Hello I’m very new here. I was wondering about attaching the brush guard and bumper together. A post on this website said it had to be a choice of one or the other. I just wanted to help out with that question. I bought a John Deere X350 with the 48 inch deck a couple of weeks back. I ordered it with the bumper installed, but I kept wondering about the guard so a week later I ordered a guard separately. I removed the bumper and attached the brush guard. After looking at all the attachment point locations I found that the combination of two is a relatively easy fit. The bumper can be hung and attached to the furthest front, unused factory sliding bar holes on the brush guard.
Here’s a brief list of the steps I took. First, the brush guard is completely attached to the tractor with the slider bar in place. Then, I began aligning and leveling by eye the bumper onto the brush guard. I bolted it semi snugly onto the front unused brush guard slider holes to hold it in place. All the while though I was adjusting it making sure the bumper support bracket on the left and right side did not touch the slider bar. I didn’t want for there to be any rubbing or binding. In photo 6 you’ll see there is almost an 1/8 inch gap between the bumper bracket and the slider hole the bar does go through. For additional support, at around 1 1/2 inches below the attachment bolts, and angled back a bit, I drilled and added two 5/16 inch bolts one on each side, seen most clearly in photos 6 and 7. Of course tighten up all the bolts. I used lock washers on the 5/6 bolts and slipped in a couple of regular washers where needed. This has been tricky to describe but if you have the brush guard and bumper in front of you and look at my photos you should be able to figure it out pretty easily.
Everything is very sturdy and still allows for the full opening of the engine hood as per how the brush guard was designed to work. Please note this worked out well on my X350, I’m not sure about the other Deere tractors.
The combination protects the tractor nicely with the best of both additions - and I think looks good too.
Here’s a brief list of the steps I took. First, the brush guard is completely attached to the tractor with the slider bar in place. Then, I began aligning and leveling by eye the bumper onto the brush guard. I bolted it semi snugly onto the front unused brush guard slider holes to hold it in place. All the while though I was adjusting it making sure the bumper support bracket on the left and right side did not touch the slider bar. I didn’t want for there to be any rubbing or binding. In photo 6 you’ll see there is almost an 1/8 inch gap between the bumper bracket and the slider hole the bar does go through. For additional support, at around 1 1/2 inches below the attachment bolts, and angled back a bit, I drilled and added two 5/16 inch bolts one on each side, seen most clearly in photos 6 and 7. Of course tighten up all the bolts. I used lock washers on the 5/6 bolts and slipped in a couple of regular washers where needed. This has been tricky to describe but if you have the brush guard and bumper in front of you and look at my photos you should be able to figure it out pretty easily.
Everything is very sturdy and still allows for the full opening of the engine hood as per how the brush guard was designed to work. Please note this worked out well on my X350, I’m not sure about the other Deere tractors.
The combination protects the tractor nicely with the best of both additions - and I think looks good too.
