Comparing Smartbars And Bullbars, Facing The Facts

I love the outdoors. The more remote the better. I just love packing my jeep with all the gear (including my wife and child ) and heading offroad to somewhere unreachable by road or foot.

On a recent trip, I hit a kangaroo at a low speed. Thankfully the kangaroo bounded off with little more than a fright and there was basically no damage to the vehicle. The incident got me thinking about frontal protection though. If I were going any faster, the damage to the jeep could have been significant, leaving us stranded and putting my family in harms way.

So I called my mates at All Vehicle Accessories in Melbourne. They told me about these innovative new “plastic bullbars”. Having not heard about them before and being a bit bewildered by the chat (I mean, how can plastic protect my jeep?) I decided to do some research. This is what I found out.

There are 3 things a bullbar (or frontal protection device) is supposed to protect. These are the vehicle, the passengers in the vehicle, and the object being struck in a collision.

Just to make it perfectly clear when we are comparing performance in this regard, we are only comparing performance at speeds up to and including fatal impact, not exceeding it. We aren’t really interested in the opinions that at 150kms/h, the pedestrian dies no matter what device you are using. Its a ridiculous argument. However we are interested in seeing how bullbars and smartbars protect our vehicle, passengers and pedestrians, at speeds where there is a chance for survival.

The difference in performance of the two products comes about due to the relative rigidity which is a result of their make up. In a nutshell, bullbars are designed to be solid, rigid and inflexible. The immovable object protecting your car. Smartbars are designed to absorb, cushion and decelerate the forces of an impact. There are many independent studies on the two, all showing the same thing. The simple fact is that smartbars work better to protect everyone. Do some research, the facts are clear and available.

To put this point in perspective though, into words you can feel, smartbars are made out of similar materials that they make those big wheelie bins from. Imagine you fell over in the street and smacked your head into a big iron postal box. It would hurt right? Now compare the same fall if your head hit the middle of one of those big wheelie bins. The bin would cushion the impact somewhat and the damage to your forehead would not nearly be so bad. (Or painful for that matter) Thats the way the smartbars work.

Topic 2. Performance – There is no argument that smartbars are significantly lighter than bullbars. This means better performance for your vehicle. To embellish, if you install a smartbar instead of a bullbar, your vehicle will have less tyre wear, less suspension wear and safer handling, just because it is lighter. They also provide better value for money than the alternatives and are more environmentally friendly. Manufacturing smartbars produces less than 1% of the green house gasses which the manufacture of metal bullbars produce. So performance wise, smartbars are more efficient with your car, your wallet and the environment.

And then there is maintenance. One thing I’ve learned to hate about 4WDing over the years is the polishing, buffing and the pure elbow grease required to keep metal parts rust free and shiney. With the smartbar, there are no metal parts. A bucket of soapy water and a sponge is all you need to clean it and get back to planning your next trip.

These are the facts I found when researching frontal protection products for my Jeep. The protection of my family was my #1 consideration, so getting this right was important to me. If you are considering frontal protection products I encourage you to do your own research, try to seperate fact from the immense amount of image based opinion out there, and pick the product that best suits your purpose.

Smartbars vs bullbars, there is no competition in Damian Papworth’s mind.