Bumper Guards

[miclri]

It would seem my truck has a glass jaw. I tapped what I though was a snow bank and cracked the plastic part under the front bumper on my 03 Sierra. I got an estimate of $229 to repair it. Anyone know what the lower valance should cost to replace?

 

Can anyone recommend a bumper guard to prevent this from happening again?

[AlanTDickey]

miclri:

I don't know much about bumper guards, but I really like my RanchHand replacement bumper. See the link in my signature line.

When the installer removed my old bumper, I noticed it weighed maybe 30 lbs, and I could Flex it easily with my hands. It seemed obvious to me that a few-hundred-pound steel replacement was a good idea for the very reason of your experience. It also would hold up better in an bad accident. With the stock bumper, I feel like my radiator would be ruptured in a 10 mph collision. I am guessing somewhat, but I also suspect that a solid, steel bumper would distribute the impact in an off-center collision much better than the sqishy stock bumber. Further, the replacement bumper privides a better entry angle when driving over rocks, and when I am off-road, I can drive over bushes and small trees without consequence (I know it's not nice to hurt trees, but we have billions too many trees in the Nat'l Forests in Colo - which is why we tend to have especially violent and widespread forest fires).

A bumper guard seems a little more like a cosmetic fix to me, but they are certainly an improvement over having just the stock bumper, which can be broken by snow. In fact, now that I think about it, if I had to drive an entirely stock Sierra/Silverado, the weaker-than-a-Yugo bumper would be the only thing to concern me more than the tiny tires and wheel wells.