Hit Deer

[mtudb24]

Coming home from our cottage with my 16 year old daughter and her girlfriend, we hit a yearling deer at about 45mph. Probably about 60lbs and the size of a large Lab / Retriever. Aftermarket steel winch bumper and no body damage whatsoever. Didn't even move the bumper in at all on the passenger side where we hit it. Only thing I have notice is my steering wheel is now off center about a couple of degrees to the left. Truck still drives straight when you let go of the steering wheel. Measured the front axle and its still centered (have adjustable track bar). I wonder if I should take it in for an alignment or just adjust the drag link to center the steering wheel. No vibrations, no shimmy, no shake at any speed at all.
Thinking I got lucky for sure
Kids were pretty shaken up as they love animals. 2nd deer I have in my 40+ years of driving. 1st one was with a 2500HD chevy with a Warn Enforcer winch bumper and the big buck impaled itself on the roller fairlead and move the bumper 1/4" in on the passenger side but otherwise no damage.

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[Blade1668]

Sounds like you got lucky, I'd just check the linkages and ball joints adjust as needed otherwise drive on.

 

[Vtur]

Your tie rod is probably bent slightly. I had also hit a dear couple years ago at around 55mph. Luckily it wasn't a big one, but it did damaged the driver side wing of my 3 piece bumper and bent my tie rod.

 

[mtudb24]

Your tie rod is probably bent slightly. I had also hit a dear couple years ago at around 55mph. Luckily it wasn't a big one, but it did damaged the driver side wing of my 3 piece bumper and bent my tie rod.

Crazy video. Thanks for the comment. Will check the tie rod for sure

 

[Vtur]

Crazy video. Thanks for the comment. Will check the tie rod for sure

If the TREs and adjuster looks good then check and readjust toe setting.

 

[Rusty PW]

Hitting deer is never a good thing. So far I've hit 7 deer with my Power Wagon. 3 deer with my '99 Dodge 1500. 1 turkey and 1 deer with my work truck. ! turkey and 2 dogs with my '90 Nissan HardBody. Waiting to collect 1 with the JT. Have a couple of close calls.

 

[Stuntman Mike]

Hitting deer is never a good thing. So far I've hit 7 deer with my Power Wagon. 3 deer with my '99 Dodge 1500. 1 turkey and 1 deer with my work truck. ! turkey and 2 dogs with my '90 Nissan HardBody. Waiting to collect 1 with the JT. Have a couple of close calls.

That's an impressive list.

My one is much shorter, I decapitated a pheasant with the cylinder of my BMW and killed a sparrow with my G-Model.

@mtudb24 , good that, appart from the deer, nothing serious happend.
I would take the car in for an alignment, just to make sure everything is ok.

 

[Volt0]

Sorry to hear that; If you are mechanically inclined, you can use one of these to do your alignment on a solid axle w/out too much fuss

 

[Pancakes-n-eggs]

I was driving my new 2021 Mojave home from the dealership in Nampa, ID, last week. Headed west on I-82 through a mountain pass when a bald eagle flew up out of the median and in front of my truck! I was on the brakes hard and that bird was flying low and slow like the buzzard in that old Loony Tunes cartoon. My whip antenna just missed his tail feathers! I was 700 miles into my 1050 trip and pretty road fried, it was a wild ride.

 

[Redleg37]

Somehow I've never hit a deer despite living where its a fairly common experience.

I did get hit by a deer in my wrangler. That was surprising. He T-boned my drivers door, bounced off, and kept running. I don't think it did any real damage. The paint already had scratches so I don't know if he added any or not.

 

[GWolgamott]

Probably tie rod bent as others mentioned.

Last fall deer ripped the entire passenger fender off, bent the bumper, dented door, dented fender and it bent the tie rod. The wheel off center may eventually trigger the ESC warning as well, just as an fyi as to not freak out if that pops up. It did have steering wheel off centered when they got it back to me from body shop and that triggered the ESC warning that they had to reset after adjsuting the dragline to re-center the wheel.

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