Ironman Protector Bar

[jjgsxr1000 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jjgsxr1000]

Hi all.

After much agonising over which Bullbar to fit, and being horrified at the price second handy's are fetching on ebay,
we decided to go with the Ironman Protector Bar.

Its about the only decent looking Affordable bar still available for the 95 Series. Just under $1400.00
I had it painted body colour, as it comes in a hammertone grey finish & i think would have clashed too hard with the gold of our car.
I love the light pods. I think they look nice, rather than just blinkers cut into the bar.

I looked at the ARB Sahara bar. Niiiice bar, but no headlight protection. + it was approx $1700.00 + colour coding

ECB have a nice Alloy bar, but it is dear. Very dear. well over $2k
All the others still available just didn't appeal to me, mainly due to the archaic indicators used in the bars that looked fresh out of the 1950's

The driving lights supplied in the Ironman Bar clipped straight in to the Factory Toyota plugs for the Factory Foglights.
The bar also came with a really neat light wiring harness with an almost factory looking Switch to go in the dash, that i didn't use in the end.
I will rewire my Foglight switch to only trigger on high beam with a relay & hence won't need another switch.

Fitup was a piece of cake. All bolt holes ligned up well & was done in approx 1.5 hrs including wiring new parkers & indicators in.

Overall, im a very happy boy & am very happy with the money spent.
Would highly recommend this bar to anyone thinking of buying one.
Will upload Pics asap

-Now dear, about that winch :-)

Regards, Jay

[jjgsxr1000 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jjgsxr1000]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar


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[jjgsxr1000 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jjgsxr1000]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar


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[xlr8_87 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close xlr8_87]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

Looks great colour coded!
I've got the Ironman commercial bar because I didn't want to pay extra to have the protector colour coded. The fog lights would have been nice though!

[jjgsxr1000 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jjgsxr1000]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

Hi Rob, just finished reading the ongoing build of your Prado.
Very cool. Love that Snorkel!!! Its Brilliant.
I have found some great snorkels, but unfortunately, all of the relatively well priced ones are for petrol only :-(
Might end up with a custom one if nothing pops up.

I'm rapt with the Ironman bar.
Hey, did you know that you can buy the light pods separately from Ironman, if you wanted to cut the holes into the commercial bar?
I nearly bought an old TJM bar a few months ago with the intent of doing that to it.

Regards, Jay.

[xlr8_87 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close xlr8_87]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

Yeh I love my snorkel! Really sets it off, especially with the chrome 'Grande' trim.

Didn't know that about the bars, might be something to look into. cheers.

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

For years now I have regretted ever fitting a Toyota aluminium bull bar. The only thing it was good for was somewhere to put the UHF antenna and the fishing rod holders.

Then suffered similar angst trying to find not only a reasonably priced bar, but one that was High Lift and winch compatatible and looked good.

TJM had nothing available for the 90 series apart from an aluminium unit.

ARB only had the deluxe winch bar.

Looked at the Ironman 4x4 Protection bar, close but not 100%. I then discovered they had brought out the Deluxe Commercial, perfect. It was stronger and also had the fog lamps! Colour coded to match the side trim and rear bumper.

Only thing is they do not have recovery points. Seem when they took the old Toyota bullbar off I lost the recovery points as they couldn't be fitted with the new one. Ironman4x4 don't supply aftermarket ones as they usually re-fit the Toyota OME points that come with the vehicle and original front bumper bar. Aftermarket was out, ARB had nothing, TJM sell recovery hooks but won't fit them as they are not rated (so why sell them at all?)

Toyota in Nedlands must have taken the OME ones off to fit their bar and threw them away rather than give them me. After days of searching I founnd Opposite Lock here at Bowen Hills gave and fitted a pair of OME they had taken off a Prado 90 that was in getting new bar work, all for free! What great guys!

[MY Racing 221 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close MY Racing 221]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

Are the lights in the pods actually driving lights or fog lights? Do you get a choice?

Cheers
Dave

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: Ironman Protector Bar

The lights are fog lamps. I had my Lightforce 170s refitted to the new bar.

[tonkatuff Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close tonkatuff]

Not sure why you lost your existing recovery points, Ifitted my ironman commercial bullbar myself and just refitted the original anchor points with out a problem..

For years now I have regretted ever fitting a Toyota aluminium bull bar. The only thing it was good for was somewhere to put the UHF antenna and the fishing rod holders.

Then suffered similar angst trying to find not only a reasonably priced bar, but one that was High Lift and winch compatatible and looked good.

TJM had nothing available for the 90 series apart from an aluminium unit.

ARB only had the deluxe winch bar.

Looked at the Ironman 4x4 Protection bar, close but not 100%. I then discovered they had brought out the Deluxe Commercial, perfect. It was stronger and also had the fog lamps! Colour coded to match the side trim and rear bumper.

Only thing is they do not have recovery points. Seem when they took the old Toyota bullbar off I lost the recovery points as they couldn't be fitted with the new one. Ironman4x4 don't supply aftermarket ones as they usually re-fit the Toyota OME points that come with the vehicle and original front bumper bar. Aftermarket was out, ARB had nothing, TJM sell recovery hooks but won't fit them as they are not rated (so why sell them at all?)

Toyota in Nedlands must have taken the OME ones off to fit their bar and threw them away rather than give them me. After days of searching I founnd Opposite Lock here at Bowen Hills gave and fitted a pair of OME they had taken off a Prado 90 that was in getting new bar work, all for free! What great guys!

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

G'day, seriously liking the ARB Sahara bar but not the price... I really like the finish on the ironman protector and was wondering if anyone knows if ironman can shape the bar to something similar to the sahara. Or if you have heard of anyone else that's done something similar.

Cheers,

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

Hey Toddy, dont be put off by the price of the sahara bar, these bars are much stronger than the Ironman ones, not bagging the Ironman ones but they are a copy of the ARB, and under OZ law, they need to be at least 22% different, and guess where that mainly is, "strength".
Yes I do have a sahara bar on my Prado, and no, I am not affiliated to any one in ARB, dont be put off by the lack of end loops either, I have never had a problem with braking lights, winch fitment was very easy in the sahara, I was even able to put it in myself while the bar was still on the car.

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

thanks croozza for you comments, I'm hopefully looking at a bar today so will see how it fairs with quality.

cheers,

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

under OZ law, they need to be at least 22% different

I can't comment on the strength, but the closest ARB product to the Protector bar would be the Deluxe bar, and there would be at least 22% difference in the appearance and function alone. It shares more in common with the 120 series Deluxe bar than the 90 series bar.

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

I can't comment on the strength, but the closest ARB product to the Protector bar would be the Deluxe bar, and there would be at least 22% difference in the appearance and function alone. It shares more in common with the 120 series Deluxe bar than the 90 series bar.

Appearance wise, the 2 end loops equate to about 10% difference, the rest is in the thickness of the metal and the mounting system, and just because the law states 22%, does not mean they stop at 22%.
I have been trying to find a video of a recent test (independant), and it showed what the bars did protection wise, The Ironman one did not fair too well, some alloy ones were actually better. But for the life of me I just cant seem to find it, I will keep searching though.