Brush guard saved my bacon

[oftpiste]

I know there's a lot of disdain for brush guards around, but my '03 came with it and while I took off the taillight guards I left the front one on to decide if I liked it or not.

I was driving on the freeway the other day with a client in the car when some piece of debris came flying out of a pickup ahead of me. I still don't know what it was, but from the sound of impact it seemed like a piece of very heavy rubber, about two feet long and three inches or so square.

It was bouncing and tomahawking off the pavement when it came toward us and I was pretty sure it was going right through the windshield, but one end of it hit the top bar of the brush guard which sent it spinning up over the top of the car. Top bar was bent and it left a small but decent divot in the hood from the guard.

I'm pretty sure that if the guard hadn't had that little bit of extra height above the line of the hood the debris would have smashed straight into the windshield. Hard to say what would have happened then, but it wouldn't have been good. Thinking I might keep (replace) it, though I realize it's unlikely anything like this will ever happen again.

 

[phsycle]

Yep, fairly small chance of that happening again. Looks like it helped you out in your particular situation, but looking at the overall net gain of a brush guard, there are more negatives than benefits; hence, the disdain.

I actually had a big chunk of semi tire hit my windshield at 75mph, too. Left a big black mark on the windshield. Thought it was coming through, but luckily bounced right off. Scary moment. Stupid retreads.

 

[TXLX100]

That always worried me when I rode motorcycles a lot. Only ever had small rocks and a bunch of grasshoppers hit me though. Windshields are pretty durable, I saw a car that hit a turkey at a high rate of speed, didn't go through the windshield, but caved it in and shattered the inner piece of glass as well.

 

[e9999]

I know there's a lot of disdain for brush guards around, but my '03 came with it and while I took off the taillight guards I left the front one on to decide if I liked it or not.

I was driving on the freeway the other day with a client in the car when some piece of debris came flying out of a pickup ahead of me. I still don't know what it was, but from the sound of impact it seemed like a piece of very heavy rubber, about two feet long and three inches or so square.

It was bouncing and tomahawking off the pavement when it came toward us and I was pretty sure it was going right through the windshield, but one end of it hit the top bar of the brush guard which sent it spinning up over the top of the car. Top bar was bent and it left a small but decent divot in the hood from the guard.

I'm pretty sure that if the guard hadn't had that little bit of extra height above the line of the hood the debris would have smashed straight into the windshield. Hard to say what would have happened then, but it wouldn't have been good. Thinking I might keep (replace) it, though I realize it's unlikely anything like this will ever happen again.

glad it helped you in this situation. Another way to look at it, though, is that if you had had a sturdy front bumper / bar, it would likely not have bent and there would not be a divot in your hood. To each their own, of course...

 

[oftpiste]

^^ true enough, though the aftermarket bumpers I've seen don't have height above the front of the hood (do they?) and that's what kept the thingy from bashing into my windshield. Im not necessarily a brush guard fanboi, but was glad to have it that day.

 

[oftpiste]

fwiw it's worth it's off now. had to remove to be able to open the hood!

 

[yotasavg]

I had somewhat of the same situation happen in my old 4runner, except that debris was a planted tree -_- in fact, there was an orchard of those trees and I still couldn't avoid it lol. I would have totalled the truck were it not for a brushguard which left a dent in my hood. Glad you're ok!