Anyone experienced bullbar bending from winching?

[kiwi1973]

Badly stuck, I needed to do a maximal pull with my Runva 11xp premium 11,000 pound winch. The dyneema rope broke, which seems unusual in itself since that should have been rated well above the maximum load of the winch!? Anyway, tonight I've been trying to track down the cause of my bullbar appearing to have moved, opening up a gap between the headlight and bullbar. Where the bullbar brackets mount to the chassis all seems fine fortunately. Rather it appears the bar itself has bent slightly. It's a MCC Falcon steel bullbar, which is a bit of a copy of an ARB bullbar with the integrated reinforced style winch mount. It seems to have bent just slightly on the steel work for the integrated winch mount - a very slight bend there would appear to translate to about an inch gap at the sides of the headlights.

Anyone experience this before and how best fixed? My bullbar is under 12 months old. I should have done a double line pull to reduce stress, but should the bullbar not have been rated to handle the maximum pull of the winch? Not sure if I should be approaching the retailer for remedy here or not.

[TC.Barky]

Badly stuck, I needed to do a maximal pull with my Runva 11xp premium 11,000 pound winch. The dyneema rope broke, which seems unusual in itself since that should have been rated well above the maximum load of the winch!? Anyway, tonight I've been trying to track down the cause of my bullbar appearing to have moved, opening up a gap between the headlight and bullbar. Where the bullbar brackets mount to the chassis all seems fine fortunately. Rather it appears the bar itself has bent slightly. It's a MCC Falcon steel bullbar, which is a bit of a copy of an ARB bullbar with the integrated reinforced style winch mount. It seems to have bent just slightly on the steel work for the integrated winch mount - a very slight bend there would appear to translate to about an inch gap at the sides of the headlights.

Anyone experience this before and how best fixed? My bullbar is under 12 months old. I should have done a double line pull to reduce stress, but should the bullbar not have been rated to handle the maximum pull of the winch? Not sure if I should be approaching the retailer for remedy here or not.

Can't hurt to raise it with the manufacturer. Bet they'd be concerned about it!

[old Jack]

Double line pull would have reduced the load on the winch and rope but not the bulbar/winch mount.
Most ropes fail and mounts bend if you are winching at acute angles or are doing a drive assist and you jerk load the winch rope by losing tension and regaining it quickly, like sliding backwards on a slack rope..

Must be very firmly stuck!
I am sure there is a good story to tell and photos to share.

OJ.

[GHendo]

Double line pull would have reduced the load on the winch and rope but not the bulbar/winch mount.
OJ.

Yeah, as Jack says, a double line pull would still have the same about of stress on your bullbar – it’s just easier on the winch. I’m always careful when winching to watch the angle of the rope going back onto the drum. Even if you are straight on, sometimes all the rope goes down one end of the drum and I don’t like that. I suppose in some circumstances it’s not possible to stop and reconfigure your angles but that sort of thing would probably invite the rope breaking.

I’d be a bit concerned about the bullbar bending – I think you should definitely get in touch with the manufacturer.

Geoff

[P4J3R0]

Let the maker of the bar know.

Surely it must have been more than just stuck to bend the bar and brake the rope.

Could also be that the bar isn't rated for the load you were putting on it.

[Ent]

I think you might find yourself an orphan on this with the bullbar manufacturer as most if not all only rate their bullbar for a 9500lb winch. ARB, TJM and Opposite Lock all made this very clear when I was looking around.

Of course appeal to their better customer service instincts but expect this restriction to bite you.

[old Jack]

I think you might find yourself an orphan on this with the bullbar manufacturer as most if not all only rate their bullbar for a 9500lb winch. ARB, TJM and Opposite Lock all made this very clear when I was looking around.

Of course appeal to their better customer service instincts but expect this restriction to bite you.

All bars should be rated for a double line pull so if recommended winch is 9,500 lbs then bar should be able to withstand 19,000 lb load, which is still way more than the load a 11,000b winch can apply on a single line pull.

OJ.

[Ent]

Practically correct unless they argue it was point load rather than a distributed load across two points.

As said the maximum winch capacity was spelt out to me. Strangely if I had a bar already I would think that this fact not so clearly stated.

Steel quality probably has a lot to do with this failure. High strength steel and the weak point then is the chassis. Might be a case the bar is thick but not strong.

[kiwi1973]

I'm going to send the retailer some photos - not majorly bent, but I would like their comment. Thing is they sold me the 11,000lb winch and bullbar together at the same time. They made no mention of what the bullbar was rated to, or any restrictions on it - and honestly I don't think they actually are experienced enough to have any idea. So I don't think they could now try to say I'd fitted a too powerful winch and it's my fault, since they sold me this combination. As customer I believe I would be entitled to assume that the bullbar was rated to handle the winch I was supplied.

[NJV6]

Hi Kiwi, was it a straight pull? Synthetic rope that comes with the runva winches is not the same quality as the high end ones. I know you haven't had yours for long, dyneema doesn't like being wet and exposed to the sun, all the things we leave them in!!

[kiwi1973]

Hi Kiwi, was it a straight pull? Synthetic rope that comes with the runva winches is not the same quality as the high end ones. I know you haven't had yours for long, dyneema doesn't like being wet and exposed to the sun, all the things we leave them in!!

Hi, yes it was pretty much a straight pull - no jerking etc trying to drive - it was far too firmly stuck in deep mud for that. It is a Runva winch with 11mm Dyneema. The only thing I can think was a factor was that the car was down in a bit of a hole so there would have been an upwards angle involved that I couldn't do much about at the time.

As for the rope I've viewed a few Youtube videos on end to end splicing of Dyneema rope and last night I went ahead and performed the repair. It looks really good and strong, though I'll need to do a proper test to find out.

[kiwi1973]

Double line pull would have reduced the load on the winch and rope but not the bulbar/winch mount.
Most ropes fail and mounts bend if you are winching at acute angles or are doing a drive assist and you jerk load the winch rope by losing tension and regaining it quickly, like sliding backwards on a slack rope..

Must be very firmly stuck!
I am sure there is a good story to tell and photos to share.

OJ.

Just trying to get this clear in my mind. Am I right in thinking that it makes a difference whether the end of the winch line is connected back to either (1) the bullbar or (2) a separate recovery point on the chassis? For instance, with the Pajero you would connect the end of the 'double pull' winch line to one of the factory recovery points. So in this scenario we would have a maximum potential loading on the whole of the front of the vehicle of double the rating of the winch, but spread equally across the recovery point and the bullbar. Granted, both the recovery point and the bullbar ultimately are secured to the vehicle chassis, but there is a relevant difference. For instance if the end of the 'double pull' winch line were to be connected back to a recovery point on the bullbar then double the capacity of the winch (assume a max pull) is being loaded onto the bullbar and its mounting brackets to the chassis. So to summarise: (1) end of winch line goes to Pajero recovery point and stress on bullbar and its mounting brackets equals capacity of winch; or (2) end of winch line goes to recovery point on bullbar and stress on bullbar and its mounting brackets equals double the capacity of winch. Is this right?