cheap deer plow

I cant afford $1000 year comp/collision insurance on my near-perfect

92 4runner. My poor old 86 hit 2 deer and suffered terribly. There are way too many deer where I live, they are a constant hazard everywhere. I need to protect my front end, but dont have $500-1000 to spend on pricey new tube bumbers and brush guards. I've looked for used, but none of my local yards have any. I dont weld either, but I may be able to find someone who can. Anyone have ideas for deer-proofing my 4runner without TOO much expense, and without making it TOO ugly? Places for used ones, DIY plans? I dont mind the look of factory-mades, but I'm afraid some DIY job might be hideous.
Reply to
VisionR42
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Look for the Australia based companies like Old Man Emu - they have to deal with running into Kangaroos down there, which are about the size of a Moose, not a Deer - and they are usually a long way out in the middle of Nowhere, so they have to be able to drive the car home.

They make some seriously stout Bull Bars that don't look too bad.

You could buy a grille guard factory made (which solves the bracketry and baseplate profile problems nicely) and modify it to meet your needs and tastes - any good welder that has a mandrel power bender for tubing can modify or add onto it and make it look factory, it just takes a little care and skill in assembly.

You could even go for the Full Armor or "Land Rover" look, and run reinforcing rails over the front fenders and back to the windshield, with a vertical bar tying the grille guard to the rock sliders and roof rack, but that starts getting involved. Kind of like building a roll cage on the outside of the car...

(But it starts looking like "Mad Max" fast. That, and the wind resistance & turbulence from hanging all that crap on the car will kill the fuel mileage.)

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

Reply to
type name here

Bruce L. Bergman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

While OME and ARB bullbars and fender returns and sliders are nice they are expensive. Best bang for the buck (no pun intended)is a smittybuilt dualtube with grillguard. I had one of these on my 85 and it survived everything from deer, wildboar, to a small mazda that blew through an intersection with nto more than a few paint scratches.

Should be able to be had for around $200.00 some of the the copies are just as good so look around.

Reply to
Steel Pig

I can find tube bumpers for about 200, but not with grill guard. or did you mean 200 each? I did some searching online and saw a Smittybuilt Outland front guard which looked pretty good, though its $400.

Reply to
VisionR42

Reply to
benzette

You should see the *herds* in west-central Texas. They act like they own the roads.......

Reply to
type name here

survival of the fittest/smartest. If the deer can't use the crosswalks or wait for the light to change, they'll just have to face the consequences.

Reply to
Pookerz

benzette wrote in news:9p3dd.389978$mD.99845 @attbi_s02:

Oh GMAB. They're "Jersey Rats" out here. I see at least one fresh-killed one per day.

Reply to
Rich

Oh my, they're letting people out of the asylums^w "Happy Hospital" on three-day passes again... ;-P I'll agree with you on one fact, that the term "Deer Plow" does lack tact, but it's accurate.

Deer are dumb. They can't figure out to not jump out in front of cars to cross the road, and if they jump in front of your car you often have no choice but to hit them.

Or they just stand there as you come around the bend, and think you won't see them and go on past if they stand perfectly shock still - that's how they came up with the term "Deer In The Headlights"...

Even if you were going relatively slow, you can't miss them all - and if you went really slow in an attempt to never hit any wildlife that tries a Kamikaze dash, you'd never get anywhere. Ergo, you either install a hefty grill guard to try and minimize the damage, or plan on getting your car totaled by a deer

Pop the airbags while hitting the deer, and suddenly fixing your car gets REALLY expensive. If the car is more than 5 years old, it's often cheaper to scrap it than to fix it - and you (or the insurance company) are suddenly out a LOT of money. The insurance companies know this, and that's why the premium rates have kept going up up up every year...

Of course, I could run a quick hypocrisy check ("Murderer? Have any leather shoes in your closet, Missy?") but that wouldn't be cool. ;-)

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

How fast should I be driving when a deer runs across 10 feet in front of me at night? Huh, you ACCUSERER! :)

Reply to
VisionR42

" you need to SLOW DOWN and WAKE UP you MURDERER !!!!"

OMG, what a fruitcake....

Reply to
Brian

Old Man Emu doesn't make 'bull bars'. ARB does tho. If i were you i'd also look at downey. Also Kangaroos are smaller than deer, I guess this guy has only ever seen one on tv.

Reply to
Anders

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