Thread: D4 Landrover Bull Bar - latest news

My main concern apart from the horrible looks (but I admit that is a personal thing) is not so much the material of the Land Rover bar but the design. When you look at it closely as someone else has mentioned it is just too close to the grille and bonnet and is nit strongly enough mounted and constructed. Of you hit a decent roo you will be replacing the bar and repairing the grille and bonnet.

Maybe it would do enough that it would protect the radiator and intercooler enough hat you could keep going, I don't know, but I wouldn't count on it.

For me, if I am going to spend that kind of cash I want to be pretty sure it is doing something, otherwise leave your front end clean and save the bucks.

Funny how when I was a young bloke, & thats possibly longer ago than I care to think about & working in the NW of WA..Goldsworthy and a couple of stations around Mingenew actually, in those days the purpose of a Roo bar as they were called then was to simply protect the radiator & keeping the car drivable.

Seems now it has to stop almost any damage to the frontal area completely. The LR bar although not the greatest looking, would I think do what it is supposed to do & protect the radiator from a skippy strike, however if it was used as a ball bar I don't think any bar would make the slightest difference, you would have one seriously buggered vehicle.

I assume it also weighs a considerable amount less than a steel bar as well, that must be a benefit over the normal steel bar.

Just my opinion though

Originally Posted by tiddy

Funny how when I was a young bloke, & thats possibly longer ago than I care to think about & working in the NW of WA..Goldsworthy and a couple of stations around Mingenew actually, in those days the purpose of a Roo bar as they were called then was to simply protect the radiator & keeping the car drivable.

Seems now it has to stop almost any damage to the frontal area completely. The LR bar although not the greatest looking, would I think do what it is supposed to do & protect the radiator from a skippy strike, however if it was used as a ball bar I don't think any bar would make the slightest difference, you would have one seriously buggered vehicle.

I assume it also weighs a considerable amount less than a steel bar as well, that must be a benefit over the normal steel bar.

Just my opinion though

I'm told, it's not that much lighter than the ARB steel Bar, which is 55kg, it was mentioned here I think from memory.

Baz.

Smacking a 4' Euro and having to do $5k in repairs is hardly a benefit to having a piece of tin foil up front.

A good bar will take the hit with little to zero damage to panels and bar..

As an example, my ARB on the D2 took a 6' Red at 100kmh+ and barely had a scar..

Chassis etc all were fine. Only the radiator being 10 years old and flexing in its mount caused a problem (unnoticed leak at tank join from the jolt through the vehicle) which lead to coolant loss and failure 400km later.

The D4 bar has deflected a few smaller ones without a mark.

Originally Posted by Redback

That says a lot for the ECB bars strength, I've only ever seen one ECB bar up close, I noticed they mount in front of the factory bumper, I would have thought this would take away clearence and approach angle as the mounting points would go under the bumper, but not having a really close look I couldn't say.

Most of the damaged alloy bars I've seen are those factory Nissan and Toyota jobs, they make a right mess after a roo strike.

Baz.

My old D2 has an ECB alloy bar on it (was on it when I bought it). Has cleaned up quite a few roos since I've had it and still no sign of damage to either the bar or the vehicle. It doesn't mount in front of the factory bumper, but replaces it - same arrangement as the ARB steel bar.

Before the D2 I had a D1 with a "Bocar" alloy bar on it -very similar design to the ECB. It also cleaned up a few roos with no damage apparent.

Not sure how the ECB bar for the D4 is mounted - haven't seen one.

I have an ARB steel bar on the D4 - because I ordered it new myself. I would always order a decent steel bar over alloy, because I believe them to be stronger. However, on the two Disco's that I've had which were fitted with decent alloy bars when I bought them - I've seen no real reason to discount a well made alloy bar either.

The flimsy piece of (alloy) crap that was fitted to my 2 door RRC when I bought it on the other hand was so obviously useless that I took it off and threw it away.

Don't really know how good, bad or otherwise the LR bar offered for the D4 is. But I've had a look at a couple close up. Personally I don't like the look of them at all - and I believe that they are mounted too close to the vehicle to offer any real protection in an impact with a roo at any reasonable speed.

I am not disregarding the protection advantage of steel an the weight disadvantage, but what I like about the factory unit is that there would never be any doubt over insurance as well as compatibility with sensors etc.

I have only hit three roos and every occasion they were into the side of the car and a bar would not have helped. The only reason for a bar, in MY context, is to mount things on, lights, antenna, winch, and to protect from brush rather than animal hits. The closest my last bar, on a defender, came to an animal was using the winch to hang a deer via a tree branch for butchering.

I still have not seen evidence that the LR bar can accept a winch.

Saw the colour coded ARB Bar on a 2014 model yesterday. Looks very good. Anyone heard if ECB or others have a decent nudge bar for the model?

My D4 was a dealer demo and came with the factory bar, and to be honest if it wasn't for the deal I got I'd have never gone with a car with the LR bar nor ever ordered it as an option. However..

The looks have grown on me. The top profile can only just be seen from inside making it not distracting but still gives a good visual boundary for navigating very close to obstacles, without tapping them.

The close profile reduces any additional length which suits my tight garage. An inch more and I'd be removing the tow ball to close the door and would have no hope of ever fitting a wheel carrier.

Certainly not as strong as steel, but its close fit design seems more to add strength to the existing bumper to improve impact characteristics though retain factory performance, spec and function.

It protects the lights and is lighter than steel, though the lack of proper antenna mounting plane or winch access is a big surprise!

Likewise it covers the front tow hook. Though I guess the fact the plastic cover is removable keeps it ADR friendly.

Also surprising was the screws used all rusted after the first visit to the beach. At servicing they rubbed off the surface rust and painted them sayign they'll order some staino screws if it happens again. Minor point but again makes you wonder if the designers actually had any consideration for off-roading when they were clicking their mouse buttons.

No surprise its been such a controversial option. I've come around though. If I did regular dawn/dusk country driving my opinion would be different, but sadly for most disco owners there's a lot more suburban and city use of the vehicle so therefor a balance of safety and performance takes priority over getting the vehicle home.

I'd much rather have a crumple zone in the event I drive into a solid object at the speed limit or above, or worse a head on collision. Happy to incur extra damage and let insurance deal with the repair than drive a slab of steel through the cabin of another car.

The steel / allow debate will go on forever. They probably should have released a more serious bar for those who genuinely need it, and leave those who don't with the stock bumper. Perhaps LR thought from a sales point they could only compete in the alloy market, though that wisdom was lost with the initial exorbitant price tag..

Anyway, for now I'll continue to proudly sport my LR bar (until a minor accident causes major damage and I start cursing LR for it).