Tuff Bar Vs Smart Bar for high Speed Kangaroo strikes.

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Crossing the nullabor last night.. 4x4 with a smart bar and a roo strike outside belladonia..
Disabled the car, to the point it's been left there to be trucked out for repairs.
We hit a Roo with an East coast bar (ECB) same stretch in the transit race transporter.
Dead on the mount point area, cannot even really see where it hit. Apart from some fur and blood.

[Pog Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pog]

Go the Tuff bar!

I had had 6 x Hiluxes over the past 13 years. The SR 4x4 that I got rid of last year, had a Toyota Steel Bar with Side Rails and a set of Lightforce XGTs. I hit about 12 roos over 3 years with that ute, 3 - 4 big ones, and the bar hardly moved at all. All of the roo strikes were at high speed.

My previous Hilux SR 4x4 had a white smart bar, and when I hit a big roo at 100km/hr between Mildura & Renmark, the roo pretty well destroyed the front end, causing 14k damage, and rendered the car off the road for 8 weeks.

My new SR5 Hilux has the Toyota Alloy bar on it, and I have a set of lightforce 170 strikers mounted, but I am not at all confident that this bar will standup to a big roo, as the gap between the brand the panels is not very much. I went this option for this ute, because I don't do as much country driving any more, and I reckon the alloy bar looks sweet, if it is kept clean.

For my Prado, I have just ordered an ARB Deluxe winch bar, colour coded pearl white.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

I've hit a mid size roo at about 100kmh up in the Flinders. ARB Sahara bar, hit below the drivers headlight at dusk. Roo went under the car and we bounced over it. Zero visible damage.

Not liking the sound of the SmartBar strikes. I probably would have bought one of those if they made them for the 120, but not now.

[tactical71 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close tactical71]

UPDATE on this! So I ended up with a Smartbar. Ive had it for just over a year now. Hit nothing with until now. All the roos over the last year avoided the Smartbar and hit the side panels on the car DAMN IT! That is until now.

Hit a large male roo at 100km/h going into work at 3.30am. The bar performed well under the circumstances. It collapsed and absorbed the impact and then catapulted the roo back out onto the road infront of me again, so i had to swerve to avoid running over it (albiet at a much slower spped by then). Damage to bonnet, headlight unit, side quarter panel, passenger door, front skirt, grill, plastic bits etc. However no damage to any engine parts, steering or suspension so able to continue my drive into work and have since been using the car for a week to drive to work and home while Im waiting for the insurance assesor to check it out. Verdict. The bar perfromed as they manufacturer said it would. It didn't prevent damage to the car itself, but drastically reduced the amount of damage that would have occurred had there been no bull bar fitted. Did it perform any better or worse than a mainstream steel bullbar? I don't think so. I think it performed as well as.
Am I going to get another one? No. Why you ask? Accessories! Smart bars vibrate so much you cannot mount antennas on them. I have been through 4 separate antennas over the last 12 months. All of varying types and makes. All have broken off from the vibration( I live on a dirt road). Brush bars. You cannot mount brush bars to a smart bar. Spotties and foggies. There is only minimal room to mount spotties and foggies and its fiddly and difficult to do so. So what am I getting. Im going back to a Powerful 4x4 premium bar. Costings. Smartbar - @$1800 with no extras and no bash plates. Powerful 4x4 Premuim bar with fog lights fitted and all round bash plates including under the wings - $1099.00 That leaves me almost $800 in the hand. So, Powerfull 4x4 Brushbars and side steps for my Prado - whole set $799!! Perfect. And I can mount some new antennas and spotties on it with ease. That is all.

[Bobba Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bobba]

That's interesting as my Smart Bar experience is quite different, but I think the design has changed a lot...our 90 Series Smartbar looks like a hooped metal bar from a distance and our Lightforce 240's fit in no worries. The new ones look quite close to the bodywork while ours has plenty of space to flex. Our UHF and mobile phone antenna are fine after 7-8 years, including a 6 month trip around Oz and living here in the bush. While we dodge roos every morning and afternoon going into town and back, we have only hit a medium size roo at 80km/hr (I've hit more in the old Triton, and nearly all have been into the side of the ute) and you can't tell where it hit. I don't know if I'd stick a Chinese made steel bar in front of either of our cars, I really think you get what you pay for with the ARB/TJM/ECB bars made here.

[Dakkas Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dakkas]

Smartbars are the goods - the fleet of the department I work for has fitted all their hilux's with smart bars. These vehicles go all over the Northern Territory and the fleet manager has been impressed at the significant cost savings in repairs - both in terms of animal strikes - and cracked guards due to less weight on the front end (winch still attached).

In one case a hilux hit a roo at 130km/h on the Stuart highway and only suffered a busted headlight. Certainly no foldback onto the bonnet or pushing into radiators have been noted - even when one hit a buffalo (rest of car was stuffed though but radiator fine).

They're certainly a good bit of gear based on what I've seen.

[shonky 150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close shonky 150]

tuff bar vs roo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rATTBDVt6A

[leethal1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close leethal1]

tuff bar vs roo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rATTBDVt6A

Thats says it all...

[tactical71 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close tactical71]

tuff bar vs roo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rATTBDVt6A

Yeah, no question about whether TUFF bars prevent damage. Just the $$$ to buy one and the extra weight on the front end. Im only going away from the smart bar because I can't get side protection with one, or under bar protection and the damn thing vibrates too much for my antenna farm. Other than that, I don't mind them.

[leethal1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close leethal1]

Yeah, no question about whether TUFF bars prevent damage. Just the $$$ to buy one and the extra weight on the front end. Im only going away from the smart bar because I can't get side protection with one, or under bar protection and the damn thing vibrates too much for my antenna farm. Other than that, I don't mind them.

I agree with the vibration issue, i just snapped off an aerial on the gibb river rd, shook nuts out of my hella rallye driving lights and snapped off 2 cheaper hella commet flood lights. Just glad i didint buy arb's led lights, there were a lot of them broken...

[NatSX Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close NatSX]

I have a smart bar. It's had 1 serious strike at its weakest/most flexible point (ie at the outside quarter) and handled it well. I would buy another one as my likely strike rate is low and weight is important to me. Having said that...... If my driving patterns and strike rate were like yours so I had other priorities then would think a big heavy tuff bar would probably win out.
For my strike the flex was enough to absorb impact with minor cracking in the original plastic bumper behind but that's it. Drove away, can barely see damage, bar good as new..... but not expecting it to work out that way every time.