Forgot to mention my run in with bambi?

[JimT]

Hmm, thought I wrote about this, but guess I never hit the post button.

Well, a month or so back we had snow and snow squalls come through eastern PA. I was being loaded about 15-20 miles north of that big pile-up on I-81. However later that day, or maybe later that week (I don't remember at this point), I was running east on I-84 in PA around mile 15. Heavy snow flakes, reduced visibility, but warm road surface with good traction. I pass a slower truck climbing the hill and start moving back to the right lane when I see a deer shaped shadow ahead in the left lane. 2 in fact. No problem, I slow down a little and stay right while they walk left when BAM, a third bambi (not his mother) decides to leisurely stroll out in front of me with no more than a second before impact, at about 50-55mph.

How do I know it was bambi and not the mother or father? Because it ONLY dented my front grill, cracking the chromed plastic trim, but the intercooler was not touched. Cracked my stock plastic bumper right in the center and blew out the plastic mounting bracket on the passenger side. Hood had only minor damage hidden underneath the front grill and passenger headlight assembly suffered only a small crack in the clear plastic that I didn't even notice for a few days. Everything else was fine.

Ok, so repair time. Needed a new bumper and a new grill/trim assembly. For the latter there was no options expect OEM, to the tune of nearly $2,000. Grr, fine, could have been worse, right?

Bumper... OMG, the dealer wanted another $2,000 for that replacement plastic decoration! This time the aftermarket came through. Ended up ordering a chrome metal bumper, shipped to my house, for half that price. Never would have considered buying a chrome bumper, let alone my surprise that it would be the cheaper option! Only downside, due to everyone's favorite viral scapegoat, there's a 22 week lead time on the bumper. So, if I'm lucky my new bumper should be here around the end of September.

Even the grill assembly took a couple weeks to get here. In the mean time I patched things up on the grill and fabbed up a temporary bracket for the bumper with what I had on hand. Nothing fancy, but good enough that it's hard to tell anything even happened until your within about 20-30 feet.

I did consider replacing the bumper with some grill guard. I think Herd makes an actual bumper replacement, but between the higher cost, added weight and extra steps needed to open and close the hood and the fact that I rarely have encounters with animals, especially anything larger than a deer, I opted not to go that route.

pictures coming...

[JimT]

            

[JimT]

Before and after my zip tie patch job on the grill:

      

What you can't see in any of the pictures is that about half of the plastic mounting tabs on the grill/trim had broken, not just on the bottom, but all along the top as well. I was also able to bend the metal mesh back into a relatively flat state without actually removing the grill. New grill is sitting in my garage waiting for some free time, though with the patch job holding up so well it's not really top priority right now.

[Rawze]

I likely would have just disassembled it and repaired it without even considering replacements. That is what I love about plastic and fiber-glass bumpers and parts. They can easily be repaired or plastic-welded, painted, and you go again. That is all I ever do any ways, and a person would be hard pressed to spot the repairs when they are done right.


I guess the good news is that statistically, your not due for another deer strike, if you drive all of in the 48-states regularly .. for another 8 years. About half that amount of time if you only drive the northern states.

[JimT]

Honestly I ordered the parts before I actually did the patch job. I drove another 3 days after the incident before patching things up. The bumper is shot. It's pretty much broken in half and only still connected be a couple inches in the middle. Luckily it cracked where it did so that there are 2 mounting points on either side of the crack. The passenger side is missing an entire 7x12 inch section of mounting bracket and I've never even attempted plastic welding or repair so I'd probably just make it worse by trying.

As for the grill, if there were cheaper options I would have jumped on them. I don't need my truck to look like a million bucks, but I hate driving around looking like a scrap yard candidate. I even thought about trying to fab my own replacement for the plastic chrome trim from polished aluminum or stainless steel or something but the curves are beyond my abilities and the material costs and tool investments just weren't worth it, in this case.

And statistically that sounds about right. In 24 years of driving I've had 3 run-ins with deer, 1 in a car and 2 in trucks. This was the only one that resulted in damage. Plenty of other close calls, but even those who are vigilant can still be blind sided. Although, probably the most interesting animal strike I've had was when an owl flew into my windshield.

[SquareOne]

Not at all relative to your post, but have to say Jim T.... I just cant read your sig line without being fully immersed into that line lol - so killer!

[Volvo8873]

I run a lite-gard "deer slayer" as we call them on my truck. They are a MUST in the upper midwest where I run! Ask me why?! lol

https://www.litegardllc.com


I run the LGVVN-2XT on my truck. The same ones are used on our company trucks and when I worked for the company I hit a deer with the cruise on 67 mph (speed limited) and it only bent the middle bar in a bit. I was sold on these when I got into my own truck. They are made with very good metal and are tough as nails! They are also very easy to take off as they mount in with pins where the tow bars go, at least on the Volvos they do.

I cringe a little bit watching other O/O fly down the freeway at 75+ without one!

[Nilao]

I hit a mule deer at 55 in my old prostar. Smashed the grill, cracked the hood, the hood support bar put indentations in the radiator and trans cooler but no leaks. I drove it from UT to CA then to FL to get repaired.

The truckwash guys were no fan of me when I rolled in to get it washed the next morning. I had poop on the roof and innards in the undercarriage.