Question for those w/ the Hunter Grill Guard

[ieatflux]

guys? guys.

3 PIECE GRILL GUARDS SUCK!


agree? agree? good. we have one thing established.


two, ALL METAL RUSTS! you neglect it, IT WILL RUST! for that, we buy PRIMER AND PAINT!

three: HUNTERS CUSTOMER SERVICE CAN BLOW IT OUT THE A$$ cause the lady on the phone was rude (er mentally handicapped maybe?) and rarely picks up. and they love, ooh, they LOOOOVE to act like they didnt offer a warranty.
b@$tards...

[ragets1591]

I have a 2007 Honda Element EX 4WD Alabaster Silver Metallic
I went ahead and received my accessories and had a friend of mine install them for me. He did all 98% of it and I did like 2% of it. LOL, I wasn't much help anyway here is how we did it and how long it took and some obstacles we faced and had to overcome:

Tail Light Guards - eBay - $69 + FREE shipping
The directions (which weren't that great) said it would take about 10-15 minutes to complete. Well.... it took us about 15 minutes for each. It was relatively easy but just takes a little time. First you take out the two screws that hold the tail light in place. Then all you do is pop out the taillight. Then we placed the bracket around the piece that pops the tail light in. Pop the taillight back in. Then fit the tail light guard over the tail light and bolt in all the screws. make sure they are on correctly or they WILL scratch your tail gate and hatch. Even when they are on as tight fitting as they can they still leave a tiny scratch but hey, its worth it! They look great!

Side Steps - HandA Accessories - $285 + $52.78 shipping
Next we did the side steps. These are the OEM Side steps. We just followed the instructions that came with them and they went on relatively easy. They look great and took about an hour and a half to put them on.

Hunter Brush Guard - eBay - $180 +$50 shipping
The instructions that came with these might as well not have even came with them. Nothing was labeled and took us about 20 minutes to even find out what we needed to do. We bolted on the headlight guards to the main piece first. Next we found the pieces of the plastic that we needed to cut out to find the holes to bolt the guard on to. We almost thought the pieces were not going to bolt on because of 2 reasons: 1) On the drivers side the bracket piece almost didn't have the right spacing for the hole on the frame. 2) On the passenger side the radiator was bolted or connected on the frame by the holes on the frame. So we had to move that to get the main unit connected. That took a while. After that we connected the main unit to the big brackets connected to the frame of the car and turned it up so it was in the correct position on the front of the car. then we took off the two caps under the hood near where the headlight is bolted in. Everything was tightened up and is extremely sturdy. It will not even move when shook. It is very nice. In all, for the brush guard, it took about 4 hours to complete.

My Element looks AWESOME now, in my opinion. I already had a few Element owners turning their heads watching, just on my 10 minute drive back home. It almost looks like a totally different vehicle. I really am liking it a lot! :)

[lawz]

Not to hijack the thread, however this seems to be the perfect place to find people with the guards so here's the question:

Whats the effect on mileage?
Thanks!
~Zac

[Orange_Lunchbox]

and how much do they weigh?

[erickang411]

cello,
I just read this thread...quite amusing especially when people use the words toughguy...hahaha

If you own a 09-11 like I do, you might want to read this thread...post 12 and 13 to be exact.

http://www.elementownersclub.com/for...ad.php?t=65666

[Island E]

Just want to add that I have a Steelcraft on mine and absolutely love it.

Supposedly Steelcraft=Aries now

[ellenboa]

I have a hunter brush guard. Black Powder Coat, not stainless. I have to say it is extremely sturdy and durable. Use it to push disabled vehicles that are obstructing traffic to a safer location almost every day.

It has yet to buckle or get any scratch. So far the largest vehicle i have pushed with it was a short school bus. For an E i'd say that that's pretty darned good.

I read through this whole thread, so i thought i would reflect on some of what i have read.

The Hunter guard does not come with any kind rubber gasket to put in between the main section and the headlight guards. I cut a rubber pad to shape and size, included bolt holes. To top it off, i also applied a small line of silicone along the edges. Now, when tightening the bolts, we have a watertight seal.

Just thought i would share that my other work vehicles, an Expedition, has a Go Rhino push bar, and an Explorer with a Setina push bar. I can do everything with my Hunter brush guard on my E that i can do with either of those vehicles.

[marxbruder]

It seems as though if you don't want to spend the extra cash on a one piece, you could always make friends with someone who welds. And buy some paint and beer

[ellenboa]

Welding is not that difficult. I take on projects rebuilding antique cars, i weld on a regular basis. It just didn't seem to me worth the time.

I think most people don't weld either because they don't have the space or they are afraid to get burned or burn something else. Personally, i find it easier than any other mod, especially something like a sound system.


If you don't want to weld though, as long as you seal out the water one way or another the quality will remain good. Thus, silicon, rubber seal, or both like i have installed, should work just the same.