I’m thinking about letting my 97 runner go miles are getting up there and I'm not much of a hand with a wrench.

I have a 2000 I’m looking at. But if I do that I want a grill guard on it. Anyone have any recommendations or ones you’d suggest staying away from?

Also, pros or cons to the 2000 gen 3 compared to my 97?

 

There's a couple of people up in my end of the world using the Go Rhino gaurd and it looks pretty spiffy. Just stay the hell away from WAAG; had one on my 98 tacoma until i tagged a deer at about 45-50 and it (the gaurd) gave in taking out the grille, both headlights, the hood, both corner markers and it tore the hell out of the bumper. Even when it was new, it seemed really flimsy.

 

dont get one they do more harm than good

 

True that! Look at what happened to my truck! Sorry no picture, wasn't thinking of taking a picture before I fixed it. Just go for gold and pick up an ARB

 

<3 my ARB.

 

I realize grill guards aren't too popular around here, but the ARB ain't gonna happen, not in this economy.

I've had guards on the last two Runner's I've owned. I'm not sure what the brand of the one on my 98 was, I trashed it when I hit a Ram....as in Dodge Ram. I couldn't tell that the guard made things worse, in fact I'm sure it used up some of the impact energy, it didn't really matter because the T4R was a total. (but so was the dodge, it screwed up the frame on it)

Anyway the one on my 97 has saved me at least one if not two grills from hitting big birds...pheasants. Plus I need someplace to mount my lights. So I'm thinking I need to either to this or find some kind of a light bar.

I'll look at the Go Rhino and I suppose I could get someone local to make one but I'd bet that would be a lot more expensive.

Thanks for all your suggestions, feel free to offer others.

 

They are are called brush gaurds for a reason, they work on brush. They are not made to protect for heavy impacts. And Fyi, most wreckers/ junk yards call them damage multipliers