My dad just came up the 290 cloverleaf in Brenham around noontime today in his 08 F-250 with his ranch hand brush guard(not a bumper replacement). It had just rained a little, and he started to slide, hit the guardrail... tore up 30 feet of guardrail with his brush guard sliding at a 45 to the guard rail, spun around and ended up stopping in the opposite direction he was heading. I found some paint missing on the brush guard and had to look closely to find a couple of little bends in it. Other than that, looks like new.

Dayum! Impressive...glad he's ok.

One of the reasons I bought one!

Glad he was okay...

The down side is that for folks who aren't out on the ranch knocking down mesquite and pushing cattle around, they can be devastating to other vehicles in collisions.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/children/pingel.asp

They can also disable your airbag actuators. Safest way is to have them installed by a dealer.

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Safest way is to have them installed by a dealer

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really, drill two holes through the bumper and snug them all to the frame...

unless you don't even get a functional grill guard...then you just kind of snap it in place and screw it down...but don't expect a decorative one to take any damage...

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The down side is...

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it happens.

[This message has been edited by wunderbrad01 (edited 1/21/2008 3:47p).]

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Safest way is to have them installed by a dealer.

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I installed mine with a buddy in about 20 mins in my garage...there is nothing you can do about the airbag sensors, unless you mount them on the Ranchhand...which is braindonor-like.

As far as people getting hit or killed by them, I sure that the sure mass of my F250 does the brunt of the damage...not just the bumper.

Factory bumpers, grills and fenders are designed to crush and collapse in a collision, lowering the injury to the people you hit and to you. A brush guard totally defeats that purpose.

I have no problem with folks actually in the brush or working cattle having them. But if you just like the look, and don't have a need, it is irresponsible to not consider other motorists.

It's the old argument about "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose starts". You can put any fool thing you want on your vehicle as long as it does not compromise the safety of others.

And I have no problem with marginally safe items on vehicles if they are needed. I've got half the pickups in my county running around with bale spikes on the back. That doesn't strike me as particularly safe, but they are there for work, not looks.

Unless the latest fad I'm not aware of is bale spikes to make one look like a cowboy when you're really not.

And off on a tangent: I thought the air bag actuators were set off by inertia, not actual collapse of the bumper.

Same thing with SUVs being "safe." Downward spiral.

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I have no problem with folks actually in the brush or working cattle having them. But if you just like the look, and don't have a need, it is irresponsible to not consider other motorists.

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When my truck was rear-ended, the other person's insurance company wrote me a check. Rather than signing that over to the Ford dealership for a replacement, I cashed it and took it to the local truck parts store for a solid steel tube bumper (Ranch Hand knockoff).

Three months later when the uninsured illegal rear ended me in his Honda Civic then proceeded to run away from the scene of the accident with his hood bent out of shape and bumper falling off, it sure was nice to be able to go home and grab the can of Krylon flat black to fix my damage.

Other people aren't going to drive or outfit their vehicles with my safety in mind. Why should I put more value on their safety and reliability of their vehicle over that of my own family and possessions?

So given the choice over the factory plastic or aftermarket steel, it's an easy choice for me.

Canyon I'm not really sure how they are set off...sometimes you see some pretty knarly wrecks where the airbags did not deploy.

But being so far back on the frame horns like mine are, I kinda think it's crush that sets them off.

some are a combination of crush and inertia...

only if both are present will they deploy...

this prevents deployment if there is a stopping jerk, like something that would happen when taking the slack out of a chain (ie. pulling something out of the mud). At the same time, if you hit something at a low speed and crush is present, but the sudden stop is not enough for the inertia to cause the weights to puncture the gas canisters, there is no deployment.

cliffs notes: crush arms some systems, inertia activates them.

You can either be your own self professed engineer regarding airbags, or research it on your own. The grill guards OEMs will only state that airbags "should" still work, and the car/truck OEMs all say don't do it. Pick your poison.

I could see how a front replacement could reak havoc with the sensors...would take QUITE a bit to create the crushing effect.

There's a winner and a loser in every fight, and while I'd like to avoid the fight as much as the next guy, I'd rather be the winner than the loser.

I'm not sure I can put it any plainer than that.

I'm no airbag genius, but I would have to say a brush guard doesn't decrease airbag deployment by much.

Front impact: You hit a pole or a block of concrete, your face is about to hit the steering wheel, airbag deploys saving you from injury. The airbags shoud deploy the same whether the vehicle has a lot of or little crush as your injury has nothing to do with the damages done to the vehicle and everything to do with impact. Of course, if you drive a rear or mid engine vehicle with a flat front, you're gonna die anyways, so airbags are moot.

The wild card is if you're parked against a bulldozer and a semi truck hits you from behind. Airbags should deploy due to crush as there isn't much actual impact.

Side impact: Someone runs through a stop sign, you get hit from the side, the door's going to hit your head and make you into a vegetable: You'll spend the next 15 years staring at a blank wall, at which time they take away your feed tube because you have the mental capacity of a slug, airbag deploys and you're okay. This crash is mostly due to the amount of damage your vehicle endures. But your brush guard made no effect. Were you to have a Ranch Hand door guard, chances are low that your door would have come at you like that however and you would have been that much safer, even though door guards are nonexistent to my knowledge.

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I have no problem with folks actually in the brush or working cattle having them. But if you just like the look, and don't have a need, it is irresponsible to not consider other motorists.

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You shouldn't pick on concrete cowboys. It's not their fault.

Or as I like to say..."All hat, no cattle"

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You shouldn't pick on concrete cowboys. It's not their fault.

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The whole "modification for looks rather than purpose" could be a thread into itself.

"Wagon wheel" 22 inch rims on cruisers with 8" disc brakes. Originally, big wheels/thin tires were put on performance cars to accommodate big disc brakes and the thin tires to handle lateral Gs.

Monster truck wheels on pickups that never see a dirt road, much less a bog.

Wings & ground effects on cars that never break 70mph.

etc.

etc.

Wings & ground effects on cars that never break 70mph.
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I live that one, especially on illegal alien 1990's Honda Civics with Krylon paint jobs.

I hit a 30-40 ft pine tree head on with my Ranch Hand brush guard. I came around a corner too fast, wet road, jumped the curb, right into the tree. I was probably going 25-30mph. It crumpled the mounting bracket on one side of the brush guard. No damage happened to my F150. I went back to where I had the brush guard installed. They replaced the mounting bracket and it is as good as new. There is a slight bend to the lower bar on the front of the brush guard, but not noticeable. The tree did not come out looking as good.

Got into a wreck with my half ton Sierra with a brush guard on it. T-boned a lady at 50. My air bag didn't go off, probably because of the brush guard. But my truck was just barely totaled. So, it might have made it cause less damage, but the air bag didn't go off when it probably should have.