I'm looking for an ultra-heavy duty grille guard for my '04 Chevy. The factory ones such as Westin, etc. are a joke for my needs. We have an abundance of whitetail deer in this area, and they constantly get hit on the road, so I need a bambie smasher!


I've looked at Ranchhand as well; they're also too cheesy for my likes. The Reunel's look nice, but they're really expensive.


I'd like one that isn't quite so ugly, so I'm trying to find really heavy-duty aluminum ones, but I'm not having much luck.


Any ideas?

Tough Country makes some good stuff. Located in El Campo, Texas.


www.toughcountry.com (http://www.toughcountry.com)

Tough Country makes some ok stuff... Nothing fancy though.. Ranch Hand is by far the best and then Trail Boss comes in a nice second in my book. I think you need a full front replacement for your truck and then you will be ok...

Tough Country makes some ok stuff... Nothing fancy though.. Ranch Hand is by far the best and then Trail Boss comes in a nice second in my book. I think you need a full front replacement for your truck and then you will be ok...


I disagree. Compare Tough Country to what Ranch Hand currently gets built for them, and Tough Country comes out way ahead in my book! When I was looking, I considered a good half a dozen manufactuers, including the three mentioned above.


I have both a front end replacement and a rear bumper from Tough Country (both Line-X'd, which I highly recommend, by the way) and am very happy with mine. Intimadators (sp?) as the wife refers to them in Houston traffic; people say out of the way of those bumpers (and the black smoke, of course!)


When (if) you consider Tough Country, find a dealer. The main location in El Campo (where they actually build them) will only sell for MSRP; dealers will deal http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley4.gif .

Check these guys out http://www.trex-tech.com/. Depending on which side of MT you live you might be able to drive there. Not sure on price. Fitment looks good.


Before building my own I looked and priced them all. RanchHand, and all the look alikes I could find, Tough Country, Buckstop, Runell, and Stealth. To keep my truck in the gargage I needed a short bumper so most were eliminated. If you have a preference over pipe (Tough Country) versus sheetmetal (Buckstop) that will narrow the field then look at fitment. Some of the sheetmetal ones have poor fit especially on 03 and newer GMC's because of the differences between bumpers and grill setups.


I'd recommend Tough Country for a pipe bumper and like Houston said go LineX. Money well spent especially up north. Bugs just fall off in summer. Zero maintenance.


Unless you have the ability yourself or have an in with someone don't bother making one. I like how mine turned out and did save a little money. I did most of it myself but it took more hours than I wanted to spend. Edited by: Jeli

Take a look at www.aliarc.com. I haven't bought one yet, but I probably will. They only make the full replacement bumper/grill guard and they quoted me about $900 plus freight for my 04 GMC HD. Not too bad since those factory style westins can run up to $800 for chrome or stainless.

Those are good looking bumpers! Their big rig bumpers look like the one on the truck in "Over the Top"

I have a tough country and love it. Before that I had a westin grill guard that bend up when I hit a deer going 70mph

Well I am going full ranch hand front and back. I think that should do the trick around here, especially with all the crazy drivers...

Here is another option for you ... its a heavy duty bubmper


http://www.eaglecarriage.com/bumpers.htm


or an arb bumper --not sure of the url for them... but try google


Pete Edited by: gslam88

I looked all over the ARB (www.arb.com.au) site and couldn't find a bullbumper for the GM trucks only the dodge and fords... http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley19.gif

If you want the ultimate in offroad bumpers then check out www.roadarmor.com
Mark

Give these guys a try. Great product.


http://buckstop.biz/

i second the road armor, they do not stick out as far as the cow tippers and incredibly strong. they also are not as heavy as most, mine is about 145lbs. they have many angles and facets, making the construction very strong and a built in skid plate. only thing I would do over would be the low rise grill protection for added piece of mind. one of the better looking systems IMO.

I have mine on order. Should be done in about 3 weeks. I looked at all of these. It was easy to eliminate some pretty quick. I think you need to look at them all. This will boil down to your personal preference. I think they are all good for protection. My decision to purchase Reunel was based on 4 things

1) The Reunel set up looks like a bumper made for the truck and does not look like a lot of them that appear HUNG off the front of the truck.I did not want some awful looking bumper hanging off the front of the truck.

2) Reunel paint matches the bumper to your truck which adds a bit of customization and really ties the truck and bumper together. The others have either powder coated Gray or Semi Gloss black

3) You get to pick the Winch you want installed and they build that into the bumper.

4) Reunel installs the bumper for free. This is significant as trying to install a 200 lb bumper is not something you do on your back. Reunel builds and installs all the reinforcements to the frame to increase rigidty. it is fabricated out of 3/16 steel plate and solid bar stock.

Here is a Pichttp://www.reunel.com/images/10%20C%203.jpg

It looks great, but if they are located in CA, it will be hard to get that installation included for many of us. Are there other locations? How much?

A few more things to consideras I did a ton of leg work on these, Some want a bumper with light guards, some want a front end replacement. They are very different and the prices reflect that.

Also some have mentioned they do not want a bumper that sticks out to far. The design of the frontend replacements are winch ready and are fabricated with this in mind. They have to space it far enough out to accommodate the winch. The bumpers with light guards can be fabricated much closer in, however at some point you may want to add a winch, you are SOL which is why most do not even offer a winchless design. I guess you could have a receiver added in the front and attach a winch to that but I would not advise it. The Winch hanging off the front is a huge liability plus quite vunerable to theft. Most of the properly rated winches for our trucks are $1K


Srode,
I am not sure. I know alot of these fabricators are geographically specific. I believe most who purchase will do it close to home. There will be a few that will order. I do know they ship them.

The running price on these are about $1500-$2000, Mine was $2K because of a few additional options I wanted outside of what they normally build. Call and speak with Diane, She is the owner with her son

www.reunel.com (http://www.reunel.com)

I plan on a warn heavy duty bumper for my truck

When I'm ready I'm calling Roadarmor.

I've seen the Warn HD bumper. Nice, but these cost $1500ish. See link below:

http://www.warn.com/truck/mounting-systems/hd_bumper_chevy.shtml

Modified,
That a good price at $1500. When I looked at couple of places when comparing it was over $2K then of course the shipping cost on weight of 200 lbs

http://www.4buy4.com/

They have the WARN bumper for $1763.98 for the black color with free shipping. The only problem it that the distributor that offers the free freight doesn't have any in stock and I won't be getting mine until the end of January. They had another option if I wanted it now but I'd have to pay $90.00 shipping. For $90 I can wait.

lakingslayer,
Check that price again.

Did a Yahoo search, and came up with $1479.98 and free shipping at:
http://www.4buy4.com/heavy_duty_bumpers.htm

Never ordered from them, so I only know what's here.

Nice. Although some would argue that it is insane to spend that kind of money on a bumper/front replacement it is $$$ well spent when you want a winch and are in areas where wildlife is abundant. I require it for both plus the protection from the idiotic drivers here during commuter traffic....

Still prefer the Reunel and its design, but the Warn definitely offers an excellent alternative.:ro)

Rated for their 16,500lb winch as well... I could winch up a cliff on that.

Unless you have the ability yourself or have an in with someone don't bother making one. I like how mine turned out and did save a little money. I did most of it myself but it took more hours than I wanted to spend. Edited by: Jeli

I feel your pain there! ):h I don't care in anyone else likes mine, but I do, and it does its job quite well! :ro)

Another manufacturer is www.southwestfabricators.com out of Junction, TX.