A Close Call!

[ABennin]

Forgot about aluminum.  I seen a really cool ARB aluminum bumper like the one the guy in TDR put on his truck.  A guy in town has one on a 3rd gen.   

[Wild and Free]

The whistles came and went around here in the late 80's to mid 90's until everyone figured out they were a gimmick, do not see them anywhere but a few "marts" stores anymore. I used to see many vehicle / deer collisions even with them on the vehicles. I saw some news articles and insurance studies come out years ago saying they were useless as well.

I prefer my ranch hand bumpers, slow up center the dear and let them bounce off, I have nailed about 8 deer over the years with my ranch hands and the only thing I get is crap splattered on my rig and some hair in the front receiver a few times.

The key is to make sure and hit them dead center and never hit one with the corner, they will spin around at that point and take out a fender and door, ask me how I know.  That happened about 15 years ago before I started with the ranch hands.

 

If they are coming from the ditch and I know that I won't miss them I will intentionally swerve at them to get them dead center to make sure I don't spin them into my side. Its pretty bad that I have figured out how to hit them with my ranch hand since we have so dang many of them around here.

 

I have had suicidal deer jump out of the ditch and actually run into the side of my rigs 2 times over the years, got lucky and didn't have any damage other than some scratches and one little ding in the lower front panel of my box that popped out from the inside and left no creases, got really lucky there.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Wild and Free

[MnTom]

 

Ha, now what to do about them pesky elk and moose! I've seen semi-trucks totaled from them!

I said deer. Even insurance companies say to hit the animal and not swerve no matter what due to the fact that you may loose control and cross the center line and injure or cause the death of another person OR go off the road and hit a tree, culvert, rocks, etc. An animal will almost always do less damage due to the fact it is mobile and will absorb some of the impact. It may total a semi, but how much worse is it roll a truck, spill the load, and possibly cause additional crashes just to keep from hitting a wild animal?

[YabbaDoo]

 

 

 

I know about the deer whistles and for the longest time have always been told they do not work. Besides, how many deer are really in FL?

 

We have more than plenty... The road I live down you are bound to see 3-5 a week easy.. There was one killed the other morning and if I wouldn't have been headed to teach a class I would have thrown it in the truck for my dogs...

[hex0rz]

I said deer. Even insurance companies say to hit the animal and not swerve no matter what due to the fact that you may loose control and cross the center line and injure or cause the death of another person OR go off the road and hit a tree, culvert, rocks, etc. An animal will almost always do less damage due to the fact it is mobile and will absorb some of the impact. It may total a semi, but how much worse is it roll a truck, spill the load, and possibly cause additional crashes just to keep from hitting a wild animal?

Yea, I know you said deer... But like I said, I wonder what once could do about the larger critters.

 

We have more than plenty... The road I live down you are bound to see 3-5 a week easy.. There was one killed the other morning and if I wouldn't have been headed to teach a class I would have thrown it in the truck for my dogs...

 

Teach? What do you teach, btw? Now, down there, what type of deer do you have? Cause I've seen deer in the south on TV shows and they look like large dogs.

[flagmanruss]

I was at a primitive encampment...  historic house is now just off a main road.  A deer got hit, car got towed, Police called it in to DEM who assigned a volunteer to come pick it up.  We knew the guy who showed up & invited him into camp for venison stew.  The least we could do after wasting his trip...  venison was already cut up & in the pot!