Smartbar v's steel /alloy/ UHF

Hi Ian, you sound very forgiving of the plastic fantastic even tho' it's purpose to save the radiator failed and you had to get towed, you still think it's o/k. Forgive for asking but what's o/k about them ? I'm thinking with all the hoo ha about bull bars, the cops etc are putting them on maybe for ploitical correctness and not really for high speed protection of the front of the car. Welcome any other thoughts you have ? Thanks Greg

Hi Duncs, that's a real good endorsement for it. I presume your mate was travelling at speed when he hit them. Maybe Ian's Benz is not as good up front as the Paj and the radiator was more exposed ? Any idea what speed your mate was going - are we talking 100ks, that sort of speed ? Thanks Greg

All I can say is that he never wastes time on the road. Most of the roo strikes have occurred on the way home.

Duncs

Also you should get a UHF radio (what ever Brand) aerial (I've got a GME AE4018k) thatll do what you require for $500-600. They are easy as to fit as well.

Cheers Wilko

PS Don't write off plastic, just because it is plastic. There are many very interesting plastics these days: Just look at the average Formula 1 car, or racing yacht. It isn't that long ago that Ozzies wrote off all light alloys (Aluminium, Magnesium etc) as bleep metal, and hung onto good old steel as the only blokey material.

Mate, glad wrap's ruddy useless and it's noisy, try bubble wrap - it looks much better, softer and infinitely kinder to the roo or pedestrian ? Greg

Hi Mark, your last paragraph sums us up. We never drive country at night (except a few times a year up the Pacific hwy - never seen a roo during the day or night on the hwy after 30 years driving it) we do the odd trip out west and tho' I had an ARB on the 80 series I had for 15 years the only thing it hit were things I shouldn't have hit (like misjudgements I or the wife made with lots of dints and scrapes etc - might be a good enough reason to have one just to save the car from us ?).

When are most roos hit, I presume dusk, night and dawn ? I suppose stock can be another problem, but I don't think a bar of any kind will help when you nudge a Brahman or Angus at speed.

Personally, I'd rather not have one but a prang with a roo, unprotected up front, can cut short the family's holiday pretty quick smart while radiators etc are put back together somewhere out there.

Like everything it's a matter of one's "risk" profile and minimising it as much as possible and where you can't minimise it, then prepare yourself ie with a bull bar.

I can spend the $1500 on much better fun things for the family than a roo bar I'm sure you would agree. So I'm in a bit of a quandery to get one or not to ?

Greg S (NSW) - in respect to the bull bar I would save your money and spend it on a helicopter flight on your holidays.

For your radio have a look at Andrews Communications web site - that is where we buy all our communications gear and the latest radio we installed was a GME 3440 and mounted it under the passenger seat.

Have a good holiday


A J

Greg

Roos any time from approx 1 hour before sunset to 1 hour after sunrise.

Cattle don't run onto the road, but can be camped on it & black breeds (like Angus) exceptionally hard to see at night. Hit one of them and you are stuffed anyway, steel bar or not. Sheep will run across the road, but you normally see them well before hand.

You see far more roos on the road in closer settled areas (east of say Bourke -Hay) than the desert. Large animals need planty of water!

For a once a decade trip west of the mountains, as someone said above save your money for something else. Always amazed when 4WD mags say you need a bar and driving lights for that desert trip when you are never driving in roo hours.

Great advice mark. Was pretty sure I knew the roo mentality. Think we might use the saved money and fly over Lake Eyre. All the best, Greg

Thanks Ian. regards GREG

I have a smartbar on my cruiser. It also is a good repellent. Not one roo hit yet. Been a few close shaves but despite my best efforts they get out of the way just in time.

More seriously though if I had to travel at the high risk time of day regularly I would have gone for one of the Tuff Bullbars and stiffer front springs. The cruiser is strong enough to mount a heavy roo bar. A lot of vehicles are not.

It comes down to risk assessment. Me I want protection from medium speed impacts with medium roos. Also not to kill one of the locals who has an inconvenient habit of wandering down the middle of the road in dark clothes on dark misty nights. Some of us really do not want to maim pedestrians should we have an unfortunate low speed collision.

Years ago I heard smartbars could be used for push starting other vehicles (presumably without damage). Wonder if anyone has tried that?

What do you mean the cruiser ones are ugly? I think the ones for the V8 70 series are OK to look at. ;)

Flynnie

Have not tried the push start, may try it on the missus' Kluger!

The 100 series ones are a bit of an acuired taste IMHO.

OBT