10 4WD BULL BAR Factors Most People Don't Consider

Another thing to keep in mind is airflow, especially if you use your vehicle for work and have a trailer or tow a camper

The plastic bar isn't as bad as you say. We have Smartbars on all the SES vehicles and they have survived animal strikes especially during emergencies like the fires and floods when scared animals are everywhere. I have one the Ranger and the farm is surrounded with pigs, goats, roos, wombats etc. Hit a few around the 70km mark (you learn not to drive fast on the country roads) and the vehicle has survived. Yes, driving 110kms and hitting a roo maybe different. But common sense has to play some part in driving and not just relying on a bullbar. Steel bull bars on our regional force surveillance vehicles in central Australia in the Army didn;t stop damage against big reds whilst out on patrols and many were towed back to base.

4wd action years ago did a comparison of all the bars available for a Hilux, the two strongest bars when impacted by a dolly rig around 70-100kg of cement in a barrel were the Polly bar and the tuff 5 poster, the Polly bar had better protection than all the other commercial bars including the higher priced TJM and ARB etc, I think Ronny is talking opinion here more than fact.

For older four wheel drives no problem with a bull bar but modern cars with crumple zones and a myriad of safety features all can be upset by a bull bar reducing the chances of occupancy survival in a hard impact with a tree 🌳, You never see crash test videos of four wheel fitted with aftermarket bull bars. I think it was BHP tested some and the bull bar caused the footwell to fail and injuries to your leg and that were your femoral artery is so far worse than a Broken leg.

Good call on the recovery point ratings on steel bumpers/bull-bars. Found out the hard way about that. USA manufacturer of my steel front bumper included 2 attach points for recovery.(Attachments were to the frame) Knowing that I was headed out to run some dunes, I made a call to the company and specifically asked them if the recovery points were fully rated for the weight of the truck. "Yes, they are" is what I got from the OEM... A week later I am out in the dunes and get stuck and need to be extracted.. One of the club members attaches a kinetic rope to ONE of the recovery points and we begin to initiate the recovery... Sure enough I pop right out of the bog. When we disconnect the recovery rope I notice that my front bumper is not straight and that I've got a wrinkle in my front fender. A few days later I chat with the OEM of the bumper and we have some serious talks over "rated recovery point" (Bumper is "Guarantied" from damage). After explaining and sending photos of the damage the OEM was quite magnanimous and backed up their warranty to fix my truck and replace the bumper... This time they quantified that the recovery points were "Rated" when used with a bridle configuration for recovery, not necessarily on a single attachment line. Lesson learned for both the OEM and me!

Protecting the occupants of the vehicle in a crash with the crumple zones is way more important than protecting your radiator in an animal strike so it doesn't spoil your trip. Bull bars may comply with ADRs with regards to airbag deployment but none are crash tested on the vehicles to gauge the impact on crash safety. Drive to the conditions.

ARB says to have airbag-competable bull bars, yet - like all the other bull bar manufacturers - never ever dared to prove it in a crash test.

Ronny, you shouldn't let personal opinion be the guide for your content when trying to inform your audience and help them make correct choices. I refer you to comments about aluminium bars. When it comes to boat building there's a general rule that aluminium is half the stength of steel and 1/3 the weight. So if you double the thickness of aluminium it has the same strength as steel but still only 2/3 the weight. An aluminium bar can be designed with a higher strength than steel and still be less weight. As examples, up to a certain size boat (very large non-recreational) you wont find any steel, it's all aluminium. Truck bullbars - you wont find any truck with a steel bullbar, they are all aluminium. Trucks are on the road more than cars and on country and remote roads and they are all using aluminium. You have dismissed alloy based on your personal experince but you only had one alloy bar which quite likely was an OEM bar. Other advantage of aluminium is it wont corode and the plasticity of aluminium is lower than steel, so they have a higher yied strength than steel (which means steel will bend before aluminium). Again you have to design the bar using thicker material if it's aluminium but you have capacity due to the weight saving. Also every vehicle out there with a bullbar is insured. So if you do have an animal strike and the bar is damaged, it's not going to be repaired, it will be replaced. As Luke pointed out, you can't not modify an ADR compliant bar and this includes a repair as you can no longer guarantee the bar is ADR compliant.

07:15 hoopless bar also tends to throw the wildlife up and into the front window, witnessed it many times on other people vehicles

Production quality is going up. Great work.

We don't have kangaroos or deer on the trails where I live, but the bullbar makes a great small camp shelf and the hoops are decent clothes hangers 😂

Someone got a new editing suite for Christmas. Vids looking very fancy and impressive there’s a reason you are number 1 👍🏻

Canadian here, good video. I run a steel bumper with a low tube in the middle that really just covers the bottom half of my grill. The biggest thing I have to worry about here is deer and their body is only about hip height on the average man. The bumper and bar are sufficient height to protect my truck. Main reason was for mounting a winch and pushing trees which it does great!

Been driving since 1980, covered 2 million-odd km, never needed a bull bar, rock sliders or such. I'd settle for portal axles to gain ground clearance. Lift kits don't raise diffs, after all. I live in Africa and I used to visit truly wild locations.

I had a grille guard, one of the names here in the states, on an 03 f250. It was totalled out in 07. I didn't think about having one until the middle of 2022 when a deer ran out in front of me in the mountains in Northern az. I slowed down a bit, but I was in no danger of hitting the deer. Now I want one. Thankd for having this video out there.

Awesome info Ronnie, definitely appreciate these info style episodes. It happened to be what I know but still good as a refresher as things can change. Cheers 🍺

Some good points here. But a few missed or wrong points. 1. Those rediculous plastic bars are stronger than alloy and steel. Because they absorb impacts rather then the force going back into mounts/front of chassis and hitting bodywork anyway. Hence mining use them now. 2. Many hoop bars block lighting. Not so much the proper engineered ones but shit like Gitshams from Adelaide who have old style on new vehicles. 3. JC did a video recently showing the independent crash tests from BHP mining Hiluxs. All the bullbars did was cause more damage and alter the way the vehicle crumples. Whilst hitting animals and people might not do that damage. A proper crash, many bars including ARB/TJM can total the car bad enough to cause major injuries.

Maybe a dumb question. The bars maybe ADR compliant but have any of the big 3 Ronny mentioned crash tested them to make sure they don't slow down the airbags or mess with the crumple zone that will save your life? Me, car is immobile but I am still alive wins every time. Understand when you hit Skippy and you can keep on driving but what about a non animal accident?

Pretty much every modern truck with a bull bar on the road in Australia these days have aluminium bull bars. Not sure why aluminium bars are strong enough for trucks but not for cars.

In the states we have different terminology. After market bumper is just a aftermarket bumper, after market bumper with center hoop we call a bull bar, 4 hoop bar we call a push bar, 4 hoop containing diamond screen or smaller bar insert over grill and headlights we call a brush guard.