Protecting disco 3 from roo,s and aftermarket price.

[herrBlick]

Now I will not be driving in the morning or night on my trip from Melbourne to Perth this summer but I do want to protect my car from dust and maybe a small altercation here and there.
My main problem is I can't stand the look of ARB or Safari products and the Landrover ones are so much more pleasing on the eye and I suspect they will add retain the value of the car.
BUT are the Land rover accessories going to cut the mustard in Australia......I mean having to deal with Roo,s not Pheasants,
ARB or Landrover products ?

[AnD3rew]

Nope the Landrover ones are pretty much for show. I have the Landrover nudge bar like below on my d3 and it looks good, but if you look at how it is mounted it is clear it wouldn't do much at all against a big roo. I am about to change it for and ARB or OL bar.https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/10/795.jpg

[herrBlick]

Hello Andrew
I really do know this in my heart of hearts but I mean this is the reason I didn't by a Toyota it just hurt my eyes to much, the ARB roo bars seem very obnoxious and do we really hit that many roos when travelling in the day!
It's one of those things though, I mean its sort of the same with the RAI vs the safari snorkel there basically designed for dust not water. If you go that deep the electrics will go anyway..
It's a difficult call

[DoctorJ]

G'day Herr Blick I understand your pain ( i too prefer other styles) but the fact is ARB or OL or any of the others purely don't create choice due to the lack of demand, that being said I had no hesitation in getting a bullbar as not only are they great protection against Roos but also other motorists myself and my brother have been involved in accidents and been able to drive away whereas if we hadn't of had the bullbar on we would have sustained substantial damage, only recently on a trip with the aulro girls and boys I had an encounter with a roo in the middle of the day, luckily he decided to pull out at the last second and no contact was made but it shows you that it doesn't have to be dawn or dusk.

Cheers
Julian

[AnD3rew]

Hello Andrew
I really do know this in my heart of hearts but I mean this is the reason I didn't by a Toyota it just hurt my eyes to much, the ARB roo bars seem very obnoxious and do we really hit that many roos when travelling in the day!
It's one of those things though, I mean its sort of the same with the RAI vs the safari snorkel there basically designed for dust not water. If you go that deep the electrics will go anyway..
It's a difficult call

I do regular Western Queensland and Western NSW trips, and while I have been lucky so far, I have had numerous close encounters and I mostly avoid driving at night. But it doesn't take long talking to people out there and observing cars and then seeing the thousands of roo carcasses by the road to know that it happens a lot, and it is only a matter of time. The most damage I have done to a car was actually an emu which are also all over the place out there along with feral goats.

If you are going to spend most of your time in a capital city with the occasional main highway drive in the daytime then you don't really need the bar, but if you want to do any significant touring on country roads, outback touring, night driving in the bush etc then a proper bar is a good investment.

My last trip had so many close encounters I was totally convinced I needed he bar before heading out again.

[NavyDiver]

Now I will not be driving in the morning or night on my trip from Melbourne to Perth this summer but I do want to protect my car from dust and maybe a small altercation here and there.
My main problem is I can't stand the look of ARB or Safari products and the Landrover ones are so much more pleasing on the eye and I suspect they will add retain the value of the car.
BUT are the Land rover accessories going to cut the mustard in Australia......I mean having to deal with Roo,s not Pheasants,
ARB or Landrover products ?

Shoo roo Home (http://www.shuroo.com/Home.html) my brother in law does 100k km plus on country Vic roads. He like the Shoo roo and has not hit one since. About 5 per year prior to that. Only a big steel bar (yep the ugly ones) will protect give a level of protection from a big roo, camel, cow or donkey strike. Not driving at night or at sunrise or sun set would normaly give you a good chance of not meeting any of them or at least allowing you to see far enough to avoid them. I think the Land rover accessories would 'not' cut the mustard and are more window dressing as is any alloy bar. Kangaroo vs Car - YouTube

[101RRS]

Shoo Roo has been scientifically proven not to work - is up there with Hyclone and other fuel saving, performance improving products.

[Lanceanot]

I now look very fondly at my OL bar after hitting a roo on the first day ofour last trip. There and then it could have all ended in tears.

[Gords]

Completely agree with the others, nothing cuts the mustard like a steel bar. I recently saw an east coast (ECB) up close on a D3 the other day and was quite impressed.

Nothing stops em' like a solid 5 poster a.k.a the 'stick rake' would be funny to see one on a D3 though!

[AnD3rew]

Just saw in Landrovers newsletter that they have just released a genuine full bar for the D4, it is alloy though, but looks a lot more substantial than anything they have had before.

Wonder if it cold be made o fit a D3?

[Redback]

I now look very fondly at my OL bar after hitting a roo on the first day ofour last trip. There and then it could have all ended in tears.



I do as well, we hit an Emu about 5 days into a 3 week trip, it could have been all over that day, if not for our OL bar.

Oh and any alloy bar is useless in a roo strike, if anything it will probably be a more costly repair bill, you can't repair alloy bars and the damage to the car would probably be about the same, the LR bar is about $4.000:eek: and bloody ugly too.

Baz.

[Tombie]

Look at it this way if you will...

Sometimes form follows function
Sometimes function follows form
Sometimes you get lucky and get both...

The ARB style with 'Triangulated' uprights provide the necessary rigidity (for lack of a better word) and split pan design with multiple angle pressing - to produce a strong, protective structure.

The tubular and flat plate blade designs do nothing in a strike, often folding into the vehicle causing expensive damage.

The genuine bar, in its original form (haven't seen the new version - I'm remote site at the moment) was:
- Alloy
- Too close to the vehicle

Just like the fleet here, which has a mix of Genuine Toyota bars (similar to LR factory offering and Tube style bars) and Steel ARB bars..

Guess which ones get a free ride to the repairer in an animal strike ;)

[herrBlick]

I think I will have to go ARB as they are the least offensive.....
But how do you change your light globes ?

[Geedublya]

You can unclip the lights but you can't remove them entirely with the ARB bar in place.
With them unclipped and moved forward there is enough room to get behind the light and replace the bulbs.

[Tombie]

I think I will have to go ARB as they are the least offensive.....
But how do you change your light globes ?

As said above :cool:

You can get to most of it without even Un-clipping, just open bonnet and reach through from there.

[CaverD3]

If you remove the plastic backing plate to the lights you can slide them out through the bar.

[goingbush]

You might think its carp but Roo Whistles seem to work

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/
about $5.00 for a set of 2 at supercrapauto

Ive noticed they look up about 150m & start hopping before you get to them instead of 80m when its too late to avoid if they hop into your path

Ive yet to hit one with the whistles, but hit plenty without.

[Graeme]

You might think its carp but Roo Whistles seem to work

http://www.austhobi.com/images/whistle_left.jpg
about $5.00 for a set of 2 at supercrapauto

Ive noticed they look up about 150m & start hopping before you get to them instead of 80m when its too late to avoid if they hop into your path

Ive yet to hit one with the whistles, but hit plenty without.
I had them on my D2 and noticed the same until I fitted a bull bar, after which I couldn't place them in an appropriate air stream to get the same effect. Often the roos would sit up and watch as I passed. They also drove birds crazy so didn't hit any more once fitted.

They have to be kept clean though, as insects can clog them.

[herrBlick]

Perfect looks like the thingy me bob for me.
Cheers

[AnD3rew]

Perfect looks like the thingy me bob for me.
Cheers

For $5 you might as well stick em on, You have nothing to lose, but there is no evidence they work and I wouldnt rely on them at dusk or sunrise in the bush they don't replace a proper bar. I might stick some on, but I will be sticking them to my ARB bar.

[Tombie]

There is plenty of evidence they don't work..

Including a study of them and Sho-Roo systems...

The Doppler effect doesnt allow for the whistle to be forward projecting...

The Roos are taking notice of the bloody big lump of metal roaring towards them more than the tiny (speed variable) whistle of a bit of plastic stuck on a front bumper...

Ironically, co-worker fitted a pair last week before a trip to Streaky Bay.

Hit a Roo less than 5km from home!

[Platypus]

Shoo Roo has been scientifically proven not to work - is up there with Hyclone and other fuel saving, performance improving products.

I also have seen the test results on the Shoo Roo and their lack of ability. The one which the testers seemed to think work and are also dirt cheap are the little ones that cost $4-$5 and look like little whistles, they're sold in pairs and come in black or silver. I've had them fitted for the last 20+ years. Do they work? Well I don't know....but I've not hit a roo since fitted:).