Yessssss indeed, a wretched place to put a cooler I agree.

I have seen one placed in a custom winch bumper brush guard up front that looked nice and protected the cooler very well.

The only way it would get hurt would be a direct head on crash.
The cooler was behind a nice aluminum expanded metal grill to keep rocks off it too.

Nice job on your truck BTW.

Anxious to hear the results of your tests.

best

Robyn