After yet another animal strike I thought I'd give some good feedback on ARB bull bars. I've had an ARB bull bar on each of my last three vehicles. A ZJ Jeep Grand Cherokee, an NP Pajero and an NW Pajero. Each one of these vehicles received numerous unavoidable impacts with kangaroos (and emu's!), probably 6-8 over all the vehicles. Most were at speeds of 80kph or higher. The latest was just a couple of weeks ago at 85kph on a dirt Outback road in WA.
The 'roos have ranged in size; most were medium to large, but not huge. The noise of these impacts was considerable and in each case I was concerned at the possible damage done until I stopped to check the animal and the front end. There has been no damage whatsoever on any of these bars! One of the larger 'roos hit the drivers side section of the bar under the headlight area, still no damage at all!
All I can say is full credit to the ARB design team for building bars designed for this purpose without compromise. I know that no Mitsubishi OEM bars would have withstood these impacts without bent components and panel damage. I doubt that any alloy bar on the market would have survived these impacts either. A number of the other steel bars on the market would have also had no chance, as they have no strengthening in critical areas.
If you're looking for real frontal protection, particularly if you travel remotely and need to be able to continue driving your vehicle, you can't go past an ARB bull bar in my opinion.
The 'roos have ranged in size; most were medium to large, but not huge. The noise of these impacts was considerable and in each case I was concerned at the possible damage done until I stopped to check the animal and the front end. There has been no damage whatsoever on any of these bars! One of the larger 'roos hit the drivers side section of the bar under the headlight area, still no damage at all!
All I can say is full credit to the ARB design team for building bars designed for this purpose without compromise. I know that no Mitsubishi OEM bars would have withstood these impacts without bent components and panel damage. I doubt that any alloy bar on the market would have survived these impacts either. A number of the other steel bars on the market would have also had no chance, as they have no strengthening in critical areas.
If you're looking for real frontal protection, particularly if you travel remotely and need to be able to continue driving your vehicle, you can't go past an ARB bull bar in my opinion.
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