Thread: Driving light suggestions for a D3

Hi PCH, that’s a different bar again, but I’ll take your advice.

The bull bar I saw not as robust as the ARB one but still looked good, but I must admit, your pictures of the other bar have got me thinking.

This other bar may suffer from the same potential problem.

Cheers.

Hi Disconut, I have a brother-in-law in NW NSW and he has a Sho-Roo fitted to his 4x4 and swears be it.

Cheers.

I've travelled across the country many times, back and forth....Mostly at night.

I've only ever tapped 1 roo and that was a nudge with the fairlead (locking up a 35" tyred Disco at 110km/h towing a camper is interesting :!: ) Hit her with the fairlead at less than 40k's.

I attribute the event to my driving lights (at the time 4 on roof, 2 on the nose) giving me ample time to see it coming through the scrub (it was 1 of 3, the other 2 got out the way).

Other than that, in 16 years of crossing the zones most likely I've never hit a roo or come close. Its the law of averages at play, Shu-Roo are almost ineffective.

Roos to the front of the vehicle have been shown to not react to the noise or from a mate of mine, he turned his on and it drew the attention of the roos on the barrier hwy rather than scare them off.

There was some testing done where a vehicle ShuRoo equipped was parked near some roos. WHen the unit was activated they did NOT react at all. This test has been repeated several times with the same conclusion.

Shu-Roo, Fuel Star, HiCLone, Microsoft..... All in the same boat!!! 8)

ShuRoos biggest performance benefit to drivers is self confidence (they believe roos arent a risk anymore) allowing them to drive at faster speeds with less "Roo Observation" and therefore less stress :wink:

Just like people that believe that bullbars will take a roo strike at 110km/h... The dynamics of a direct strike in that situation defy a bullbar/chassis ability to withstand such an impact (unless its a very small roo). Bullbars are effective to around 60km/h full impact. Otherwise ineffective - But they inspire confidence to the driver!

Cheers
Mike
(Devils Advocate)

I disagree!

Bullbars are not psychological. If you've ever hit a big roo without one and discovered the effect of having a smashed radiator a few hundred km from the nearest town then you'll know what I mean.

A bullbar may just be the thing that protects the car enough to limp home.

It may not save your car, but it may save time, money and maybe even your life!

Read my post again!!!!

I pointed out that crash dynamics over 60km/h means.....

100Km/h + Big Roo + Centralised Hit = FUBAR, big time :!:

Your vehicle will however be limpable (is that a word? I've used it in a sentence now so yes!) if your lucky, but chassis dynamics + Roo mass at 100km/h is pretty much death to the vehicle (as well as the roo)

A glancing or off centre blow however is definately a possibility to survive with a decent bar!

My point was a large number of motorists believe their 4wd to be "much safer" with the bar to swipe roos with, when in reality its a mental thing. Lets face it, at night would you drive the Barrier Highway at 110km/h without a Bar considering the Roos lining the sides?

Cheers
Mike

I’ve managed to hit 6 roos so far and the first was by far the worst.

As posted above, I hit two in my D1.

Prior to that, I hit two in my toyota and that had a bull bar that, although damage, did manage to take the brunt of force and only left small indents in the bonnet.

Prior to that, I hit one in my Charger and that roo took out a driving light and a headlight.

But the best one was while driving a brand new Ford station wagon ( this will give you an idea of how long ago this was ) the speedo showed 85 MPH when I hit one big mother of a roo.

The bonnet opened back over the windscreen so I couldn’t see where I was going and once I finally stopped and had a look, the radiator was wrapped around the engine, the headlights were nearly pointing at one another.

The car was $4,000 new ( about 4 weeks earlier ) and there was $2,000 worth of damage. Thank god it was State Rail’s vehicle.

I definitely have a healthy respect for what roos can do, cheers.

I've lost count of the roo strikes I've had in the last four years. The worst one we had was actually about ten years ago and i was doing about 130km/h when I hit the picks. I was still doing 50km/h when I hit him. It smashed the alloy bullbar on the Patrol, which bent back in and wrecked the drivers side head light, grille, bonnet and guard. At least the radiator was still Ok.

The biggest hit I've had was about four months ago. I was doing 90km/h (known Roo country and it was close to dusk) when a big Wallaroo came out of the scrub flat out. I was still doing close to 80km/h when I hit him front and centre. He pitched me a little sideways going under the back wheels as well. The only damage was a mangled front numberplate and a ding in the stone shield of the steering damper. (yes, I checked everything out when I got home) The difference this time was I have a steel bullbar on the Defender.


We fitted a Shoo Roo when we bought SWMBO's Patrol four years ago, and it isn't worth a pinch of poop. We've hit as many Roos in that as the Defender, and have a huge ding in the (alloy) bullbar, and a ding in the passenger door to show for it. Her old mans Citroen copped one in the 'A' pillar, and he was also Shoo Roo equiped.
I've played all the games with it, turning it on and off etc. right in front of them and it really has little to no effect, except for one that came closer to check it out. :wink:

Where we live, we can only travel at around 50km/h at night on the dirt, and about 70-80km/h on the bitumen as there are so many around. I've had them run into me at speeds as low as 20km/h. A bullbar is a necessity around here.

I hit one big western grey 100km from here in the Subaru. I was doing 100kph and was towing a trailer. It jumped straight out of the bush onto the road in front of the car. No bar work on the car at all.

$6,500 worth of panel damage (including a new radiator) later the car was back on the road. Luckily for me the radiator was only cracked and I could still drive home.

The same car hit a Mazda 121 at 60kph (the Mazda went through a stop sign). This time the Suby had an alloy bar from SubaXtreme. The bar weas bent a little and there was some panel damage, but not even the lights were broken.

8) 8) 8)