alloy bar to custom steel bar

[brynk]

g'day all

the need for a new front bar has become apparent. after a fair bit of research on what's available out there, it seems that short of scoring a bargain, you're looking at around $1000 bucks to get something half-decent on there... and given that the alloy bars seems to be the thing that gets replaced (instead of doing the replacing), well they don't do much to offset the cost.

i was under recently fitting the harris hardcase and happened to notice the mounting brackets for the factory alloy bar looked distinctly steel. so ol sub-conscious got to work and the next time the pathway to the fore-brain was sufficiently lubricated, a brilliant idea slid in with force enough to lodge itself in the area reserved only for the latest mad-cap scheme.

so a question - has anyone (or does anyone know of someone?) taken the factory mounting of an alloy bar and used that as the basis for a leaner, mea... eeer, kinder something that can support a winch and offer an improved angle of attack?

capabilities are cutting & welding; would be happy to direct funds into tooling up for bending & notching as well, but i have also seen those pre-bent sections in the steel shop and figure they might work out just as good.

i'm not a big fan of the air-bag at the moment (i wonder what it would take to set the bastard off) so while compliance with the airbag triggering system would be a nice side-effect, i'm not afraid to make it disappear either.

any thoughts you might have on the matter would be greatly appreciated

r's brynk

[Finly Owner]

Ok first thing first. If you disable airbag you will void all insurance claims and you will be accountable for all passenger injuries in the event of a vehicular accident.

And yes precut short lennghts are stronger to make a bull bar with.

As for winch mounting I have no experience with that yet.

Tim

[YNOT]

A winch can be very easily fitted (via a half inch thick steel plate) behind the GU factory alloy bar but that does nothing to improve approach angles.
Tim is right about disconnecting or disabling airbags, not a good idea. For legal reasons you are probably best off staying with airbag compatible bars.

Tony

P.S. Triggering airbags is easy, I've deployed dozen of airbags (including 6 similtaneosly-very entertaining!) with a single AAA battery.

[Finly Owner]

A winch can be very easily fitted (via a half inch thick steel plate) behind the GU factory alloy bar but that does nothing to improve approach angles.
Tim is right about disconnecting or disabling airbags, not a good idea. For legal reasons you are probably best off staying with airbag compatible bars.

Tony
Oh you are seriously 1 pranking work mate.
P.S. Triggering airbags is easy, I've deployed dozen of airbags (including 6 similtaneosly-very entertaining!) with a single AAA battery.Oh you are seriously 1 pranking work mate.

[YNOT]

Oh you are seriously 1 pranking work mate.

You have no idea some of the pranks I've done at work! The airbags were just to fill in a quiet afternoon.

Tony

[MudRunnerTD]

. Triggering airbags is easy, I've deployed dozen of airbags (including 6 similtaneosly-very entertaining!) with a single AAA battery.


:useless:

Your a tease Tony, ya cant put that out there and not post the video!!

[Finly Owner]

:useless:

Your a tease Tony, ya cant put that out there and not post the video!!
Video phones weren't available when he was an apprentice.

Tim heheheheee

[YNOT]

Video phones weren't available when he was an apprentice.

Tim heheheheee

Actually you're right about video phones when I was an apprentice, but airbags were not available either at the time. The airbag incident was only 4 years ago and the video is long gone. I might have to talk to my former work mates and see if I can get hold of a few airbags for a bit of fun, if I'm successful there will be video.

Tony

[patch697]

Actually you're right about video phones when I was an apprentice, but airbags were not available either at the time. The airbag incident was only 4 years ago and the video is long gone. I might have to talk to my former work mates and see if I can get hold of a few airbags for a bit of fun, if I'm successful there will be video.

Tony


In or out of a car??? ..... Im tipping in would be quite entertaining.....lolol

[YNOT]

In or out of a car??? ..... Im tipping in would be quite entertaining.....lolol

Out of the car. They were all ex warranty airbags that were either faulty or had marks on the trim, the manufacture didn't want the bags back so they got stacked up in the corner until I got bored one afternoon. We were setting them off in the bin lifter cage of the compactor..........until we lifted the cage off it's mountings!

I'll clean this thread up soon and move some posts over to general banter.

Tony

[brynk]

thanks for the advice so far and Tony i would love to see that vid ! investigation continues into spec's, adr's & standards