Thread: What would you want in a rear bar???

what would i want in a bar out the back? whiskey!

sorry i couldnt resist when i read your subject!

Originally Posted by smac

what would i want in a bar out the back? whiskey!

sorry i couldnt resist when i read your subject!

ahhhh, single malt at least 10 years of age.
brilliant idea, mind if i join you?

My 2c worth,
I have a rear bar with a dual wheel carrier, and if you are only putting 1 on , just leave it on ther door.. they are not worth the hassle in town if you use the car as a daily driver..I only put my carriers on for trips..

I have 2 eye's fitted for recovery and they are a waste of time, and just something to bash your shins on..

Cant see the point of exhuast holes myself...Stick to the KISS method me thinks..


Cheers Ean

Originally Posted by Ean Austral

My 2c worth,
I have a rear bar with a dual wheel carrier, and if you are only putting 1 on , just leave it on ther door.. they are not worth the hassle in town if you use the car as a daily driver..I only put my carriers on for trips..

I have 2 eye's fitted for recovery and they are a waste of time, and just something to bash your shins on..

Cant see the point of exhuast holes myself...Stick to the KISS method me thinks..


Cheers Ean

I agree that one on the door is a good option. Just thinking of options for longer remote trips where 2 are needed. I dont like the idea of the load being on the roof.

Recovery points I do not like as mentioned above.

I have exhasut holes in the bar I am currently doing as I have already folded the exhaust under the disco once. It is a relatively easy option to put them in or leave them out.

my main concern for a rear bar is under quarter protection. Ill be cutting mine off square and running the bar right to the wheel arch as disco thrasher has done. I agree 100% about the recovery eyes in the bar I'd walk into them all day long. Ill be going for a single tire carrier but with integrated shovel and jack mounts.

I would be putting indicators into it in a slim line flush mounted LED and ditching the fog lamps altogether. Shamo has been making a good one that ticks many of these boxes. Search is your friend there are a few threads in here with a lot of good pics and opinions.

Originally Posted by CJT

I agree that one on the door is a good option. Just thinking of options for longer remote trips where 2 are needed. I dont like the idea of the load being on the roof.

Recovery points I do not like as mentioned above.

I have exhasut holes in the bar I am currently doing as I have already folded the exhaust under the disco once. It is a relatively easy option to put them in or leave them out.

On the 1 we made we put the dual pivots on the bar and on trips I carry 2 spares and its great, but in town its easier just to put the spare back on the door.
For strenght we made a plate that bolts onto the tow bar bracket( there's 2 bolts that go up towards the rear floor think 16mm bolts) and put a 45" anlge on the bracket and bolted it to the bar, hope that make's sense, we used the 4 existing bolts from original and then the bracket in the middle and it was great on our Canning and Gunbarrel trip..

I had a truck body builder help me with mine so it got abit technical to do a post on it, but it works well and have jacked the car using it so its strong enough.

Cheers Ean

I have spent a lot of time researching these rear bars, and have built my own. It was a quick one day job that I didn't put much thought into. I guess if you are going to build a bar, the design will go with what your car is set up to do.

For me aesthetics are important, if you are going to build something, you may as well be proud of what it looks like. I am not really a fan of the 1/4 panel chop, I took a little off mine but that is as far as i will go. You can reinforce the quarters enough without cutting the panels....but it does come down what you want your car to do. I also prefer the look of the factory tail lights, recessed into the bar.

Strength is also important, I made my MK1 bar too weak. I tried a different approach of using sheet metal and bracing the inside. While most of the home made D2 bars are very over engineered in my opinion, they will be more than up to the task off road. For my Mk2 bar, I will be using RHS but also utilising some lazy material removal techniques to keep the weight down.

As Ean mentioned, i don't see the point in swing out carriers, too much of a hassle to open the door.

Good idea drawing it up in CAD first, you could probably do some finite element analysis, which will give you a better idea of how strong the bar needs to be.

"if" I made one or had one custom made, the FIRST thing I would want is it to take the factory lights as NOTHING else looks right "imo".

Second I would make sure it mounted to the original mounts, then some additional bracing down to the tow bar points, without those I feel recovery points would simply pull the bumper off!!.

I like the idea of chopping it square along to the wheel arch area, (just got to be brave enough to do it) the Rovertym one does that and provides some under wing protection as well.

as far as tyre carrier goes, I like the swing out one, but as already posted if it was removable / option then it could be used only when needed. Also like the idea of a jerry can holder to like the 4x4 intelligence one.

So a combi of that and the rovertym would be very smart imo.