Mark W
Yep, it's true. I just don't care that much.
This is kinda long. If you know me, that will not surprise you. 
This makes the second Moose that has tried to occupy the same space as one of my Cruisers on a dark and icy road. The first time, just over 13 years ago it was just outside of Whitehorse Yukon. My FJ62 with just enough front bumper to mount a winch on. It was an ugly event. Moose turned tail at the last instant and my driver side headlights hit him in the ass at about 50 mph (as a guess). The impact took out grill, hood, headlights, core support, battery, radiator and even bracketry on the engine. Also crumpled my fender into the tire and eliminated any steering ability. With no steering I followed him down the embankment. I managed to not roll, but when the front tires hit a berm at the bottom, both front springs bent. When the wrecker arrived, we used his hook to pull the sheet metal off the tire and I drove back up to the pavement. But that was the last time that rig moved under it's own power except on and off of the trailer when I made the trip back to bring it home.
I'm recounting that tale to contrast with what happened this time around.
Heading for the Trailhead early Saturday Morning in my '80. About 0830 and black as Hillary's heart on a narrow, winding, wooded two lane. I was following another rig so only had the low beams on and no aux lighting. A young moose (probably 2 years old) stepped off of the 4-5 foot tall snow berm with just enough time before we contacted to stumble/run a couple of steps. I was doing about 50 mph and had just an instant to feel the antilocks start to kick and to just barely begin to contemplate any evasive action I could take (there was none to be had). I smacked him square and broadside with my ARB. He flew and slid on across the road up against the berm on the other side. as I managed to get stopped just a little bit past the point where we met.
Now for the contrast...
I have always been a big proponent of ARB bumpers. I am a walking ad and salesman for them. Here in Alaska for a road/trail rig, or even just a road rig, I consider them a requirement without any real peer. What sets them apart from 99% of the other bumpers you will see is that they provide complete coverage, side to side and top to bottom. In my world, with moose and more F350s sharing my roads than Subaru outbacks that coverage is important. Really really important.
The top of the ARB met the moose just about at his hip joint and below his shoulder. But it was high enough up that instead of winding up on my hood and windshield, he stayed in front of me and was thrown away by the impact. Based on other moose collisions I have seen/repaired/ been involved with, if I had not had the ARB on the rig, even if I did have one of the lower bumpers that are far too common now, I would have damaged everything on the front end from the radiator forward. At least. And the moose on the hood and into the windshield would have been very very possible too. Likely even
Instead, I suffered ZERO body damage beyond a scratch in the paint on the leading edge of the hood where one of my horns (mounted externally on the back side of the ABB) came back far enough to contact JUST the paint before rebounding back some.
The upper cross bar of the ARB has a pair of small deformations where my "ARB Intensity" clones where driven into the bar by the moose's belly/ribcage. They are surprisingly stout too btw. Neither light suffered any damage, even as the aluminum shell deformed the steel tube!
There was not absolutely no effect to the truck. The mounting bolts on the top side of the frame rails sheered. The lower ones did not. The bumper is tilted back, seemingly cocked hard where it slips over the front of the frame rails. I have not begun to remove the bumper yet to get it all realigned and remounted, but from what I can see so far, I am pretty confident that the front of the frame rails is/are not bent. Pretty sure that the lower mounting bolts are bent and the area around the captured nuts may be "puckered'. Nothing I can't fix. The part of the bumper that slides over the frame rails may be deformed a bit. Likely is. Again, I expect I can correct it easy enough.
The rest of the bumper is straight and undamaged!
Now, it was a small moose. Gonna guess at only about 600 lbs. And I was not at full highway speed. But I know from experience the sort of damages the rig would have suffered with any other type of bumper. I am not amazed... but I am very very... very very pleased with the performance of the ARB. If it WAS damaged to the point that I had to replace it... I would not care.The cost of a replacement ARB bumper, compared to the cost of all the other components that would have been destroyed if I did not have it on the rig... no comparison. (not to mention that after waiting for Fish and Game to respond and getting everything dealt with, I continued on with my day!
Anyway, the point to this ramble.. I love my ARB bumpers. They WORK! And in my admittedly biased opinion... if you don't have one or something similar on your road or road/trail Cruiser, eventually you will wish you did.
Mark...
This makes the second Moose that has tried to occupy the same space as one of my Cruisers on a dark and icy road. The first time, just over 13 years ago it was just outside of Whitehorse Yukon. My FJ62 with just enough front bumper to mount a winch on. It was an ugly event. Moose turned tail at the last instant and my driver side headlights hit him in the ass at about 50 mph (as a guess). The impact took out grill, hood, headlights, core support, battery, radiator and even bracketry on the engine. Also crumpled my fender into the tire and eliminated any steering ability. With no steering I followed him down the embankment. I managed to not roll, but when the front tires hit a berm at the bottom, both front springs bent. When the wrecker arrived, we used his hook to pull the sheet metal off the tire and I drove back up to the pavement. But that was the last time that rig moved under it's own power except on and off of the trailer when I made the trip back to bring it home.
I'm recounting that tale to contrast with what happened this time around.
Heading for the Trailhead early Saturday Morning in my '80. About 0830 and black as Hillary's heart on a narrow, winding, wooded two lane. I was following another rig so only had the low beams on and no aux lighting. A young moose (probably 2 years old) stepped off of the 4-5 foot tall snow berm with just enough time before we contacted to stumble/run a couple of steps. I was doing about 50 mph and had just an instant to feel the antilocks start to kick and to just barely begin to contemplate any evasive action I could take (there was none to be had). I smacked him square and broadside with my ARB. He flew and slid on across the road up against the berm on the other side. as I managed to get stopped just a little bit past the point where we met.
Now for the contrast...
I have always been a big proponent of ARB bumpers. I am a walking ad and salesman for them. Here in Alaska for a road/trail rig, or even just a road rig, I consider them a requirement without any real peer. What sets them apart from 99% of the other bumpers you will see is that they provide complete coverage, side to side and top to bottom. In my world, with moose and more F350s sharing my roads than Subaru outbacks that coverage is important. Really really important.
The top of the ARB met the moose just about at his hip joint and below his shoulder. But it was high enough up that instead of winding up on my hood and windshield, he stayed in front of me and was thrown away by the impact. Based on other moose collisions I have seen/repaired/ been involved with, if I had not had the ARB on the rig, even if I did have one of the lower bumpers that are far too common now, I would have damaged everything on the front end from the radiator forward. At least. And the moose on the hood and into the windshield would have been very very possible too. Likely even
Instead, I suffered ZERO body damage beyond a scratch in the paint on the leading edge of the hood where one of my horns (mounted externally on the back side of the ABB) came back far enough to contact JUST the paint before rebounding back some.
The upper cross bar of the ARB has a pair of small deformations where my "ARB Intensity" clones where driven into the bar by the moose's belly/ribcage. They are surprisingly stout too btw. Neither light suffered any damage, even as the aluminum shell deformed the steel tube!
There was not absolutely no effect to the truck. The mounting bolts on the top side of the frame rails sheered. The lower ones did not. The bumper is tilted back, seemingly cocked hard where it slips over the front of the frame rails. I have not begun to remove the bumper yet to get it all realigned and remounted, but from what I can see so far, I am pretty confident that the front of the frame rails is/are not bent. Pretty sure that the lower mounting bolts are bent and the area around the captured nuts may be "puckered'. Nothing I can't fix. The part of the bumper that slides over the frame rails may be deformed a bit. Likely is. Again, I expect I can correct it easy enough.
The rest of the bumper is straight and undamaged!
Now, it was a small moose. Gonna guess at only about 600 lbs. And I was not at full highway speed. But I know from experience the sort of damages the rig would have suffered with any other type of bumper. I am not amazed... but I am very very... very very pleased with the performance of the ARB. If it WAS damaged to the point that I had to replace it... I would not care.The cost of a replacement ARB bumper, compared to the cost of all the other components that would have been destroyed if I did not have it on the rig... no comparison. (not to mention that after waiting for Fish and Game to respond and getting everything dealt with, I continued on with my day!
Anyway, the point to this ramble.. I love my ARB bumpers. They WORK! And in my admittedly biased opinion... if you don't have one or something similar on your road or road/trail Cruiser, eventually you will wish you did.
Mark...
