Magic Mtn Dan said:
And this is one of the most hideous looking modifications I've ever seen on a vehicle (and yeah, I'm sure some/many of you like this as much as I don't
Safari Suburban pic omitted this time
My wife commented that it looked like your roof rack cargo bin slid down onto the hood....
I personally thought it would come in handy in those times a guy in front of you hits a deer. I've heard that sometimes they (the deer) can flip up in the air and land on the hood of a vehicle following too close. (Maybe that was a myth, but a good justification, eh?)
Seriousuly, the RoadArmor bumpers look pretty tough. Pretty mean. Yet still functional and fit within the design/aesthetics of the Avalanche. I presume they mount directly to the frame rails--what else would be able to support them? And you knew I would bring this up--how would such a device "change the equation" in the event that an Avalanche say, heads over a sand dune at 20mph and crashes into an opposing sand bank on the other side? Hypothetically, of course...
It is my belief that, while the damage can be extensive and expensive (or so I've heard), the stock bumper and impact bar apparatus actually absorbs a whole bunch of energy minimizing the damage to the rest of the vehicle. With a 200-pound steel edifice on the front woudln't all of the force of any impact be transmitted through the frame? Does RoadArmor have any studies on crash-tests or at least theoretical data on force transmission in a collision with any of their products? I'm not too worried about a vehicular accident--it's a sure bet the RoadArmored Avalanche would be mostly unscathed--I'm thinking along the lines of "Avalanche meets Mother Earth" incidents.
Finally, I like the name RoadArmor as well. Just last week I was driving around town and passed an armored van and thought, "That's what we need--an armor package for the Avalanche." Who will be first to replace their cladding with
a 3/16" thick solid outer shell backed by a heavily reinforced 1/4" thick internal structure subframe?
Brendan