and likely near stopped, but the other driver gave no indication of ever seeing us in a 25 mph zone. For 13 years I've complained about packing this 500 lb bumper around and never hitting anything. We drove off with no damage to our grill, radiator, or oil coolers. Hood was up solely to look for possible damage. Needless to say the van will likely never move again.



Insurance is a pain in the rear, but I'm pretty sure we'll be getting a new bumper. Well worth the cost.

Is that a buckstop bumper? Everybody ok?

Mike Tyson meet pee wee Herman

Glad you're ok

huntsonora;

We're fine and were essentially untouched by the airbags. Other driver was packed off by EMT's complaining of pain in her left leg/ankle. She was not too coherent, and we have no idea whether she was texting, just inattentive, or had some medical issue. One of Cookie's camera's took a hit when launched from the seat, and a Coleman stove got crushed a bit when a cooler full of ice slide forward in the bed. Settling issues though, delayed our travels by about 5 hours. We've not yet reached the stage where one can snap a pic, send it to Flo, and be done with things.

SIL put one on his new Ram W3500 when he got it. We wiped out a deer North of Riggins Id last fall. Not a scratch on the truck. The tow to bring the truck home from over a 100 miles away would have been much more than the cost of the bumper.

Glad every one's OK and I hope it didn't put to big of a damper on your weekend.

Money well spent. Glad you're safe.

angle that puppy a little and when you do hit a deer or elk it will toss the critter into the bed of the truck!

A Dodge 3500 rear ended my Tacoma TRD a few summers ago. My rear bumper was slightly bent. The 3500 was pouring fluid all over the street and need a new front bumper and radiatior.

I have had the cow catchers on my last two 3/4 ton trucks.Would not be without one.Glad it turned out OK for you.

those bumpers may work but i wouldn't put one of those stupid looking things on anything.

the libtards will say it wasn't a fair fight.

Glad you and Cookie are okay. Hopefully all will be taken care of on the insurance front.

Prob. some bimbo,bubble head, on her stupid Fuggin cell phone!!!!??

Truckers say, if you haul in the west, you can pay for the deer, or elk damage, then but the guard, or buy first.

Saved you lots of bodywork, but you may want to have a good shop inspect the frame and back thru the rest of the truck. All that energy had to go somewhere when you hit. It could have rippled back thru the frame and cracked or crumpled something.

They work well for when BLM protestors block the highway too!

Yup, got a Top Gun setup just like that on my 1-ton with a big Warn winch hiding inside, hit a buck deer one rainy night at 70 mph, no damage at all, spun him around and under the rear duals, that buck would have exploded the plastic fronts on all brands of newer pickups.

Question?? Do they keep the air bags from going off? let laone the coolers red. misc have heard it expensive to fix one that has been (bagged) anyone know for sure???

That's a great pic for comparison. Glad you weren't injured..

Shop that installed my setup said the airbag sensors are still intact and will work the same as with the factory bumper.

Had mine installed specifically for hogs on the road! Took out 4 one night on way home in old truck. Glad they were smaller. 15-20 pounders. Hit em all at once!! Just barely missed momma. And she was a bigun!

What's the approximate cost on one of these? I hit a deer last winter and it cost me over a grand. Likely one of these would have prevented all damage.

mine was $900 last year.



The deer hit caused $3800 in damage..... and it was still driveable.

Mine is a Ranch Hand brand. If I remember it was a tad over $500. I think. So far only thing I've caught in it is the occasional bird. 😁

Is yours the guard that bolts to the factory bumper?

Careful - you're likely to get ranked up there with those terrible wind turbines.

Airbags are initiated by G-force. If you hit something solid enough, the g-force will set them off. No bumper will prevent that.

Yes, airbags are pretty expensive to have fixed in a certified shop. Alternately àll the parts required are available on CL or oher online sources for reletively low cost. I have seen autos, which had been totaled in a frront end collision, fully restored in a handyman's garage. No insurance claim leaves you with a clean title. No mechanic's bill leaves you with a clean carfax.

Scottish, are we?

I see what you did.

Son has cow catchers on both his 2500 and Taco.
he lives deep in the mountains along National Forrest and rolls out to work at 3:30 most mornings.
Averages about 1 deer month. 3 years now and no damage to either truck.

Ha, only a couple percent scottish heritage. 100% typing on a phone.

Glad you guys are OK. I'm a big fan of them myself.

Only problem with that is the airbag deployment is recorded in the on board computer.

I recall reading here that they cause greater damage than being without...

Don,

Mine misses the front bumber and bolts directly to the frame. But I will agree is not the heaviests of duty.

I tapped a buck with the 2009 Toyota going just a few mph. It broke the headlight housing and even after repair the light is not in alignment. Making another appointment and dropping it off at the shop is a pita. Thinking I should just replace them both with aftermarket then buy the bumper.

Well played..... 😎

LOL!

More pearls of wisdom. You can find them daily here.

I've wiped out a couple of deer with what I have on the front of the 4 Runner...

its just a basic Smitty Built that is nearly 30 years old now..

but in front of it is mounted a 31 x 10.50 tire...

I've had several bucks that have ran out in front of the truck on rural roads when I was doing between 55 and 70.

with zero time to hit the brakes, I just lined them up so the impact hit the spare tire.

That never damaged the 4 Runner.

Glad you and the wife are okay, and that your Truck is looking like its fine.

Also happy to see the bimbo in the Mini Van, screwed it up for good...

The way they drive and text around here, I am surprised we don't see a lot more of those head on collisions.

Get on Youtube. Aligning headlights is simple.Might take a time or two, but easy to do.

Probably if the repair had been done right, but it wasn't. Toyota sells plastic bracket repair pieces but I should have just gotten aftermarket headlights and been done with it.

It's a better deer catcher than a cow catcher. Cow will TKO your truck

You should also remove your seat belts.

Thanks guys for the info wasn't sure what set a b off i.e. speed ,damage, impact or what! 1999 Ram 2500 cummins know there is a lot of coolers misc. under there prob. for sure a good investment in a bumper!!!

Indeed.

If one is so inclined, replacement computers are available as well.

The only problem with those bumpers is that the stupid deer seem to run into the SIDE of my truck, just to piss me off. Had five of them run into the passenger side, while driving 25 through a little town in Oregon last Fall. Dents in every panel but one. There ought to be a law that lets you shoot them.......

Steel and weight pay off every time.

When my kids started driving they were only allowed to buy cars that had full frames, paid off twice for them.

Is that truck assembled with a perimeter frame rather than unibody? I ask because, if unibody, I would not have expected the front to remain intact.

My Lexus 450 (rebadged Land Cruiser) has perimeter frame plus the thickest sheet metal I've experienced on a vehicle not intended to wear .50-caliber machine guns. It has demonstrated repetitively that benefit.

Are you asking if the vehicle has a chassis rather than being of monocoque construction?


And here lexus is a car not a Landcruiser.

If you don't have time to reflexively hit the brakes, how do you purposely aim a spare tire at a running deer?

I've read that in a full speed collision frame mounted bars disable or somewhat bypass the engineered energy absorbing crumple zones. Article said that's what can increase injuries. with them.
FWIW.

no link to the article - some time ago.

That bumper is a Proline model made about 150 miles away and presently run about $1600.. The original bumper was removed and replaced with the one pictured which is bolted to the frame. A bolted on portion of the frame's front cross member took a slight ding and will cost $238 to replace. The bumper again is $1600. The airbags, their control systems, and seatbelt systems are going to add about another $4000.

One of Cookie's cameras brought the farm as it was sitting between us and flew forward on impact. Fortunately the camera body is cheap. The lens it was wearing though is about 2 grand and it's still working fine.

Had we not had that bumper, I suspect the original bumper, grill, hood, and maybe both fenders would have been buckled. The radiator, oil, and air conditioning cooling units would be toast, and the damage would be enough to total the rig.

Still glad it was wearing a cow catcher.

Impatiently waiting for the perp's insurance company to get back to us. Really want that thing back on the road.

Have a good one,

Glad that you and your Missus rode that one out.

GTC

Not sure about other areas, but in most energy/oilfield parts of the country they are very popular with service companies (for good reason). As such, they can often be found on the used market for ~$500-$700 for a full bumper replacement. It pays to watch Craigslist, classified papers, and call truck outfitting companies (they often remove the old ones and sell them cheap). Mine was built by a welding shop in Colorado and is more stout than most of the production units I've seen.

If you run into someone you will fug them up good, I wouldn't want to hit them and not damage the cshit out of them!!

"The Warden" s truck wears a Ranch Hand grille guard - I've seen her come home with BS down the guard. and dirtballs in the towhooks! Decided it was none of my business!
Nothing seemed crippled the next day - so (being of sound mind - (mas o menos) I never asked!

I think that there are shock absorbers on the bumper that allow it to give somewhat and thereby spread the shock of the collision over time. These shock absorbers are destroyed by the collision and need to be replaced.

I never knew half-inch bolts were shock absorbers.....

last one my buddy and I built was welded to the frame.

...just the Grade 1 half-inch bolts.

The old chrome ones that affix to the bumper were notorious for causing damage. They were flimsy and you were guaranteed to lose a hood.


The heavy ones, like the Ranch Hand I have bolted to the frame of my feed pickup are much better. I went on a deer killing rampage one night and got three, at high speed. Just a few grease spots on the bumper.

There used to be an excellent front bumper called Del Rio Bumper made down here. They had a guarantee that if you hit a deer and damaged the bumper, they would replace it free. Saw many guys I know hit deer, but no replacements needed.

I have a chrome guard on my feed truck - we took it off a truck Dad was trading off, so I adapted it to my (slightly) newer model.
Surprised me a lot - how heavy it was. I've never bent it, and don't expect to. I believe it's comparable to the Ranch Hand on "The Warden" s truck.

How is it affixed?

I was thinking about the old clamp on style.

I have welded up a couple of bumpers for my Toyota pickups over the years. Two pieces of two inch schedule 40 pipe across the truck and 3/8" by 3" flatbar forward to the frame. Then bolted to the frame with 1/2" grade 8 bolts, just like a receiver hitch, which was incorporated into the bumper.

Mine did not offer the all around protection of the Ranch hand front. But when my little brother spun out on the ice and hit a big tree with the butt of his 92 Toyota, all he got out of the deal was a bit of a bend in the pipe bumper. He found another big tree, tied a chain to it and the end of the bumper, then whacked it hard enough to straighten the bumper back out. I had to look pretty close to tell it had been hit. It saved him the cost of a bed, tailgate, and rear lights.

He pulled it off and saved it when he sold the pickup, I put it on an 82 Toy 4X4 a few years later.

The Proline pictured is bolted to the frame same as the original bumper. When we first purchased the Ford, the amount of plastic in the grill that would provide minimal protections to the radiator, coupled with oil and air conditioning coolers just behind the original bumper convinced use we needed something substantial. Lots of bouncing around in sagebrush country and timber and the very real potential to take out mule deer and elk were also convincing arguments. There are no shock absorbers built into our system, but I think I've seen some such structures in the past.

If we ever purchase another truck, it will for sure be similarly equipped. I have seen a great number of chrome pipe additions to bumpers that look cool, but really provide no structural protection at all.

FWIW I'd do some research in Australia and talk to some Aussies about their roo bars. One of the surprising things to me when I cruised around Australia several years ago was that virtually every vehicle outside of major cities had a massive steel guard on the front that extended out past the sides. Also, in some places there was a dead kangaroo every 100 yards along the highways, big ones that looked about the size of mule deer does. Those people know a lot about bumper guards and theirs are bigger, wider and more massive than any I've seen in North America.

Okanagan:

Totally agree. Spent several months there many years back and was amazed at the "roo guards" one saw on even the smallest of rigs. Given an large roo can be 5 ft tall and weigh 200 lbs, I'd not want one coming through the windshield of an English Ford.

Looking at repair costs here today, and the seatbelt and airbag repairs will be about 3 times the cost of the bumper.

The one thing that drives me crazy with the aftermarket bumpers is the fact that they will bottom out depending on the dip.

Lose traction and momentum. Get stuck way easier...



But they sure are nice for (inadvertently)hitting things....grin