Steel vs alloy

[dads tractor]

Airbags shouldn't go off till above 60-65kph in a direct hit or so the police and fire rescue told me while they were cutting a woman out of a car I t-boned after she pulled out in front of me. That hit was around 50-55 kph and pushed my tjm t13 steel bar back and punctured both tyres and damaged both rims and the new bull bar never sat the same as the chassis was bent and the holes needed to be elongated to fit.

Sorry airbags in a 4x4 are a lot of shite from personal experience no1 son swerved to miss a dog got crossed up locked up and torn the front diff out of a tojo tray (total write off) no2 son was hit by a out of control trailer that took out his front diff engine mounts 1 side and also total write off and there mates have had similar accidents around the 80 to 100 k mark and the air bags have not activated.

[Clunk]

I've no experience in this but the way I look at it is these Patrols of ours have no real crumple zone, adding a big strong heavy steal bull bar has now eliminated what little crumple zone and seeing as it's attached to the chassis, damage to the chassis may be greater but damage to panels may be limited.
Aluminium being a softer material may act as more of a crumple zone, causing more damage to panels but less to the chassis........... Like I said, I have no experience and am quite happy for someone who knows about metals and stresses and such like to tell us more about it

[sooty_10]

Do you think I could get this straightened out??

[sooty_10]

Personally I'm glad it was a steel bullbar. Although the front of the bar doesn't look too bad the back of it and the mounts are all bent up. This was a fairly solid impact of a Mercedes bouncing of the bullbar at approx 70km/h, I was doing < 10km/h. I had just started a right turn when he shot through the red.

*note the end of the chassis sticking out the bottom left of the bullbar.

[sooty_10]

And this is what happens when you try to have a head on with steel.

[sooty_10]

I do have another bullbar which had a little mishap into a tree out in the bush. Didn't feel like much of an impact. But did push the bar back into the bonnet a little and smashed my drivers headlight. ill grab a pic of the bar tomorrow, but again I was thankful it was steel, would have hit at a similar 20km/h that mudrunner did. It hit right in front of the drivers headlight on the side wing, as far as I know the chassis is still as straight as it was. Haven't had it measured though, replacement bar fitted up no dramas. The bullbar simply pushed back on the slotted bolt holes and the mounts (airbag compatible) compressed a little bit.

[happygu]

Hi all

I was wondering what sort of bullbar is better at protecting the patrols chassis if you hit a tree or log or what ever. I'm mainly curious to those who have steel bullbars and have hit things front on fairly hard and whether this has caused damage/bends to the front chassis. I'm guessing that the alloy bars would offer a little bit of flexibility with regards to front end strikes, but I don't have any first hand experience so I'm curious to what everyone else thinks.

Cheers

Andy

Andy.

If protecting the chassis is the most important thing to you, then I would seriously look at the Plastic SmartBar, which deforms when hit, but will go back to its normal shape after a while - and pretend like nothing has ever happened. Really good for small bumps - but not as good at protecting the body of the car

[threedogs]

a 4x4 with an alloy bar ran up the butt of my Troopy once out on the tracks.
the alloy bar on the 80s had to be cut off to enable the driver to continue, damage bill was $6000.
No damage to my home made bar, except a few weeks later my swing away fell off.
The owner of the 80s fixed it for me, to go alloy you'll need to double the thickness.
Most 4x4 with alloy bars will come from QLD and coastal areas

[Clunk]

a 4x4 with an alloy bar ran up the butt of my Troopy once out on the tracks.
the alloy bar on the 80s had to be cut off to enable the driver to continue, damage bill was $6000.
No damage to my home made bar, except a few weeks later my swing away fell off.
The owner of the 80s fixed it for me, to go alloy you'll need to double the thickness.
Most 4x4 with alloy bars will come from QLD and coastal areas

What damage was done to the chassis?????? The topic isn't about what bar is stronger, it's about what bar will cause the most/least damage to your chassis in an accident

[sooty_10]

The way I see it, if the force is enough to bend and twist the steel of a solid bulbar and it's mounts (which give reasonable crumple) then the damage to the chassis is going to happen regardless if there is a softer alloy bar. The alloy bar will simple crush like a tin can and then more of the energy is going to be transferred into your chassis....imo.