Would a solid front bar cause more damage?

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

My Mate and I have been contemplating a Sahara bar on our cars as I have nothing and he has a factory nudge bar on his new Paj..Last night he was involved in an accident (not his fault) but the Paj had the nudge bar pushed into the car , headlights slightly pushed into the guards and front edge of bonnet just damaged...All in all the radiator support etc was untouched and looking at it the damage is mostly cosmetic....NOW the question we both had was IF the car had a solid bar installed it may have reduced some cosmetic damage but would it have possibly bent the car a little with transferring the impact through to somewhere else, on a Prado possibly buckling a chassis rail..What are your thoughts and is this why the factory full bar is a soft poxy ally item?

Daz

[stevensr34 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stevensr34]

These days with airbags in cars, there has to be a compression zone in the "solid" bar's mounting that allows a more gentle deformation to occur initially, rather than a big hit right from the start. So a solid bar may not effect the chassis any more than a nudge bar does.

I think the alloy factory bar is alloy because a steel bar on standard front springs would sag the nose down noticeably. There's probably 20-30kg saving between an alloy and a steel bar.

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

suppose its all subject to speed of the crash as well? in this case it seems all the softer components, bumpers etc prevented and real solid crumple zone areas from being hit but still I feel the Sahara bar would have taken the force and buckled something structural.

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

Although I say Sahara bar I mean any steel bar in general not just one particular brand/style. I guess the crumple area built into the bar itself should soak up the force in this instance.

[Guest Close Guest]

Where's flyingbushpig when you need him? It would be interesting to see and compare a Paj (monocoque chassis) and Prado (ladder frame chassis) in a crash test with the same steel bar and see what effect it has on the chassis. Sorry a bit off topic.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Nudge bars are good for mounting driving lights and maybe an aerial and a carpark tap, there useless for anything else and if anything cause more damage then if you didnt have one. Half the time you would find with out one you would probably have the factory plastic bumper bar push in then come back out, no damage to bonnet etc. Alloy bullbar would have eliminated any damage at all i reckon going by your description. Steel bar he probably would have laughed at the damage it would have caused to the other vehicle and none what so ever to the pajero. I had the sahara bar on my old 95 petrol prado, only thing which was probably a down fall was no protection on the corners near the head lights and blinkers where as the ARB full steel one I had on the 95 diesel didnt look as good but offered more protection............

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

The bull bar mounting bracket for any steel/alloy bar is zig zagged, this is to absorb the impact, if there was a steel/alloy bar on the front of his vehicle, (in the case of this accident), the bar would have no damage, the vehicle would have no damage, but the bars mounts would have crushed a bit, so he would need to get new mounts put back on, otherwise, if the same accident happend a second time and the mounts weren't changed, the vehicle may suffer damage, or the air bags may deploy as well.