Anyone who does a lot of highway driving, off-roading, or commuting on back roads has probably had a close call with a deer or other wild animal at some point. Deer are especially prone to leaping across the road at the most inopportune moment – sometimes, a collision is simply unavoidable. And since the damage caused by such a collision can be extensive, many people try to add protection in the form of a brush guard or grille guard. But do these actually work?
Brush guards aren’t designed to withstand the impact of hitting a deer at high speeds. That being said, in low speed collisions they can provide some degree of protection. Generally speaking, however, brush guards are meant to protect your vehicles front end from brush, small branches, and debris.
Different Types of Brush Guards/Grille Guards
First off, it’s worth noting that not all brush guards are the same, and what some people refer to as brush guards are actually variations with dramatically different designs and purposes. Some of these variations offer much less protection in animal collisions. Let’s take a brief look at the three main variations and their key differences.
Push Bars
Push bars typically only cover the center of the front bumper and the grill area. Featuring two vertical bars and (sometimes) horizontal crossbars, push bars are designed primarily for nudging stuck or stranded vehicles without causing damage to either vehicle. These offer very little protection from deer/animal collisions.
Bull Bars
Bull bars cover only the center and underside of the front bumper and the lower half of the center grill area. These typically consist of a single, thick horizontal bar and a protective plate that covers a portion of the bumper. They can help protect the front end from low-impact collisions but, in most cases, will do little to protect the vehicle in a deer collision.
Brush Guards
Brush guards, or “full grille guards,” cover most of a vehicle’s front end, offering protection for the center of the front bumper, the radiator/grill area, and the headlights. Most brush guards actually include some version of push bars and bull bars as part of their design. These generally offer the greatest amount of protection from brush, branches, debris, and animal impacts.
Brush guards are made from multiple materials, including steel, aluminum alloy, and polycarbonate. In terms of protecting against animal impacts, heavy-duty steel is the most effective as it is less likely to bend or crumple.
How Brush Guards Protect Against Deer
There are a few ways a brush guard can help protect a vehicle from the damage inflicted by hitting a deer or other animal.
Animal Deflection
The main way brush guards help prevent vehicle damage in animal collisions is by deflecting the animal down and away from the vehicle. This prevents the animal from being flung over the hood and into the windshield, which is common not just for sedans but also for many trucks and SUVs.
Not only can deer and other animals do massive damage to the vehicle by rolling over the hood and striking the windshield, but they can also seriously injure the driver and/or passengers and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. While it’s by no means guaranteed that a brush guard will prevent this from happening, it does lower the risk to some degree.
Transferring Impact Force
Another way brush guards prevent damage is by transferring crash energy into the vehicle’s frame rather than the softer grill or body panels. The brush guard will absorb much of the impact force itself, but since it is mounted to the vehicle’s frame structure, it acts as an extension of the frame, which means the entire frame will absorb the impact.
While this helps prevent damage to the front body panels, headlights, and internal components under the hood, it can also have significant downsides.
For one thing, channeling impact force directly to the frame circumvents the vehicle’s built-in shock absorption mechanisms, which can make the vehicle come to a more sudden and violent stop, potentially increasing the risk of passenger injuries.
Similarly, channeling the brunt of the impact into the frame could cause damage to the frame itself, which can leave the car totaled or in need of more expensive repairs. Vehicle frames are pretty tough, though, so this isn’t as big of a risk unless the vehicle strikes a larger animal (a full-grown buck, for instance), especially at a high speed.
A brush guard can also act as a “damage multiplier” in some cases, by spreading the impact energy over a larger area. For instance, if the vehicle’s passenger side headlight strikes a deer hard enough, it could cause the entire brush guard to bend back and damage the whole front end.
In some cases, this can still be preferable to the alternative, as it may mean trading more severe localized damage for more widespread – but relatively minor – body damage. This is also more common with cheaper brush guards made from lighter, more pliable materials.
Aftermarket Bumpers
For an additional measure of protection against deer-related vehicle damage, many people replace their stock front bumper with a heavy-duty aftermarket bumper. These are mainly designed for lower front-end protection when off-roading, but many people swear by them for preventing or minimizing vehicle damage in most animal collisions.
Many brush guard models include a heavy-duty bumper as part of their assembly – or vice versa. These all-in-one bumper/brush guard assemblies are generally the most expensive of all, but also tend to offer the greatest protection.
In Conclusion
Brush guards can offer varying degrees of damage protection in deer collisions but are not universally effective in all cases. A high-speed impact with a deer will almost always result in significant damage, particularly if the deer is larger.
In general, it’s best to avoid an animal collision by staying alert, using high beams, obeying traffic laws, and driving carefully. But if you frequently travel on roads where a deer collision may be inevitable, a brush guard may be worth it.