smartbar bullbar

[hulbyw]

White Smartbar is not as vivid a white as the Prado, so not a perfect match. Yes, they are white plastic. Just done around 14000 klm trip to the Kimberleys and back. Red dust and mashed bugs need a fair bit of work to clean off, but the plastic doesn't appear to stain. Didn't do any real scrub pushing this trip but as the finish of the white plastic is matt, scratches don't seem to be an issue.
Just make sure that whoever fits the Smartbar tightens up the bolts where the plastic mounts to the steel. The bolts need to be tight but not so tight that the nutserts in the plastic spin. Lastly, if you get a winch compatible Smartbar, you may have to use spacer washers/plates if you fit after market recovery points, as the winch cradle is bolted on to the bottom bolt hole for the recovery point ( so far I have not fitted recovery points so I cannot be more specific)
Cheers.......Wayne

[Trevc]

The ambos in QLD have white bars fitted - they're a white plastic and unlikely a direct match.I've got the pearl white and chose a black bar.Trev

[ggrog]

Also looking at getting a smart bar - white - because mine is a white 150. Then someone raised the issue of whether the "white" smartbar is the same "white" of the Prado. Has anyone seen or got a white bar and how do the colours match?. I've only seen photos and very difficult to tell. I'm also assuming the white smartbar is white plastic and not painted white. Is this correct?

And like harro above I'd be interested in how they stand a bit of wear and tear in the bush - particularly white. Maybe black would be more suitable.

[harro]

Scrub Bashing with smart bar

Hi Smart bar owners. I have just traded my 120 diesel for the new 150 cosmetic upgrade due for delivery early December. I have always had ARB steel bars but am seriously looking at the smart bar. I do a lot of offroad work involving light scrub bashing and am interested if any users have experience with how the bar stands up to scratching and general appearance after pushing light scrub. Cheers Harro

[photoprado]

I hit a large emu,say 40kg, at 80+ km/h on this years outback trip. Smart bar performed beautifully with no vehicle damage. Sure roos can be heavier and may sometimes give a worse impact but the mass of the emu is concentrated at the worst possible height so it was a fair hit.

I'm no engineer, but...

I hit a mid sized roo on the Hawker to Wilpena road last week. Steel bar performed well, and there is zero evidence of the impact on the bar or the vehicle. Roo just bounced out of the scrub straight into our path, no time to react. 110kph.

Would have made a real mess of a vehicle with no bar...

[NatSX]

I hit a large emu,say 40kg, at 80+ km/h on this years outback trip. Smart bar performed beautifully with no vehicle damage. Sure roos can be heavier and may sometimes give a worse impact but the mass of the emu is concentrated at the worst possible height so it was a fair hit.


i'm an engineer with some experience designing process equipment in steel and other materials and also worked in plastics manufacture some years ago. I have checked out the mounting of smart bar and others and didn't have particular concerns. ... though i wouldnt call myself an expert - they were all reasonably comparable. A mate on the same trip has worked for a vehicle manufacturer and components manufacturer in testing and design for decades, as well as being experienced outback tourer...... he chose a smart bar for latest vehicle.

looks is 100% personal... I think the Sahara bar and equivalent copies is the only really great looking bar for the 150...... but I think the white on white smart bar looks good on my shorty and there's some truly ugly bars out there IMHO. Though I"m not convinced on some of the other smart bar colour combos. if I had the Sahara when I hit the emu there would have been some serious damage due to lack of side loops. I also like the massive weight reduction over a steel bar due to reduced potential for wear and tear over corrugations and for a potential performance advantage..... particularly in sand.

for absolute strength advantage get a steel bar I guess..... for a bar that will do the job well in the vast majority of circumstances and has other advantages consider the smart bar. whatever makes you happy. there's an old fashioned view you see on various forums that a plastic bar can"t possibly be good enough....... I think the experience of many shows that this is mostly not true. I would not have knocked back a free steel bar but am more than happy with my kinda expensive smart bar.

Nat.

[krypto]

The energy from the impact has to go somewhere. If the bar doesn't absorb enough energy then it gets transfer through the mounting points into the chassis. On a car the chassis would then deform or crumple in some way to absorb more energy. Probably because the sled in the test is very rigid, the mounting points deform and bend to absorb some more energy.


While the smartbar does well in absorbing energy, it looks like a direct centre hit might touch the radiator. In the video it looks like the smartbar deforms pretty much like the Toyota aluminium bar, except that the smartbar goes back to it's original shape afterwards.

[Corigator]

Mate, I work in a NATA accredited lab too. All that means is that they are accurate and document correctly. It doesn't determine the procedure. They said themselves they used the same rig for all the bars. Funding by smart bat would have influenced the design of the experiment.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti smart bar. Just don't be blinded by accreditation claims and look for yourself at the actual procedures used.

[JoshF]

Ye, it wouldn't be the first time. In this case, I am old school. I just can't see how a plastic bar would be better hitting a 70kg Kangaroo at high speed, than a steel bar.
Catch you later, John.

All depends on how the roo hits you, years ago a friend with a tray back landcruiser had a roo spear through the loop in his steel bar and clean out his radiator, didn't touch the steel on its way through.

Smartbars actually have a fair amount of steel in its framework behind the front plastic bits

[SWR]

Gee these 'smartbar' owners are a sensitive lot...

Well Obviously you can't be reffering to me as i have a "Sovereign Bull Bar" but you can not deny the facts!!!

Cheers

[D4D]

Gee these 'smartbar' owners are a sensitive lot...

[SWR]

Gday Guys

Here is the links to the vids i put up 7 months ago!

smartbar bullbar

Then when you have watched those Vids again watch this short Vid below!

Plastics in Automotive -- The Crumple Zone

I have yet to see how a metal bar is better when it can not absorb energy but only transmit its energy directly to the occupants of the vehicle via the chassis?..

As far as all the hype on the smart bar brackets not being strong enough for the metal bars (This Vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5SkGSiX_1M ) then you need to read the print on the vid as it explains that all of the testing on all of the different types of bars was carried out independently by a company called "Autoliv Australia" which has a NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accredited test facility so i believe this company that carried out the testing would have some cred in the way that it Carry's out its testing don't you think! (The above "Autoliv Australoia" is a hyper link about the company).

As you can tell by the vid that "ALL" bars was exposed to exactly the same stress tests but the out come was very differant for all bars.

If the vehicle does not obsorb energy then what is the whole point of ANCAP?...

Its a tad funny how smart-bar paid for the testing on all bars but the metal-bar guys have not?....

Cheers

[Trevc]

Modern technology; cars, planes, bikes, appliances, machines, spacecraft structures etc. are all using plastics (including carbon fibre) because they have superior strength to weight factors and are less prone to corrosion.

I started work in the steel industry and like to use steel wherever possible. But there is no denying that for many applications plastics have superior properties and that is a fact.

For a bull bar it is definitely an advantage if you can transfer the energy absorption process from the chassis to the bull bar itself. I'm not sure how well the Smart Bar does this but in principle it is a better engineering solution and that is also a fact.

Roo, I like your work but in this case I think you are wrong.

^^^^^^^^^

Informed opinion, refreshing...thanks

[Corigator]

It seems the steel bar was so tough that the Smartbar mounting points couldn't handle the force, and the bar simply shifted upwards at 16km/h

[krypto]

Moulded plastic whatever against steel, do we need any facts. It's a no brainer for me at least.
The Roo.

Modern technology; cars, planes, bikes, appliances, machines, spacecraft structures etc. are all using plastics (including carbon fibre) because they have superior strength to weight factors and are less prone to corrosion.

I started work in the steel industry and like to use steel wherever possible. But there is no denying that for many applications plastics have superior properties and that is a fact.

For a bull bar it is definitely an advantage if you can transfer the energy absorption process from the chassis to the bull bar itself. I'm not sure how well the Smart Bar does this but in principle it is a better engineering solution and that is also a fact.

Roo, I like your work but in this case I think you are wrong.