Hi, all I want to put a bull bar on the motor home been advised alloy is better being light weight, anyone know a reliable co. I could contact? I'm in Melbourne.
-- Edited by Frangipani on Friday 4th of July 2014 11:29:39 AM
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Hello Frances, don't know that I would trust an alloy bullbar when it comes to kangaroos. We looked at all options when time came to fit a bullbar and ended up with an ARB steel bar. We did speak to people who had encountered roos and they were adamant that without the steel bar they would not have been able to carry on. An alloy bar is fine for small stuff (read wallabies, foxes). A roo that is over five feet tall will go through your alloy bar. Weight is not an issue if the kangaroo has bent your bar and you become immobile as a result.
Ideally one should avoid driving when the roos are active, however, most people who have had encounters with roos will tell you 'they did not have an option to avoid it.
Good luck,
Larry
Big difference between a "roo bar" & "bull bar" Have run four post alloy bars on 4 wheel drives & small trucks in the Pilbara for many years & had plenty of impacts with roo's, donkeys, even a camel, the only time I damaged a vehicle was hitting a drought master bull, even prime movers get written off by those big suckers. Hit a big roo on our WA trip in March near Carnarvon, smashed the spotlights & cracked the windscreen but the only thing that held us up was me settling my nerves with a cuppa before we got on our way again. Have purchased a newer Coaster and fitted one of these from Irvin Bullbars from Perth, worth the extra freight to the NT.
Custom alloy are about the best alloy bullbar, they use the thickest tube of all of the alloy manufacturers, I had one on my sprinter and then the 4wd after that, they unfortunately don't make any for 4wds any more but make truck ones only now, should still be available for the light commercials, TJM and East coast Bull bars are all using thinner tube now, I had an accident last month with the alloy bar and it worked wonderfully, car still drivable, if you are worried about weight on the front, you can't get better, good luck!!
Kevin.
I have no interest in Custom Alloy, they are just great bars with the best tube available.
Surplus weight and expense.
When your insurance company gives a discount for fitting one, then reconsider it.
Slow down a touch, don't drive early or late and you are unlikely to need one.
Hello Frances, don't know that I would trust an alloy bullbar when it comes to kangaroos. We looked at all options when time came to fit a bullbar and ended up with an ARB steel bar. We did speak to people who had encountered roos and they were adamant that without the steel bar they would not have been able to carry on. An alloy bar is fine for small stuff (read wallabies, foxes). A roo that is over five feet tall will go through your alloy bar. Weight is not an issue if the kangaroo has bent your bar and you become immobile as a result. Ideally one should avoid driving when the roos are active, however, most people who have had encounters with roos will tell you 'they did not have an option to avoid it. Good luck, Larry
I would trust a alloy bar that is built well any day have a look at my avata pic that alloy bar on the road train has been on two trucks the first one did 3.2 million ks this one has done 2.6 million ks it has hit 1,000's 0f roo's and some of the biggest roo's you have ever see I might add. it has hit camels, cattle and 100's of pig ect we do not slow down for roo's it would be a waste of time and fuel I hit a bull just out of Walgett around midnight on one trip he came out of nowhere even after braking as hard as I could I still hit him doing about 50ks all it did was push the side of the bar back on to the head light part of the bonnet. The high tensile alloys that are around today are awesome. They built semi trailers from this stuff,
Cheers
The HAts
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I was unlucky to find the biggest Kangaroo I could find to hit when driving home with the Coaster we bought, It came out of nowhere never seen it till I hit it and unfortunately it went right through underneath holing the radiator and ripping water hoses off underneath. Have since put a Alloy 4 poster Bullbar on and had a guard made out of angle iron and steel mesh that goes 200mm in front of the radiator.
I made the mistake of driving it home during the night and hindsight is a wonderful thing, So it will never be driven at night again but still you never know. In my 50 years of driving this is only the 2nd one I've hit driving on the roads. But when I was driving trains that was another thing, Have hit horses, dogs, wombats, pigs and quite a few very large bulls. Now when a Bull goes under it can be scary.
To me the main object of having protection up front is to protect your radiator, So if the Bullbar does that then it is worth the expense as puncturing a radiator in the middle of nowhere is a real PITA. Had a gent call into our town within the last month with a 200 series cruiser and he hit 4 Kangaroos about 6 km from town all in a bunch just before dawn and it stuffed his radiator.
The relative merits of steel and alloy,, come down to a couple of things ie if both have a 60,000lb tensile strength in materiel, then it comes down to design and weight,,, that's about all you need to consider IF they are built professionally.
Also there seems to be a "misconception" that you only hit roos and bulls etc in the night or near dawn/dusk.
Seen plenty hit during the day and missed heaps as well.
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Thanks Merriman n Baz421, I'm taking all this in, yes I know roos are around during the day, a whole mob of them jumped onto the road about 200 metres in front of me, coming back from Portland, and I was driving a Barina at the time, lucky she has good brakes, I thought they were a flock of big birds from a distance, until they started jumping..
-- Edited by Frangipani on Wednesday 9th of July 2014 10:30:12 AM
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