Smart Bar

Hi there.

I entertained the same idea for my troopie and asked a few questions. I have a good report with my local 4WD shop and his advice is "do not buy one", and he sells them.

His reasons were:

Anything that you install in them eg spotlights etc. all have to have an independent earth.
They can not have any accessory platform welded on them so you are limited as to what you can install on them.

His main criticism was that when they did a demo for their own purposes, they found that whiles the bar stood up to what it claims to do relating to damage, what was not stated was that the securing studs pull/tear out of the fitting that hold the bar on.

So, if you do not want to add anything more on other than what is allowed for, and you don't plan on hit anything hard with the bar, go for it.

Regards

Have been in a Rodeo ute with on fitted that hit a Grey kangaroo at 100 klm hr, one very dead roo, one very smashed driving light, one very happy Rodeo owner as the bar did it's job and the panels were not damaged. Ive seen a lot of stuff on here Bagging the bars because they are plastic, yes you cant fit a winch, yes you need to use two wires when you wire up ddriving lights but I do this for all lights even on a steel bumper or bull bar anyway. you can mount a UHF aerial you just use a ground plane independant aerial, they work better anyway.
They are also the only Bar to my own limmited knowlage that have been put through Crash testing (Dummys & all) that show they increase occupant protection(increaseslength of time to disipate crash energry). the test was from memory conducted with a Prado! they are an option if they suit your needs.

I'm a fan of the Smart Bar. Had one on the Prado last 3 years. I've had steel and aluminium bars on previous Landcruisers and wouldn't go back unless I wanted a winch. Most people don't realise mine's plastic, because the Prado design is identical to many steel bars, and looks very good.

To me its a lot more sensible to have a flexible bar fitted to very solid steel mounts rather than trying to do what the big manufacturers do and fit a steel bar to semiflexible mounts. The steel and aluminium bars look pretty crappy and often are unrepairable after relatively minor bingles.

Maintenance is nil - mine's 3 years old and looks as good as the day I bought it - nothing more than a wet sponge used to clean it. And mine spends a lot of time offroad, and going thru scrub.

Air flow through the bar is better than any of the others - it has large ventilation slots below the bumper area. The recovery points are unaffected - can still fit two rated recovery hooks directly to the chassis on the Prado.

Fitting other stuff - there's a whole lot of captured nuts on them for aerial mounts, driving lights etc - I made up a sand flag mount for mine. If you want to fit anything else you can drill into the plastic - there is an access hole behind the number plate so you can get your hand in and fit nyloc nuts behind.

And tests at Adelaide Uni on the Prado version show that its safer for pedestrians than no bar at all. Just a little piece of info the pedestrian lobby have refused to take notice of.

Mounting is straightforward. Just be careful to locate the front air cond pipe into the recess for it in the Smart Bar.

I'll take steel anyway.. Shiat Id take alloy over plastic.. Ive seen what my son does to a Plastic bottle.

Percy
Perception is a funny thing. I have had a Jackaroo for 7 years and had a good run out of it for the first 5 years till parts failed,3 diffs and 2 heads, Then a dropping resistor failed for the engine managment system and Holden could not supply the part, It sat in the shed for 14 weeks. Needless to say I wont buy another Jackaroo ever.That vehicle was replaced with the 4x4 of the year, a V6 Auto SR5 FourRunner. A Lovely vehicle,provided the road was down hill. After the 2.6 Jackaroo it was such a disapointment . The Jack handled our 16 ft van with ease, to the point where you nearly forgot it was there. The Runner was HOPELESS , It didnt have enough go to get out of its own road let alone do any work. Then there was the fuel it consumed. 26L/100 to tow. Sold that out of frustration. The Pajero, bad news mate is what every one said. (Perception) Must be Toyota owners who hate Pajero's. I bought one after a lot of soul searching as I didnt want another dud. The Toyota before the Jackaroo rusted away in the drive way and had an even worse appetite for fuel than the 4 runner. My mate had a Pajero so we put the van on it and did some testing. I asked every one about the dreaded problems with Pajero's. Gearboxes mate. Wont go any where.etc,etc. Why do want to sell the Runner, nice car!!!.We bought a 3L V6 Manual Pajero with 120Ks on it, Have pulled the van all over the east coast, Loves it. 16-20L / 100 depending how fast you drive. We 4x4 when ever we can. If it does'nt make it snatch or winch. No different to out friends Crusers or Patrols. We went to the Centre with the 2 Pajero's. not wanting tyre problems bought BFG Ko tyres for both cars. 10 new tyres. Lost 4 on the trip. Could only buy Hankook out there, Guess what, no more tyre problems. (Perception) We take the Pajero around Aus next Month, 220ks. on it now. ( What problems-does every thing I want it to do and more) Perception. The Runner had an Aluminium Bar. Forever polishing it to keep it nice. The reflection from the lights at night was very bad. The Jack had a Black painted steel bar,Always showed scrateches. and had reflection problems at night. Yes I put a plastic Smart Bar on the Pajero, very easr to keep clean, been on the Paj about 3 years, looks as good as new. Sits lower, no light reflection problems, Does mark, no worse than the others, Never tried any of the out, dont want to. Had no problems mounting lights, Areals etc. Seens a very good product. Perception.

Percy
Perception is a funny thing. I have had a Jackaroo for 7 years and had a good run out of it for the first 5 years till parts failed,3 diffs and 2 heads, Then a dropping resistor failed for the engine managment system and Holden could not supply the part, It sat in the shed for 14 weeks. Needless to say I wont buy another Jackaroo ever.That vehicle was replaced with the 4x4 of the year, a V6 Auto SR5 FourRunner. A Lovely vehicle,provided the road was down hill. After the 2.6 Jackaroo it was such a disapointment . The Jack handled our 16 ft van with ease, to the point where you nearly forgot it was there. The Runner was HOPELESS , It didnt have enough go to get out of its own road let alone do any work. Then there was the fuel it consumed. 26L/100 to tow. Sold that out of frustration. The Pajero, bad news mate is what every one said. (Perception) Must be Toyota owners who hate Pajero's. I bought one after a lot of soul searching as I didnt want another dud. The Toyota before the Jackaroo rusted away in the drive way and had an even worse appetite for fuel than the 4 runner. My mate had a Pajero so we put the van on it and did some testing. I asked every one about the dreaded problems with Pajero's. Gearboxes mate. Wont go any where.etc,etc. Why do want to sell the Runner, nice car!!!.We bought a 3L V6 Manual Pajero with 120Ks on it, Have pulled the van all over the east coast, Loves it. 16-20L / 100 depending how fast you drive. We 4x4 when ever we can. If it does'nt make it snatch or winch. No different to out friends Crusers or Patrols. We went to the Centre with the 2 Pajero's. not wanting tyre problems bought BFG Ko tyres for both cars. 10 new tyres. Lost 4 on the trip. Could only buy Hankook out there, Guess what, no more tyre problems. (Perception) We take the Pajero around Aus next Month, 220ks. on it now. ( What problems-does every thing I want it to do and more) Perception. The Runner had an Aluminium Bar. Forever polishing it to keep it nice. The reflection from the lights at night was very bad. The Jack had a Black painted steel bar,Always showed scrateches. and had reflection problems at night. Yes I put a plastic Smart Bar on the Pajero, very easr to keep clean, been on the Paj about 3 years, looks as good as new. Sits lower, no light reflection problems, Does mark, no worse than the others, Never tried any of the out, dont want to. Had no problems mounting lights, Areals etc. Seens a very good product. Perception.

Follow up, Do you have even the faintest idea of the Research and Development that a company like Toyota put into its products? Despite your report (or could it be rapport) with your local bloke who runs a shop, do you think his opinion is really worth even considerin? Go for it Percy and if you want to put lights on just wire them correctly (with an earth wire)lol

how does it go .
horses for courses.
if you dont intend on fitting a winch go for it.
steel/alloy and plastic all have good and bad points.looking foward to september(landcruiser park/fraser island)

Percy Prado,
Bottom line is that it is horses for courses. I cannot speak for the Smart Bar personally - but did have some good experiences with the fore-runner of this product. Given the many variables that happen, I think that steel is overall best, and would then go the plastic. With alloy I have had one disintegrate by brittle failure at the welds (there was no sign of any ductile bending before failure).
I have personally had a good experience with the old Aunger Flexibar on a Falcon (corner hit at 95k's on a 4 foot roo - no damage) - it did crack up 21 yrs later when son tried same stunt. Fitted a HD one on a Company crew vehicle - everybody laughed initially - then the stories started to come in. These are now regarded as unfriendly to pedestrians - however, my experiences with plastic have generally been very good

A separate earth for each light is the way to go on anything - corrosion does its bit over time on any other type of joint in the eart link.

The main issue that I would really have with plastic is the brittleness that comes with ageing. The other thing would be damage at the mounts as mentioned prevoiusly - this would mean a new one.

All said and done - it is the luck of the draw when all goes wrong - probably the main issue is to protect the radiator/remain driveable.

Regards

PeteG