I think everyone has their own notion of what functional lamp guards are supposed to do.

Some feel it should stop a tank, and of course there is no way a flimsy piece of metal or plastic is going to save your tail lamp from being backed into a solid object, but I don't feel that is what they have traditionally been used for anyway.

Traditionally, they protect you from small flying objects coming at the lamps. Frankly I see no reason that ABS plastic guards could not do this-- even the stick on ones. Unfortunately, it seems like all of them are designed more for bling than protection-- whether metal or plastic-- as the guards are too far apart to protect much.

I would like to see someone make a set of tail lamp guards that was functionally equivalent to the ones you see on the military vehicles or the old rovers (those with the small metal mesh gates). For the front headlights, I would be happy to see a set just like the rovers, but easily removable.

Anyway, I would think it is more important to get the guards on the front lights before the rear ones-- as the forward facing object should be more prone to hits than the rearward (unless you have big mud tires flinging rocks, but that is what bigger fender flares are for).

My wife backed my KJ into a civic and dented my bumper and busted the plastic Mopar light guard but the light was fine. There is only about a finger's worth of space between the guard and the light so I'm not sure how she did it without breaking the light as well. They came stock on my Renny so when the one was busted I wanted to buy a replacement but they were only sold in pairs. Plus they are a rip off for the price and quality. Stealership. So I just popped off the other one too. Probem is that where the guard stuck to the light, the plastic had fused together so when I ripped off the guards, there are now small little 1/2" long chips or marks in my tail lights.

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