Question RE ARB Bullbar, Recovery Points and the Plastic Air Ram

[disco4now]

I have finally had the ARB bullbar fitted on D4 3.0 after waiting a few months. Looks good but I have a couple of questions before they throw all left over bits out.
1. Recovery Points.
The original that I seem to remember were one each side. These are gone, just one left in the center. ARB guy tells me this is now the recovery point. I seem to remember this was just a tie down point. So does anyone have the origin recovery points after the ARB bar is fitted.
2. Plastic Air RAM
This is the bit of plastic underneath the front which seems to catch air a push up towards the radiator. I asked for the fitting instructions, which indicates this need to be trimmed if fitting a winch. I have not had a winch fitted yet, but this plastic ram is gone. Seems like it could still fit behind the new ARB plate under the bar, so does any one still have a plastic deflector thing behind the bar.

I think it was their first D4 so just want to check.

Regards
Gerry

[GlennS]

Can you tell us who installed the ARB bar?

[lr4]

i have just had a ARB bar fitted yesterday. very happy with the results! The recovery point for the disco was always in the centre and still is after the bar was installed. Before the bar was fitted it was hiding behind the plastic cover piece which needed to be removed to have access to it.
I have a winch bar fitted and no winch as yet. I can see that the plastic air ram or what ever it is, is still in position.

Have you had spot lights fitted? i plan to have a warn 9.5 winch installed and am worried about spot light interferring with the operation of the freespooling lever

Cheers
Richard

[disco4now]

Hi Richard,
Thanks for the reply. Ok with recover point now, don't know why I thought it was different before.
Looks like they have left the plastic thing out for me, will give them a call but no that hopeful to get it back, not sure how important it is?

I have not had spotlights fitted yet but have them. I am looking at a TigerII 12000Kg winch, hope it will fit. The bar has a hole in the top ARB explained you reach through with your hand to operate the free spool lever. I think you can probably get past the spot lights if they are in place.

Regards
Gerry

[lrdef110]

Hi Gerry. I have a D4 ARB winch bar which I fitted myself with help of a workshop because it was a gin of a thing to get on (not well designed to get around the washer tank). The fitting instructions indicate the plastic cowl in front of the radiator is to be retained but requires triming to allow fitment of the bar. In my previous D3 I think it had been discarded when the ARB bar had been fitted with no noticable impact but it probably is of some advantage to continue its purpose to channel air into the radiator/intercooler bank.
Cheers, Barry

[Duck's Guts]

....The bar has a hole in the top ARB explained you reach through with your hand to operate the free spool lever. I think you can probably get past the spot lights if they are in place...

You can reach in but it is awkward. That is based on my experience with 7" HID driving lights with an internal ballast (so they have a larger depth dimension). I imagine 9" driving lights would be much more difficult (also a tight fit in the ARB bar, and subject to the particular brand of light).

[disco4now]

You had me worried there. Just took one of my not fitted Hella Rallye 4000 out and tried it. It does not cover much of the hole at all and can get my hand down OK, so they will be OK. You would have trouble as you say with a deeper light as it is what is behind the mounting point that protrudes back over the hole.
Regards
Gerry

[lr4]

I have had the warn 9.5xp winch installed. I can not get to the freespool lever. My hand cam only just get through the access hole, but lever is on the rear of the winch and i have got no way of getting to it. I would have thought the lever will would be on the top. Is is possble to change the location of the lever to the top

[disco4now]

I fitted a Tigerz11 12000lb and had to rotate the gearbox as the lever on that was also at the back. I searched google and got this utube on rotating the gearbox. I think that most can be rotated. Anyway this is how you do it on a Tigerz11. 10 screws so you can rotate in increments of 36degs.

YouTube - ‪Tigerz11 12000lb Gear Box Turning 2009 Winch‬‏


Regards
Gerry

[clubagreenie]

The plastic thing was probably put in the "too hard basket" which is also known as the "he won't notice" bin.

First service on the wifes xtrail and they removed the cover to replace the oil filter, left off. Made them take one off a demo as I wasn't going to wait on the order on principle. Second service, they removed the entire under tray for a recall on crank sensor. Again off comes a demos tray. They had actually thrown them out.

LR4, as for the freespool handle, take it back, it can be rotated as listed and there's no reason they shouldn't make it right. Is there no cut out for it like on earlier model bars? (RRC/D1 etc)

[Duck's Guts]

I have had the warn 9.5xp winch installed. I can not get to the freespool lever. My hand cam only just get through the access hole, but lever is on the rear of the winch and i have got no way of getting to it. I would have thought the lever will would be on the top. Is is possble to change the location of the lever to the top

disco4now is correct. Just like the Tigerz11, the Warn 9.5XP can be rotated so that you can access the freespool lever. Your Warn winch owners manual shows you how.
But it's going to be a mission now. You will need to completely remove the winch bar then the winch to rotate the gearbox.

[TuffRR]

Rotating the gearbox etc on winches is a listed step in the ARB fitting instructions for winches on their website (for an NT Pajero at least). If the ARB workshop has not done this, then i would be taking it back and getting them to rectify free of charge!

[lr4]

All fixed, I brought it back to ARB and the guy that installed it was not aware that it could be rotated. But they were more then happy to rectify, so all is good now!

[Tombie]

All fixed, I brought it back to ARB and the guy that installed it was not aware that it could be rotated. But they were more then happy to rectify, so all is good now!

Scary thought that the fitter is so inept that he didnt know this...

I suggest you never, ever take your vehicle back there again :eek:

Did you get the plastic under tray re-fitted - it assists airflow into the right areas...

[gghaggis]

Scary thought that the fitter is so inept that he didnt know this...

I suggest you never, ever take your vehicle back there again :eek:



With my first D3, which was one of the first to be fitted with the bar + XP winch, the main (Ossie Pk Perth) ARB dealer didn't know either. When I took it back to them to ask how I was supposed to disengage the clutch, there were a lot of scratching-head moments, before they rather reluctantly realised that they'd have to remove the bar to rotate it. This was after several techies came away with bruised knuckles trying to show me how you could squirm your arm into the opening and reach the release lever.

Cheers,

Gordon

[clubagreenie]

ARB = Are Rough Bastards

[oldsalt]

This is a very timely topic as my ARB bullbar and Tigerz 11 12,000lb winch have just been fitted to my D3 by "Ritters" and they rang me this evening to say that it's ready to pick up tomorrow morning but there is a slight problem with the position of the free-spool handle and I'll have to try to see if my hand will fit into the hole to operate the switch otherwise I'll have to run my cable out using the winch motor (not ideal).....they obviously haven't come up against this problem before and I had no knowledge of it.... anyway I have just sent them an e-mail with a link to this topic and I'll talk to them in the morning to see what can be done about it. It may mean the bar has to come off - a pain for all concerned (and Ritters have been great to me so far) so I'll keep you informed of my progress with this little "problem".....:(

[disco4now]

I fitted the Tigerz11 12000lb on the D4 myself after I got the bar fitted by ARB without taking the bar off.
The winch would not go in the ARB bar in the original holes as it fouled on the body at the back (just). I drilled a new set down about an inch with a bit of trouble and a trip to bunnings to get a 90 degree gear thing for the drill (about $14.00) so i could drill from the rear.

A tip I got from another forum was to cut the heads of four 3/8" bolts and screw them into the winch before lifting into position. These hold the weight while you replace them one at a time with the proper bolts that still have the heads on them. (this stops the nuts falling out while you are putting it in place.)
I also had to cut the hole where the rope goes out down about 3/8" and get an offset hawse fairlead, but all good now.
I rotated the gearbox about 3 holes = 3*36deg=108deg, so its just forward of vertical. I can get my hand down to select the free spool even with the spot lights fitted.
A bit of skin off the knuckles but I am not sure I would have got the same result from the installers who did the bar. Also found when I was doing it that they had just left the extra transmission oil cooler I had had fitted before the bar was fitted hanging in the breeze after they removed the cross member and the ARB bar was about 1" lower. They just put a zip tie in to bridge the now 1" gap.
I pop riveted some 25mm square aluminium tube in to pick up the original bracket so it all solid again.
Its good to do it yourself sometime I think.

Regards
Gerry

[Duck's Guts]

Its good to do it yourself sometime I think.


I am glad you managed to complete the install, but it's frustrating to hear that you paid good money for supposed experienced people to install to what should have been a better than minimum standard. Any they left the oil cooler hanging in the breeze! That could have been a disaster waiting to happen!

Anyways, anytime a business does work for me (on vehicle, house, at work, or anything), I end up conducting a detail inspection of that work. With the ARB bar & winch install, I removed all the stone trays so that I could get behind the bar and inspect & torque all bolts & check & zip tie all winch cables & other electric cables. Trust no one but yourself!

[oldsalt]

I picked up my D3 this morning from "Ritters" - I tried the hole where I have to put my hand to flick the free-spool handle and it's O.K. - so that's good...as to the "fit" .. it's a bit of a dogs breakfast and the crew at Ritters weren't too happy with it but there is not much I can do - the boss took some photos that he's going to send to ARB but he said he wasn't hopeful of any reply, the bar has a dip on one side and a bump on the other so it's out by about 8mm from side to side....only a small thing really but it annoys me that ARB go on about their CNC machining and wonderful products etc...I think I could have knitted a bull bar with better tolerances !!! - oh well it's on now and I can move on to the next project...I think ARB stands for ...
Arhhh it'll be Right Buddy ...

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

http://files.myopera.com/veedub5/albums/1286821/bull-bar-03.jpg

[Disomania]

Looks just like mine (D4 though) and it's going back to ARB for checking. Should be the same on both sided I would have thought.

[oldsalt]

We ran a straight edge over it this morning at Ritters and there were "waves" in the steel just under the headlights - slightly up on the right side and slightly down on the left side, could have been caused during the welding process - but still pretty poor as they bang on about their wonderful engineering on their web-site.
I'm going to take some close up photos with a ruler on the bar and send it off to ARB and see what they have to say, as I said in my post it's not such a big deal but I would like the bar to look "even" at both sides - I don't think that's too much to ask - is it ?
We checked out a couple of other D3s (fitted with ARB bars) that were in the workshop at Ritters and they were much the same - it sems that with ARB stuff near enough is good enough.....
ah well it won't stop me enjoying my Landrover, maybe my standards are too high - probably comes from my aircraft background (where near enough can get you killed)
cheers

[clubagreenie]

You're more tolerant than me. I told a woman on the phone today she must like getting a** ****ed more than me since she seemed to enjoy screwing me over and that would be the result.

I'd be at ARB and it would be right, even if that meant someone building one by hand. Think I'm unreasonable buddy? Lets see what else I can pick on.

I had a hub stud stripped by Jax and it cost them 7 hours and $1800. plus I biyched to head office and got 50& back on the tyres.

[IvanR]

Had my ARB bullbar installed on Friday after a 8 week wait.
Every thing is straight and even and gaps are to spec.
However I have just noticed that there is no mounting bracket on the posts for a uhf antenna or a sand flag.
Question. Is it just my bar that is missing the brackets or are all D3 bars like this. All our other vechicals have then.

IvanR

D3 TDV6

[Tombie]

Had my ARB bullbar installed on Friday after a 8 week wait.
Every thing is straight and even and gaps are to spec.
However I have just noticed that there is no mounting bracket on the posts for a uhf antenna or a sand flag.
Question. Is it just my bar that is missing the brackets or are all D3 bars like this. All our other vechicals have then.

IvanR

D3 TDV6

The antenna hole is on the blade on the passengers side.

The mounts sit very close to the bonnet otherwise and can damage the bonnet in a strike.

[Disomania]

The gaps on my bar are different every time I drive. ARB have looked, realigned everything so the gaps were the same, then after some driving up/down driveways/gutters(slowly) the gaps are different. And, they change. Everything is tight for the bar/mount so I'm guessing that it's related to the way the body mounts to the vehicle. ARB here have done a couple of D4's now and say that both bars did the same thing.

I guess the body mounts that allow some flex have something to do with this.

[clubagreenie]

That kicks it. Time for a body lift.

[oldsalt]

I contacted ARB re my bullbars "poor fit" and they have kindly offered to make it right (at no cost to me) - they said - "it should just be a matter of an adjustment - and we'll make sure it's right"
I sent a copy of this communication to "Ritters" and (surprise - surprise) they also said if I dropped the vehicle back to them they would "adjust" it - funny that they didn't make ony such offer on the day that I picked it up from their workshop - they just stood around scratching their heads as to why it didn't line up correctly....it's funny how a letter to the right people suddenly changes a situation !!!!
So it's off to the Kilsyth ARB workshop for my "adjustment" - I'll let you know how it goes in a few days.
I don't expect to be darkening Ritters doorstep again.....once bitten, twice shy as they say !!!

[oldsalt]

Just got home from ARB's Kilsyth workshop - my bullbar has been "adjusted" and now fits perfectly, as it should have when "Ritters" fitted it originally - anyway that's water under the bridge and I'm now satisfied with my ARB product.
The staff at Kilsyth were extremely helpful & friendly, and while I waited I got a quote for the fitting of a "Longranger" fuel tank - if you give good service, you get repeat customers......
cheers

[Dahai]

Apart from seeing a few photographs, I have not seen an actual bullbar on a Discovery, as I am out of the country.

Would someone please advise what do they does ARB do about the fog lights that are part of the vehicle. Does the bar have a cut out for the lights to shine through, or are they replaced by lights on the bar. I understand that Opposite Lock bars have "driving" lights which actually replace the "fog" lights.

In addition, it looks like the bullbar has a set of turn lights installed in the bar. Is this correct and do they work in conjunction with the Discovery turn lights?

Best wishes
Bruce

[FenianEel]

Sounds like a few fitters and people don't know what they are doing.
The fit is more do with Land Rover build and how the body sits, than the bar.
It is a requirement in the installation instructions (supplied with every bar), that that end of the winch needs to be rotated - and you don't have to take the winch apart to do this. ;)

[oldsalt]

Hi Bruce,
here it is on my D3, the bar has holes for the original fog lights, and yes the turn indicators work in conjunction with the fitted ones.
cheers

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

[NTB]

Hello All,
Sounds like a number of you have had a few issues with fitting.
I shall be in the market for a Bull Bar in a couple of months.
Has anyone had good or bad experiences with ARB's fitting in the Brisbane area?

NTB

[AGRO]

Hi All,

6 weeks ago I had a ARB Winch bar fitted cleanly to my D4, MY11, 2.7 with no hassles and looks as per the D3 pictures. Had it on the dirt, rough roads and highway for 6000kms - all stable, no subtle vibrations and no movement.

[irondoc]

only problem with mine {2011 2.7 D4} is that it is hard to get the grill out - the bullbar is slightly closer on one side and getting the grill off is tricky

cheers
lucas

[Dahai]

Oldsalt thank you.

I believe I will go with the Opposite Lock bullbar as they (Brisbane dealer) indicate that they have stock, whereas an ARB dealer has stated they do not stock bullbars and would need to source one from local or Melbourne. Failing that order one from overseas.

The antennae mounting holes are lower down on the lower bumper section with the ARB, whereas on the OL, they are on the top.

Pricewise, there is little difference but OL being slightly cheaper.

The slight negative for me with OL, is that they remove the fog lights and replace them with driving lights. That may be a plus for some, but feel that I would like the original lights retained. OL are checking to see if they can supply without the driving lights.

From looking at the photos of the ECB bar, I am not impressed with the bulkiness of them. They are also more expensive.

Best wishes
Bruce

[Ivan]

Bruce

Just had the OL Bullbar fitted to my D3 and they put the factory fitted foglights back in the new bar. Also had driving lights fitted to the bar which were suppled free due to an offer they had on. Mine was fitted by Paul at OL Caboolture. He did a very good job.

Ivan

[Dahai]

Ivan many thanks. I will follow up on that.

Where did they put the driving lights? Can you post or send me a picture?
Best wishes
Bruce

[Ivan]

They fitted the driving lights on top of the main part of the bull bar (not the top bar). Will try and get a piccy tonight. It all looks very good and is in balance (IYSWIM)

Rgds

Ivan

[Dahai]

Thanks Ivan and I will look forward to seeing them.

The OL bar for the D4, perhaps the same as the D3, has the bumper bar part and then a top bar. I assume your reference to the "main part of the bar" is the same as my reference to the "bumper bar part". Admittedly, the lights are not large, therefore I guess they do not interrupt the airflow to the radiator.

Again look forward to seeing your pictures.

Best wishes
Bruce

[Ivan]

Bruce

As promised pics of the OL Bull Bar. My fog lights are 95mm wide. Tried to attach another image but it doesn't seem to want to.

Ivan

[Dahai]

Ivan thank you.

I have been in touch with Paul at Caboolture.

Looking at your photos, the driving lights are larger than the fog lights. The bars now provided by OL for the D4 have driving lights already fitted to the bar. They remove the existing fog lights and install the bar complete with the new driving lights.

I appreciate all your assistance and going to the trouble.
Best wishes
Bruce