Ranger Mods

Hi Guys,
I'm thinking of getting a bulbar to try and minimise the frontal damage from hitting a large kangaroo which are in plentiful supply where I live. Obvious question is which one is the best to get, plastic (Smartbar), alloy or steel?
I am hoping to hear from others who have unfortunately hit a large roo and how much protection the bar gave and or how much damage was done to the vehicle?

Any helpful comments appreciated.

Cheers,

Rick

Rick,

this is a NO-Brainer - Steel. But to have proper protection from an animal collision you need the 3 hoop style.

Alloy is weaker, plastic is what you got now, only the plastic bullbar is thicker - it won't provide much protection.

Although it all depends on the speed you are travelling when you hit.

Most steel bars wont help with larger camels, horses or other larger animals like cattle. But they will limit the damage.

Something I am considering is a ShuRoo, it is a speaker system that scares the wild life out there before you get there.
The commercial industry claim to have reduced incidents, but not eliminate them.

Perhaps a combination is best.

Cheers
RagerNator2

With respect Rick, I disagree, although I haven't hit a roo yet to test things out with my current Smartbar Stealth. I have however, spoken with someone that has and they said that it performed really well. While it did deform, it actually returned back to its original shape over a number of hours. The anecdotal evidence I have heard about them is all pretty positive.

The main reason I went with the Smartbar is because they only weigh 24kg and I need to keep my weight as low as I can to legally tow my 3.1t van. I don't have hoops, but I wanted some protection while also giving me somewhere to mount my spots and aerials.

Read about it from the designers, manufacturers and people that know.

https://www.4x4australia.com.au/gear/ve ... yers-guide

Enjoy

I do rate Gerry's bar. It's a nice bit of kit and feels pretty solid.

saeb wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2017 7:49 pm I do rate Gerry's bar. It's a nice bit of kit and feels pretty solid.

Bwahahahah....You might want to rephrase that comment Stewart, before someone gets the wrong impression.

LOL

I did read it and it sounded wrong but hey at least people are reading!!

Nice bar Gerry.

I've hit a few with the ARB bar on my Disco, it performed very well, has never deformed and all we had as a result of the collisions was fresh roadkill for dinner that evening. (While this is technically illegal its a shocking waste not to put the meat to good use). As for the sonic Roo Whistles, I found them totally useless, a couple of reasons for that statement, one is they simply dont work unless you are driving at over 80 kph, something I never do on dirt tracks in the bush and only on open country roads and again, seldom at dusk when Roos are at their most active, secondly at even over 80 kph their sonic range seems to be abysmal, when I had two fitted on the ARB bull bar we noticed that the Roos turned to look at our Disco when we were about 50 meters away meaning that we were well within the minimum breaking distance should the Roo have tried to run across the road in front of us, at 80 kph the sonic range needs to be at least 150 metres or more for the Roo to hear it, turn to see where the noise is coming from and react and try to get away from the unpleasant sound. Lastly they dont work with Wombats or Emu's !