Help me? I'm in search of a quality grille guard (aka bull bar, push bar, etc) for my 06 4Runner. But I don't want headlight protection, plus I think those ones are gaudy. And I don't want the little Westin bull bar because that little delicate thing is only for looks and doesn't offer much real protection. Heck, I just yanked the pretty little Westin thing off. Anyone offer guidance on this. See my pics! :-)

 

Brock - in my opinion, any of those cheap grille guards\westin bull bars, push bars, etc are 90% for looks. Most of them seem to have bolts only at the bottom, which means a lot of leverage on the top. They probably would do more damage to your radiator in any kind of minor contact than they offer in terms of protection. If you like the looks and you really want one, then by all means I'm not insulting it, I kindof like the looks of some of them. I don't live in NYC or anything, so maybe there is some value to those kinds of things to keep people from backing into you while parking, but if you are talking offroad protection, I wouldn't waste the money.

 

I appreciate you voicing yourself. In all honesty, I don't know how much protection any of these things offer. They need to be mounted firmly to the frame, but the Westin bull bar I recently removed was a complete joke. I HOPE some of the better bars offer serious protection. I drive in some suburban areas and I'm mainly concerned with hitting deer and such at night. I'm hoping a good bar will save my radiator and allow me to drive away from the scene with only body damage.

There's some interesting stories about brush guards/bars on camper trucks found here:
https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/...truck-campers/

 

the ones pictures are more like damage multipliers
they wobble like crazy

real alternative would be something like an ARB bumper

 

That last one, if it's built solid and solidly attached to the frame it should deflect an animal. Or at least allow me to drive away bummed out about the need to replace the hood and a headlight.