Truck vs Deer

[OC455]

BAck awhile ago I posted my son's 2017 Ram 2500. Well, beginning of this month he pasted an itybity deer a mile and half down the road from the house. He was kind of freaked about it.

After getting him calmed down a bit, we got a hold of the insurance and got that going.

After being in the shop for almost two weeks and the insurance company doing what they do it took longer than for them to pay out for the parts....read the fine print of your policy, as I discovered they will try to put used parts on your vehicle. So after the body shop had the adjuster come out and get it squared away, the new parts are going to be put on by tomorrow after fixing all the damages and painting. Hope I can get some good pictures of what it looks like now.

 

[OC455]

Stupid little deer too....my female Saint is bigger....

List of broke/damaged pieces.

Passenger side headlight (broke the mounting tabs)
Passenger side filler piece under the headlight (cracked it and pushed it into the pass. side fender)
Passenger side fender (chipped the paint on the corner)
Chrome Grill (broke the tabs on the lower part holding it on)
Chrome Front bumper (crumpled it and twisted it)
Couple of plastic trim pieces.

 

[OC455]

I think it looks good without the chrome bumpers and grill and is now 100% fixed. Even though the rear bumper is less than desirable aftermarket, it looks pretty good.

 

[G-Ride990]

The rear bumper has an OEM look to it. Only us RAM guys would notice it.

Looks great!

 

[markabby]

yea, everyone loves Bambi...until Bambi does a few thousand dollars worth of damage. I keep advocating for more hunters!

As for the OP about used parts....being a 2017, can they still find new OEM parts?

 

[Grams]

It’s not just “used” parts…they also try to slip-in cheap foreign aftermarket copies. (it’s a big business in Asia)
Those parts are often not plated/anodized/primed like OEM parts.
The labor to the body shop is the same…so the body shop doesn’t care that Insurance tries to get by with non-genuine new parts.

Another thing or two…(I live in deer country and have killed over a dozen with cars and airplanes)…
1- Headlights (and those auto-On Driving Lights you cannot turn off) …blind the animal. If You were confronted with a noisy, attacking machine… would you charge back into the darkness where you cannot see..?? or would you run to where you CAN see ? (where the headlights have lit up the area.)
I have learned that when approaching a deer alongside the road to momentarily switch OFF my headlights (or landing lights on the airplane) …and then switch them back On… The animal realizes the light is temporary/un-reliable/fake…and will stop and reverse their travel.
I have yet to hit a deer since I learned this (and having killed 3 of them on my pvt landing strip at night. The herd heads for the area illuminated…but MOMentarily switching the lights OFF…then back ON… the deer Reverse their direction and head back into the darkness. Same on the highway. (but auto-on driving lights don’t help.)

2- After the wife hit a deer with the left front …and it was repaired…. The VERY NEXT time she drove to town she hit another with the opposite side.

When I picked the car back up from the shop after the second repair… I noticed that on the shop’s parts-counter were several sets of “deer whistle/horns” to be installed on front bumpers of cars.
I asked the body shop owner about them…. “Do you think those really work?”
He replied, “I have to replace them when the deer knock them off because insurance requires me to return the car to previous condition.”

Ya gotta wonder…. how do deer tell the difference between a “silent” dog/deer whistle… and a roaring engine and radiator-fan and tires whining on the pavement…??

The older I get…the more Scams I see. Doh.

(but ins will pay for them if you want them)

 

[OC455]

yea, everyone loves Bambi...until Bambi does a few thousand dollars worth of damage. I keep advocating for more hunters!

As for the OP about used parts....being a 2017, can they still find new OEM parts?

Not good ones. LOL.

 

[OC455]

The original front bumper didn't have fog lights but he wanted them. He ordered the switch, harness and OEM style fog lights. I couldn't convince him to get the Morimoto 4Banger fogs. They would have been a lot better, especially up here.

I have learned that when approaching a deer alongside the road to momentarily switch OFF my headlights (or landing lights on the airplane) …and then switch them back On… The animal realizes the light is temporary/un-reliable/fake…and will stop and reverse their travel.

Yeah, this deer came off the side of the road and jumped out and over a snow bank directly if front of my son's truck. He said he didn't see it until it was air borne....LOL. I actually wanted to upgrade his headlights but he didn't want to. These: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/D...LED-Headlights-The-Retrofit-Source?quantity=1

His truck, can't force him to do it.