by NowForThe5th on Sun Jun 26, 2022 10:56 am
Nope. Not by the manufacturers anyway. Plenty of owners have done their own crash testing, but that's hardly scientific. Still, having owned a paint & panel shop for the last 20 years I've seen lots of results and, generally speaking, most do the job that they're intended to do. The ones that don't are the crazy 5 post bars seen at ute musters (they're too strong) and the home made jobbies made from mild steel and water pipe.
That said, one needs to understand that their task is not to provide an impenetrable barrier but rather to take impacts up to a certain level and then crumple, absorbing force before it gets to the rest of the vehicle. Well designed bullbars have their own crumple zones and, for winch bars, they're either strengthened across the middle or designed to be used with a winch cradle where strengthening might compromise the impact absorption designed in.
ARB do "impact testing" of the bar itself, by swinging a 44 gallon drum at it. The others? Don't know, but if ARB can't afford to write off a ute for every bullbar model they make then, sure as eggs, none of the others will.
Note that all bullbars should come with a plate or sticker attached that confirms that it's been designed (and maybe tested) to the relevant standard. If a bar doesn't have this (and some don't) then move on to the next one. As for 'recovery points', just ask them for a copy of the rating certificate......and watch them run for cover.
I've seen the same as what RHK's talking about. You don't need a crash test to know, when you see a bar that bridges crumple zones on the chassis, that in a serious accident the result is not going to be pretty.
Chris
If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay us to do it?