Front bumper head light protection: Yea or nay?

[beverly]

I'm shopping for a new bumper for my '99 4runner. I'm lucky to have quite a few options for this vehicle, but I've come to a cross roads.

How important are the head light bars on these bumpers for general off roading/animal strikes? The bumper I like (AO Plate) doesn't have these, only a radiator "stinger". I figure that is the most important area to protect, but I'm not sure if I should keep looking for something with the radiator AND head lights covered. Something like an ARB.

Do the head light bars get pushed back into the body anyways?

 

[jlandon]

I've had most animal strikes happen on one side or another instead of in the center. The last one was a good sized white tail on the passenger side. The head struck on the hoop, dented it pretty bad. Broke both antlers off and they cracked my windshield. Without the hoop and bumper I would've needed a new fender, headlight, core support, intake, maybe radiator, and a long wait for my truck.

The insurance would only replace the bumper with one that was airbag compliant, which they said was the ARB for my tacoma. They replaced the windshield, skid plate, and put a new arb on it. No body work, which meant it was under their limit to raise my insurance costs. Yay! Sold the old bumper and got a new winch.

 

[doug720]

My experience and recommendation is similar to post above. I have hit 2 deer over the years in my 60 series LandCruiser, one with stock bumper and one with a full ARB.

The first I was lucky and the damage was minimum, but since we spend a fair amount of time in area that has a large deer population I upgraded to an ARB. A couple years ago, a medium doe jumped out right in front of us while we were going about 35-40 mph. It hit the drivers front corner, and thanks to the ARB, no damage. The deer...Well...

The full bumper has also worked well in brush and other minor off-road encounters. I think they are worth every dollar.

Doug

 

[TheArkMaster]

I wish I had it and probably still will add it later. But I went with the hybrid from CBI and it is awesome. It will cost me 20 bucks if I want to add headlight protection later, but at least do the grill.

 

[Inyo_man]

I prefer a bumper with a full bar to protect the headlights (ARB-airbag compatible)
Many of the trails I drive are narrow with brush and tree limps growing into the trail.
The full hoop provides a solid surface to "push" the overgrowth out of the way instead of stabbing at the headlights and the front of your rig. Animal strike protection is clearly better with a full hoop- as stated above. If you do go this route, be sure the diameter of the tubing used is up to the task...seems there are many bumpers out there with very small diameter tubing that would likely crush or get completely torn off during an animal strike.
Good Luck.