Bullbars: do they work, and are they necessary?

All my vehicles have had bullbars and each bar has payed for itself time and time again. Through circumstance most of my driving is done at night and therefore presents high risk. During times of drought it is common to have multiple near misses if not animal strkes per week. A soft contact with a roo can cripple the most robust vehicle so anyone driving through the country areas without one is taking a fairly severe gamble. driving small cars (barinas, Getz, etc) on country roads is, in my eyes, just plain irresponsible. A roo will kill if it enters the windscreen and colides with the driver, passenger or both. With cars of this size, with or without bar protection, this is a likely outcome.

Hi Guys,

It seems this is not over by a longshot. As Australia is a signatory to ' another ' UN organisation destined to impose so called European standards on us, the Federal Government is considering adopting the current Euro standard for the construction and installation of vehicle protection devices. ( bullbars ) All about minimising the impact on pedestrians.
In the opinion of Australian manufacturer organisations, these standards cannot be met and still produce a bullbar to provide the level of protection currently given. ( if at all )
If the beaurocrats take this up we are in real trouble. I can't see how they can make it retrospective, but it would stop anyone with a new vehicle adding on a bullbar. God knows whether they will try to apply it to the trucks as well.
I would imagine the insurance industry would be against it, and once the premiums start to climb, mr average motorist may realise the argument for and against, is not black & white.

Put simply - Wont happen

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Originally Posted by Tombie2

Put simply - Wont happen

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A year ago I would have agreed with you. Since then we have had the NSW transport minister try to ban any modifications raising 4WD's. The W.A. Government introduced compulsory testing for any modification effecting emissions. ( with only one facility available in W.A. that could even conduct testing ) Both are on hold after strong representations from industry & 4Wd associations , pending hopefully more sane outcomes.

The government is also looking at banning modification of any nature to vehicles fitted with ESC. ( even changing tyre type/size ? )

If you want a peek at our potential future, google VSB14.

If we are informed as to what is going on, we have a better chance of contributing to debate on these issues.

Everyone that could be affected, should at least make an effort to lift their awareness.

I've done a lot of night driving in nearly 40 years and only hit 2 roos, one with a TJM steel bar, the other with an ARB. No damage to the bar in either case.

It should be made clear that if you are getting a bar for protection then only get a STEEL one from a quality manufacturer. Aluminium ones are just 'bling' and something to mount accessories on. I saw a Falcon panel van that had a home made bar on it in Mildura. He had hit a big red on the Sturt Highway. The bar was pretty straight, but the car was buckled in front of the windscreen. He told me the bar was boiler pipe filled with concrete!

I have visited the plastic Smart Bar manufacturers and was impressed with their product. Their main business is big plastic water tanks for farms, and they were nailing a lot of wildlife in their delivery trucks in the outback, which was causing a lot of insurance claims. So seeing as they had the equipment, they made a plastic bar for their trucks. They told me that their claims, and premiums, went down immediately. That gave them the idea to supply them for 4x4's, utes etc.

In the last 30 years I have hit dozens of Roos and Emus I have always been able to drive home with minimal damage.
I wouldnt have driven home if I didnt have one.

[QUOTE=Buncha;1265538]It should be made clear that if you are getting a bar for protection then only get a STEEL one from a quality manufacturer. Aluminium ones are just 'bling' and something to mount accessories on. /QUOTE]

Sorry mate, but this is crap.

There are plenty of decent alloy bars out there that offer good protection.

Yes - there are some pretty shoddy ones too (there are also some pretty ordinary steel ones about) - but if you fit a decent alloy bar properly, they offer pretty good protection from roo strike. They won't help much if you hit a bull (some people believe that this is what a "Bullbar" is for), but neither will a steel bar.

I've had alloy bars on my F100, Disco 1 and the current Disco 2 - have hit more than one or two roos in all of them, with never any damage to the vehicle. The brands of the three bars were Irvin (WA made) on the Ford, Bocar (Qld made) on the Disco 1 and ECB (also Qld made) on the current one.

The ECB "Big Tube" alloy bar has a good reputation as being a strong bar.

Yep - ECB - East Coast Bullbars are not cheap but there is a reason for that.

I have the TJM Steel and its stronger than the good alloy bars but not by much.

Cheers

Hiya I am new to the forum and found this one interesting - I have to say that yes I have a wrap around Roo Bar on the front of my car and even though no I have had the luck not to hit an animal (knock on wood) I have however run into the side of a truck due to the ignorance of another driver and whilst doing $10,000 damage to the truck I simply only broke my indicator light cover - I believe in Roo Bars and always have after many years travelling the outback of Australia such as the amazing Canning Stock Route and seeing what happens when you don't have one.

Missy E :)

Is a RAV4 an animal?
My son tried to park my D2 in the back of a RAV4 at a roundabout. Naturally it didn't fit, but the bullbar did minimise the damage to just the bullbar a bent hood on the Disco. I expect it would have been a lot worse, and more expensive repair without it.