Trail Ready Off Road Bumper

I recently hit a deer with my Avy with pretty extensive damage to the front damage. While my car is in the shop I am contemplating replacing my front bumper with either a Z71 front bumper or an aftermarket off road bumper (such as Iron Bull or Reunel). I am having a real hard time deciding keeping the following things in mind:
1. Increased clearance is a good thing
2. Although probably not realistic I would like to have some front end protection that would minimize the damage if I were to hit that same deer again  
3. My car is a fully loaded 2011 Black LTZ, I rather like the sophisticated look of the car when pulling up to a valet in a fancy restaurant/hotel. I don't want to cheapen the look of the car too much.
4. Just as a consideration: I live in an urban area with 99% of my driving on good paved roads. I go camping/backpacking/hiking once in a while, and am not averse to taking a random dirt road just for fun, but at the end of the day I don't live in a middle of nowhere, and prefer not to attract too much attention by driving around in a monster truck.

Please vote for one of the three options, and if voting for the aftermarket off road bumper please suggest a manufacturer. Thank you!
P.S. here is a link to the picture of the damage: http://chevyavalanchefanclub.com/cafcna/index.php/topic,134383.0.html

Latest update: I went with the trail ready bumper, here are the pics

http://www.buckstop.biz/chevy1500_99-04_suburban_tahoe.html

Saoirse_Trodai said:

http://www.buckstop.biz/chevy1500_99-04_suburban_tahoe.html

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Just spent 30 minutes or so drooling over the bumpers... the reviews I found on them from Furd and Dodge forums have been good (unlike the Iron Bull bumpers), and a few people actually ran over deers with no damage. Hmmmm.... an additional set of 6" PIAA driving lights + 4" PIAA fogs is good for those long runs through the Nevada desert....

This is the one I am saving up for. Trailready bumper with prerunner guard.

I have had two Z71 AV and the front bumpers on a Z71 are mainly cosmetically different from your LTZ bumper. They will not give you increased impact protection. From your experiences you can see that the damage from a deer strike is not contained just to the bumper area.

It's your AV so you have to decide what is most important to you....sophisticated elegant look or protection. No sense in doing it half way if your goal is protection. If looks is your main concern then get whatever look you like and carry full insurance on your AV.

highflyinbean said:

This is the one I am saving up for. Trailready bumper with prerunner guard.

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Is Trailready and Buckstop the same company? I have read that on the internets somewhere... In any case the trailready "base" bumper looks almost identical to the BuckStop one with the exception of the tow hooks...

Vaeagleav said:

I have had two Z71 AV and the front bumpers on a Z71 are mainly cosmetically different from your LTZ bumper. They will not give you increased impact protection. From your experiences you can see that the damage from a deer strike is not contained just to the bumper area.

It's your AV so you have to decide what is most important to you....sophisticated elegant look or protection. No sense in doing it half way if your goal is protection. If looks is your main concern then get whatever look you like and carry full insurance on your AV.

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Yeah, you are right... I guess I already have my mind made up on the offroad bumper...

WhoAteMySoup said:

Just spent 30 minutes or so drooling over the bumpers... the reviews I found on them from Furd and Dodge forums have been good (unlike the Iron Bull bumpers), and a few people actually ran over deers with no damage. Hmmmm.... an additional set of 6" PIAA driving lights + 4" PIAA fogs is good for those long runs through the Nevada desert....

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And for those deer run-ins. Sorry, had to..  lol 

off road being your luck with deer 

highflyinbean said:

This is the one I am saving up for. Trailready bumper with prerunner guard.

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Sooo.... I called Buckstop to order their bumper (they only offer one for the Avalanche, see image below). Unfortunately they did not have the one with 2 sets of lights in stock, which means a 4 week lead time. As I was about to get off the phone with their sales rep and call TrailReady he told me that they also sell TrailReady bumpers, apparently they bough TrailReady a couple of years back and now manufacture and distribute both (no wonder the base bumper looks almost identical). I was going to go with Buckstop due to a ton of good reviews, but since TrailReady is made at the same place I decided to bite the bullet and ordered the Trailready bumper with prerunner guard and a set of 4" PIAA fogs + 6" off road driving lights. The bumper should be here by the end of next week. I will post pictures as soon as I get my truck back. Thank you all for your responses, it helped me to find exactly what I wanted!

Yeah! Oh man I am very jealous. Take some great pics for me. Maybe a youtube walkaround. Can't wait to see it.

highflyinbean said:

Yeah! Oh man I am very jealous. Take some great pics for me. Maybe a youtube walkaround. Can't wait to see it.

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Don't be jealous, I don't have the monster lift you got, so I won't be quite ready for the zombie apocalypse just yet... But I will post some picture, maybe even a youtube.
Speaking of which, any good links to a good mounting location for the off road light switch would be appreciated...

Any updates?

Still waiting... according to my last conversation with the sales rep on Monday it was being loaded on the truck and is going to arrive today.... I am not a big believer since the original delivery date was supposed to be two weeks ago and my car is still in the body shop because the bumper has not arrived yet 
It's not too bad, since I took a backpacking trip for two weeks (left on 8/13, and came back this week), but I sure was surprised to find that the bumper is still not here. Just for laughs I picked up a Chevy "Spark" as my rental vehicle. After driving it around for a couple of days I am convinced that the correct name for the vehicle should have been Chevy "Fart", the thing needs like 30 seconds to get up to highway speeds.

WhoAteMySoup said:

Just for laughs I picked up a Chevy "Spark" as my rental vehicle. After driving it around for a couple of days I am convinced that the correct name for the vehicle should have been Chevy "Fart", the thing needs like 30 seconds to get up to highway speeds.

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Here is a quick update: the car is still in the shop with some additional work to be completed and I should be able to get it back on Tuesday. The reason for the delay (almost a month  ) is that the Trail Ready / Buckstop took their sweet time in shipping the bumper they supposedly had in their warehouse ready to go exactly a month ago. It took two weeks from that point to find out that additional fabrication had to be made and then another week from that point to find out that it still has to be powder coated. That's a big difference from being ready in the warehouse to be shipped in less then five days which I was originally promised. I got somewhat frustrated and asked for the bumper to be shipped without powder coating as my body shop can take care of that (Trail Ready / Buckstop use an outside vendor for that), I got a slight discount and had the bumper arrive that same week. At this point the shop has painted (did a really good job by the way) and installed it on the vehicle. Yesterday I visited the shop to check out the progress and realized that the Trail Ready / Buckstop has shipped two sets of 6" lights instead of one set of 6" driving lights and one set of 4" fog lights.... I cannot attach a picture because I can't get it below the 100KB limit... what the hell?!

Ok, I finally figured out how to post photos on those photo sharing internets, see the link below. There is a decent amount of work left, but the bumper is on and I like it.

https://plus.google.com/photos/114375625161620962232/albums/5785946542970824417?authkey=CMD_-OrHqffnDg

That bumper looks great! 

Vaeagleav said:

That bumper looks great! 

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Thank you, thank you.... I am going to perty it up some more in the next week... finish the lights, route the AUX switches... But the deer, I don't care about the deer no more. If I see one, I am not even going to try and dodge it, just hit it straight on.

WhoAteMySoup said:

Thank you, thank you.... I am going to perty it up some more in the next week... finish the lights, route the AUX switches... But the deer, I don't care about the deer no more. If I see one, I am not even going to try and dodge it, just hit it straight on.

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I tell my wife that about any thing in the road. 

Looks great bossman!

Cool! Can't wait to see more pics!

Alright I got some more pics and some first impressions and things to consider when buying the bumper:

1. I do like the bumper, it is sturdy, and is of high quality, the welds seem good (although I am not an expert). I like how it looks, especially when looking straight at the front of the truck, it does take a little getting used to in profile, since the front sticks out a lot more and it is a lot higher then the sides of the truck. Maybe it's because my truck is not lifted or it just takes some time to get used to the look.
2. There is an annoying rattle coming from the passenger side when going over small bumps. I found that the right side can slightly vibrate and is running into the fender. Have to do something about that. Keep in mind, that this is not an issue with the bumper, the install could have been better, that's all.
3. When installing the fog lights I found that the PIAA connectors are pretty cheap, I don't think it's necessarily going to be an issue, but still they look like crap compared with the OEM connectors. Luckily the OEM fog light cable has an extension that can be removed (it is not necessary anymore since the bumper is so much higher) and I am using the connector from that extension instead of the crappy PIAA one, the cable on which needs to be shortened anyway.
4. When installing the Trail Ready bumper the grill needs to be cut off from the OEM bumper, this is not well explained in the instructions. Basically to get the grille nice and tight you will need to leave a little extra plastic on it (instead of cutting it straight like it would first seem) and then use that extra plastic to tuck underneath the Trail Ready bumper.
5. Another annoying thing I discovered: the windshield washer bottle hangs down well past the Trail Ready bumper, it just plain looks weird (I took a few pictures of that). Does anyone know of good replacement bottles? If not I am just going to paint it black.
6. I still cannot decide how to hook up the auxiliary off road driving lights. PIAA supplies the cables and switch but I don't like how the switch looks and prefer to find some other way, either using a different switch or tap into an existing circuitry so that I don't have to route anything through the firewall. Any ideas would be appreciated here; I am considering running it to the high beams relay, but I prefer an independent circuit.

Here is the link to the pictures, they are not the best, but if you want me take a picture of anything in particular let me know and I will do it. 
https://plus.google.com/photos/114375625161620962232/albums/5785946542970824417?authkey=CMD_-OrHqffnDg

Thanks for posting pictures! I am still really liking this bumper, but you're right about the profile view. I think it would look a lot better lifted, anynplans for that? I would just paint the washer fluid thing black, I,did on myntruck and it is a lot less visible. I am sure there is a way to modify the container if you really want to.

Do you notice any difference on drivability, does it feel nose heavy in corners, breaking, or anything like that?

Thanks, and great looking truck!

Hey Bean,
in regards to driveability I am not sure, the braking maybe is a little bit worse (if it is then it's just a little tiny bit), although I have been driving a 2000lb car for the last couple of weeks, so maybe it's just me adjusting to the size of the Avy again. I do not notice any impact on handling, but then again, I am not exactly Michael Schumacher.
I am not going to do a lift anytime soon, since I recently got new tires and would want to wear them out prior to the upgrade. When I do, I am contemplating a 4" Rancho kit, which seems like one of the few that accommodate the autoride shocks on the LTZ model... Having said that I am a little hesitant, most of my driving is on hilly highways, and, I am not going to lie, I do speed quite a bit, and I am not sure if the 4" lift would cause me to flip while taking a bend at 90 mph...