Bull Bars: Mandatory or optional for touring?

Jack · Veteran Member

Bull Bars: Mandatory or optional for touring?

Santa · Guru

Guess it depends on your driving habits Jack, if your one of them that drives flat out with your eyes fixed on the centre line you need one, if you drive to conditions and are observant then probably not.

I've been driving on outback roads for almost 50 years and never felt the need to fit one. wink

Jack · Veteran Member

I drive to conditions and when towing, which we will be i do nothing flat out....tks for the advice

Santa · Guru

Just a personal opinion Jack, I'm sure others will disagree. smile

Cloak · Guru

They are expensive and handy if you go off road through the scrub or drive at night. We haven't bothered and never needed one.

Bunkerbob · Senior Member

They are a bit like insurance. Don't need it until something turns pear shaped. We have one because we used to do a lot of 4wding and need it to attach a winch.

Animals have strange habits when it comes to vehicles. When towing a trailer, you will be a lot heavier and swerving or hard braking are not really recommended.

While I am happy for people who drive years without the need, the time when you need it is the time to say thank goodness I had one.

It also depends on your tug. If the vehicle is a true 4wd, i.e. ladder frame, etc, they help but to fit a bar to a monocoque frame or indeed a normal road car, will interfere with the "crumple zone" ability of the vehicle. This can be more dangerous than not having a bar. IMHO

Bob

Hendo · Guru

I drove for years in the Patrol with out one,then one day a mate gave me one so I put on. I kid you not, the very next day I T-boned a ford station waggon that failed to give way. No damage to the Patrol but wrote the station waggon off. The story gets better, the station waggon was driven by the mates niece. She was not hurt at all except in the pocket. Police charged her with neg driving even though I tried to talk them out of it.

native pepper · Senior Member

Nudge bars are ok for urban area's and very slow speeds and aluminum bull bars are fine for keeping branches and small animals at bay. If you are worried about hitting a roo, sheep, bullock, cow, camel etc, you will need a strong steel spring one with side protectors. Anything else and you will have aluminum spaghetti pushed into your engine bay and wheel wells.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Driving on a highway at 11am, at a ladylike 80k's/hour I hit an Emu which waited till we were close then jumped out in front of us. Would have been more damage to the Prado without the bull-bar, but the end result for the emu would be the same.

A bull bar is a good place to hang your mats to dry after rain too

chopit · Senior Member

Many valuable comments above. All valid.
Have you looked into " Shu-roo's" ?
There are cheap little bullet shaped ones and there is an electronic device.
Here's the web site.

www.shuroo.com.au/Home.html

They have been around for a while & users love them.
Just to give you more to decide on.

JRH · Guru

chopit wrote:
Many valuable comments above. All valid.
Have you looked into " Shu-roo's" ?
There are cheap little bullet shaped ones and there is an electronic device.
Here's the web site.

www.shuroo.com.au/Home.html

They have been around for a while & users love them.
Just to give you more to decide on.

have been using the cheap bullet shaped shu roo's for a number of years now and I wouldn't travel without them. I find them invaluable and well worth the $8.00 I paid for them at Super Cheap.

Santa · Guru

Gerty Dancer wrote:
Driving on a highway at 11am, at a ladylike 80k's/hour I hit an Emu which waited till we were close then jumped out in front of us. Would have been more damage to the Prado without the bull-bar, but the end result for the emu would be the same.

A bull bar is a good place to hang your mats to dry after rain too

G'Day Gerty, yep emu's are notorious for doing this, had some visiting American friends stay with us last week, they headed from YP up into the Flinders, they were concerned about roos, we explained that emu's were even less predictable, if your in emu country slow down and be vigilant. wink

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Wouldn't travel without mine Jack, especially with the wombat scoop fitted smile Also have roo stoppers fitted.

Just don't go anywhere near black cats biggrin

Mick Woolnough · Veteran Member

I have spent most of my adult life driving country roads and I put a bull bar on every vehicle I use . the wife's car is a typhoon so no bullbar on it but I have shuroos and they are great

Mick Woolnough · Veteran Member

I have spent most of my adult life driving country roads and I put a bull bar on every vehicle I use . the wife's car is a typhoon so no bullbar on it but I have shuroos and they are great

Bello · Veteran Member

Have done about 200,000 klm in the past 10 years towing my van on all sorts of roads. On the 2 4x4s used I have fitted a good quality nudge bar. I thought that you can travel without lights but not without a radiator. I only travel in daylight hours and have never had any trouble.

Don'y worry too much just get out there and travel.

Jack · Veteran Member

Thank you everybody for the advice, I will now have a think. Looking forward to the trip though ... :)

Santa · Guru

Regardless of what you decide re a bull bar Jack, enjoy your trip.

I've done it many times and never tire of it, a great drive! smile

Zoomtopz · Guru

when they fitted "bull bars" to Semi's originally , th centre of the bar rose to cover the height

of the radiator , with a bit of protection for the lights . My belief , if you hit something hard enough ,

things break , as I said , the bar was original built to protect th radiator from cow heads & horns ,

now they are more of a accessory. My nudge bare is as solid as any bulbar I have ever had .

Most of the time a bull bar can cause More damage as well .

a bit of false security

deverall11 · Guru

We never thought a bull bar was necessary until we were surprised by kangaroos. It is more the unexpected, no matter how careful you are. For me, a decent ARB bull bar is easier that having the van jack knife trying to stop or avoid it. Jack, and many others, you may travel for years without requiring a bull bar, but that one time is all it takes. A decent bull bar will not move unless it is a huge beast. Nudge bars are just that.
Larry

Baz421 · Guru

deverall11 wrote:
We never thought a bull bar was necessary until we were surprised by kangaroos. It is more the unexpected, no matter how careful you are. For me, a decent ARB bull bar is easier that having the van jack knife trying to stop or avoid it. Jack, and many others, you may travel for years without requiring a bull bar, but that one time is all it takes. A decent bull bar will not move unless it is a huge beast. Nudge bars are just that.
Larry

Agree with Larry here,,, lived in the NT for 25 years,, no bar till we started towing the van as we can't manouvre as easily, now and even slowly have had a few near misses as we really go bush ( have had to stop and ask farmers if we could get the van through some "roads").

Animals,,,, cattle, usually fairly predictable,, except the bull that runs across the road flat out (have seen one cause the best wobble/congo line in a road trian at 100% brakes)

Roos, well they are everywhere, worst in drought looking for pick along the road or near water

Emu's, well they seem to be idiots on legs with adeath wish,, last trip in QLD one ran into the side of a van and destroyed the annex poles

Sheep, usually run a 100 miles to get away, but stupid and unpredictable

Goats, switched on generally and get out of the way (like crows),, saw a family of 3 go under a culvert as we approached north of cobar last year, and eventually came out the other side.

Apart from the above attempt to be amateurishly analytical ANIMALS ARE TOTALLY UNPREDICTABLE, so we have to AVOID THEM,,,,, but if you can't a bull bar can stop you having one in your lap (they can stop em sliding up over fancy 4WD aerodynamic bodies) which is my greatest fear.

grahos · Guru

I have had vehicles with and without bull bars,You always feel safer with a bar particularly
when out from long grass or trees an animal steps into your pathway.
As I was typing this a mate arrived with a smashed vehicle from a roo.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.