I dont do any serious off roading just some dirt trails and muddy areas often, my question is...

When hitting bumps on the road and highway is a grill guard supposed to shake a little bit? Just wondering... never had a suv/truck before...

Also is it bad to have the vertical supports right up against the stock bumper?

Thanks

Mark

Grill guards in general are just cosmetic..so if you have any questions about it, just take it off before it does serious damage to the truck.



The real replacement bumpers are a different story...but the guards are famous for making things worse than stock...so they are worse than nothing.

If you are actually driving off road wit it, it possibly shacking too much and being knocked loose...if you are in love with it, you may be able to tighten it up and insert some rubber gasket, etc at rub points.

Good Luck!

I, too, suggest removing it. Guards are well known to cause significant damage if you are ever in a minor accident. Meaning what would have cost you a couple hundred in bumper damage now will cost you several hundred in bumper, headlight, hood, and fender damage.

Mark, a grill guard is mostly cosmetic and if you like it than keep it! I had one on mine and did a GOX with it and some other off roading that it held up too.

I am not sure which one you have but if you have / add braces to the grill of the X it will relive some of the vibration. It is connected to the frame horns. Therefore the body does move somewhat separate of the frame makeing it look less solid than it is.

I concur with the others about the "More Damage" with it... but that is why they call it an accident.

If you only do moderate of road to dirt roads you are fine. You will know when it's time to move up to an ARB or other bumper.

My .02

For ocassional off-roading, you can get get by with a grill guard / brush guard. But don't expect it help reduce damage. You are more likely to damage the guard itself. I have wheeled for several years with the factory brush guard, and the guard has been been to beat hell and has gotten loose in its mounts. However, if I wheeled without the guard, I would not have damaged the front of the truck. This is because the guards greatly cut down on your angle of approach. This means that the guard will hit obstacles that a truck without a guard would otherwise clear. Having been stuck several times because the guard would not clear obstacles that stock trucks readily cleared, I am in the process of getting rid of it and switching to steel bumper which offers both better protection and better clearance.

k_enn

Grille guards are good for dings caused by a runaway shopping cart and that's about it. Although one member from my home club found it very useful in protecting his truck from an out of control Saturn. It's your choice but I wouldn't wheel with it.

Xterraintx is so very right and I did not intend to ignore what you want....meaning, if you like it, keep it and enjoy it. Just tighten down the bolts and use some lock-tite to keep it that way.

Mine skakes a bit at highway speed. As other have mentioned check the bolts and use locktite. My brace bars didn't touch anything though, so I am not sure about that? I had a Manik guard.

As for the other posts, if you like it... keep it. I have had mine for about 5 years... it has served me well from a lot of NYC bump parkers. It does hinder more serious offroading tho. If you don't plan on going too crazy, it's fine.

After 5 years I am replacing everything with a Shrock bumper (hopefully will be here this month). I was happy with it, but finally have the funds to upgrade.

I just bought a grill guard the other day actually.. i know they are mostly just for looks.. can it really do more damage than good in an accident?.. i've heard that to be true
-Kimberly

they can and do sometimes, but it's not a 100% of the time deal.

the angle of approach decrease is bad... I once had my truck towed(not my fault) and grill guard bumper bottom was scratched up... the towing company didn't want to pay for it either... but anyways, I sold it and decided to keep my xterra and bought a TJM bumper... now it looks good and I don't worry about clearance when I go off the beaten track.

and from the pictures i have seen, if someone hits me... I don't think I will be much damage to me....

My friend's land rover defender had an arb and it was hit over the weekend from the side by a camaro... needless to say.. he came out without a scratch and camaro had body damage...

Although, not too sure if my TJM will give the same results though.. his arb looks tougher.. but hey anything in a defender looks tough!!