ARIES 3062 1-1/2-Inch Black Steel Grille Guard, No-Drill, Select Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute

Installation was pretty easy, took about an hour and only used hand tools.

Product came in within the allowable window. I had mine installed by a professional as it had more parts that I realized. Would definitely recommend this product. I now have the only 08-12 escape in the state of Maine that I have seen with a brush guard. Looks great.

I bought this grille guard for my 2011 Escape to reduce damage in case I should become one with the deer, as is common here in the mountains. It arrived without the adapter kit that is needed for the later Escape models. I contacted Kate from OC Diesel and she was an absolute angel. She got ahold of someone at Aries and it was here in a week.Then the fun started. The adapter kit did not fit, and I had to take off the entire front part of the car just to get access to drill the frame holes out larger for the expansion bolts. Then, the bolts with the little steel handles were too short to work as designed. I ended up drilling a hole in the handle and using a piece of coat hanger to lengthen it so it would reach the frame holes from the inside. As a finishing touch, the holes on the frame piece in front of the radiator were too small and I had to drill them out to fit the bolts. The frame piece is very close to the radiator and I cut my hands pretty seriously before finally conning my wife into putting the bolts in with her little hands.Not surprisingly, the extra weight on the nose causes the car to handle differently. It used to be quite nimble on turns. Now it is a bit more sluggish.Overall I like this grille guard and am glad I bought it. The only change I might make is to have a professional install it, as Ford's frames seem to change faster than the installation kits can keep up.

I give this product a "good" rating for quality and craftsmanship. It does look great on my wife's 2011 Escape. Was not difficult to install, if you are mechanically inclined. I did wind up leaving the air dam off vs cutting it into three peices as is required to make it work with this product. Overall I am happy with this product.I gave it four stars because the first one was damaged in shipment and had to have it replaced. It came freight and took two weeks to arrive, making for 4 weeks total with the replacement.

Very sturdy. Recommend professional installation. Hardware included isn't the best, I had to buy 4 nuts and washers, took 1.5 hours to install.