Steel bumpers

[JAKRANCH]

Ok so I am unimpressed with my 85s factory bumper. In looks it makes my truck look like it has a weak chin. On practicality I live on a ranch chances of my front end impacting a cow at some point in its life is a 100% due to them not moving quick enough out od the way. I will be building a steel bumper at some point but my question is has anyone any information on what a steel bumper will do in a high speed crash? People claim the truck may crumple behind the bumper but I'm not sure. Any stories or theories?

 

[79jasper]

Your frame will get tweaked, but time. So instead of bumper bender being a fixable repair, to a totaled vehicle.

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[Cubey]

My moms 1980 Ford LTD got rear ended at pretty high speed by a 1990ish Chevy Blazer.

Her car had steel bumpers. The Blazer didn’t.

The Blazer was completely totaled. It looked like they ran it into a brick wall.

The LTD had a slightly pushed down bumper, a dented truck, a broken tail light or two and a couple letters missing from “Ford”.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Now that would have been cool if the r and the d would have fallen off. That way it would have been telling the Chevy to FO!

 

[Macrobb]

If you are worried about a tweaked frame, it might be worth adding some cross-bracing, so it can handle a good collision without twisting.

 

[JAKRANCH]

That is a great idea, are there specific spots that are more vulnerable to tweaking?

 

[mblaney]

I suggest that the biggest danger to tweaking (other than the big-butt thing) is having the bumper too stiff on the outsides. My bumper is C channel (actually light stair stringer) - lots of beef in the center but I purposely left the outsides "weak". A prius would not bend it but if i slam a pole it will collapse. I have a bunch of pics posted in a similar topic somewhere here...

You probably want a bush bar also if you are going to be herding cows

 

[JAKRANCH]

Heck ya on the brush bar!