Grill Guards

NTXCrew · Post by **NTXCrew** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:52 pm

Grill Guards are extremely popular in TX and I've seen a post or two about them here. I guess since the body lift kind of makes things difficult to add one and that the body lifts seem popular here, not many people have them here. Is that an a accurate statement? Please shout out if you have one. The next thnings on my list of upgrades is a Westin Sportsman 1-piece black grill guard and matching taillight guards. My friend had them on his Tahoe and they looked sweet.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:25 pm

I have the Manik one piece black guard on mine with a set of KC Daylighters mounted on it. I like it but the way it's mounted, it isn't very strong or doesn't seem so anyway. I have some angle iron I'm going to make some extra braces for it.

NTXCrew · Post by **NTXCrew** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:10 pm

Do you have a body lift?

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:20 pm

No. I've never been a fan of body lifts myself. I'm seriously considering a 5" suspension lift but am going to have to wait until my warranty is up and more importantly, until I have the funds to do the lift with.

NTXCrew · Post by **NTXCrew** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:31 pm

Does your Manik mount on the frame rails? I practically jumped on the guard on the front of my friend's Tahoe and it didn't budge.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 6:14 pm

NTXCrew wrote:Does your Manik mount on the frame rails? I practically jumped on the guard on the front of my friend's Tahoe and it didn't budge.

Yeah, it has 2 brackets that bolt to the underside of the frame and then the guard bolts to the brackets. I can stand on mine and it seems fine. It's the side to side movement that drives me nuts. Apparently the way it mounts allows a lot of side to side flex. It needs at least 2 more mounting points farther up like from the top of the bumper or something. Most of the other grill guards I've seen have those top mounting points, just not Manik. I have some ideas on how to fix mine but just haven't had the time to mess with it yet.

bad bowtie · Post by **bad bowtie** » Wed Jun 04, 2003 3:23 pm

I have the Manik grill guard on my truck and it has a 2" body lift. To mount it I had to make custom brackets to mount the bar to the brackets they supplied and then I mounted it to the top bumper bolts. It doesn't move at all.

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:17 am

Gee, I've been going crazy on which grill guard to get lately myself. It's got to have a winch mount though. I just got a really good deal on a Mile Marker E12000 winch. So I am edging towards the one that mile marker makes called the Extreme mount in the upper left here: http://www.milemarker.com/mounting-systems.html

Seems it's the strongest and says it will support the 12k winch. It's made 3/8" thick! Looks much stronger than the Warn or Ramsey grill guard anyhow. I was thinking of getting the Warn cause it doesn't seem to hang as low, but probably would bend under pressure from the 12k. The Warn also has a receiver option, then I could winch in the back also, and take it off for less weight when not in use. Decisions!!

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 1:41 pm

When I retired as a K-9 "Pig" in May of 02 I was running a police package Tahoe with Waag grill/brush guards with a stout winch. They did the job for us and we had major problems with hitting deer. If I recall correctly, the last year I worked we had 12 deer versus Tahoe accidents w/o damage to the tahoes versus about $9,000 the year before the Waags. Wish I could have afforded on for my crew instead of the GM one I have now. It's about as functional as the bedrails I yanked off my ZR5

border man · Post by **border man** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 4:10 pm

For our Border Patrol Tahoe's we also run the WAAG guards. The problem is that they are mounted to the frame with bolts instead of being welded on. We do some severe off-roading and that causes them to strip the bolts often. As far as hitting things goes, we have lost just about every encounter with the many cows on the Tohono O'Odham reservation. We have many of these encounters. Open Range+High Speed+Bad Stock Lights+Bad Drivers=An average of one vehicle totaled every 1.4 weeks.

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 6:41 pm

Dag nabbit, nut'n gonna win against a cow! lol. I remember long ago, my mother hit a cow and just about totalled a 72 LTD. Ugh. Does waag make em with winch mount for s10's? Can't find any.

F9K9 · Post by **F9K9** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 4:06 am

i'd seriously consider calling them up, distributers may not list them may not
list them. Jalvar, do you know if your fleet people are using all four mounting points on your Tahoes or just slapping them on with the tow hooks? I wondered why mine was wobbling side to to side, so I nosed around the garage and found many sets of the upper to mounting hardware. They were to sorry to put them on right. I took the stuff home and finished the job. It was very strong but, nothing short of an Abrams is gonna win out over a cow.

Brad · Post by **Brad** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:29 pm

BEEF. Its whats for dinner.

TheBigFitz · Post by **TheBigFitz** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:58 am

Genuine Steel makes a grill guard that can be cut and welded to fit a truck with a 2" BL. That is what I have on mine right now. Cut it even with the front of the frame and in front of the bracket and weld it back up, I raised mine 1-1/2" but could have got 2" if I wanted to.

Post by **Walt** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:33 pm

After getting my WAAG Sportster, I'd go with them again for a full grille guard. I love the mounting design.

2bunik · Post by **2bunik** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:04 pm

NTXCrew
did you move? sorry off topic.. ..

coffeedrnkr · Post by **coffeedrnkr** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 9:18 pm

Well it just so happens that i have an already modified WAAG grillguard that fits on s10's with a 2" body lift sitting in my garage (new style 98 and newer).

Has a 1/4 inch thick 2" round bar at the bottom as a replacement for the weak one that came on it, and the new mounts are made out of 1.5" solid bar stock with 1/4 inch mounts on the end.

If anybody is interested feel free to make me an offer (ill get pics here really soon)

P.S. I forgot to take into consideration that after I put on the flared out glass fenders i couldnt put the guard back on

.

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 6:18 pm

OK, got my grill guard and winch mount on. All I can say is Excellent quality and very well made, installed very nicely. And very very beefy! Me gusto mucho!!!! And it did drop the front almost a full inch, but I am getting the Superlift torsion keys on tomorrow to get it back up! Woohoo!

Post by **HenryJ** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 6:29 pm

Looks beefy! That is some heavy cable

You're not going to make your wife pull that are you?

(the cable)

I think that this is the first time that I have seen the sliders installed too

They both look great!

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 6:32 pm

HenryJ wrote:Looks beefy! That is some heavy cable You're not going to make your wife pull that are you?

Well, if you read Mile Markers warning, it says:

Warning: To prevent serious injury: Do not use winches to move people: Not intended for commercial use: Keep hand clear of wire rope and fairlead opening during operation and when spooling

So, I gotta be carefull now.

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 6:34 pm

Hey, I think I'm a first again. First Crewcab with the MileMarker extreme winch mount??? I wouldn't have anything else for serious use, the others look flimsy compared to this thing!

quickbiker · Post by **quickbiker** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:12 pm

Well, I got it back at the right height today with the Superlift torsion keys. And that mount is tough, I had the high lift jack on it and lifted the whole front up, and topped out the high lift jack. Is there anything higher than a high lift jack? lol.