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Equipment Tests > Protection Racket
Protection Racket
Issue: August 2007
What's a nudgebar? The answer starts with a bullbar, which is a complete
replacement metal bumper that bolts to the chassis, replacing various front panels in the process. A nudge bar is different; it doesn't replace any panels, bolts on underneath the vehicle and is often much smaller, only covering the centre front of the vehicle.
Many people think a nudgebar improves the look of a vehicle, but there's a much more practical reason for installing one. It's a good mounting point for accessories like spotties, aerials and sand flags. Without a nudgebar you'll be hard-pushed to find somewhere to put these things on modern monocoque, curvaceous 4WDs. The less-obvious benefit is that most bars make it easier to see exactly where the front of the vehicle is, which is a problem with today's bonnets that just curve away to infinity.
All that's good in theory, but many nudge bars just aren't tough enough to do the job because they're not bolted to a strong point on the chassis or designed as anything other than a round-town showpiece. When you rock the vehicle by pushing on the bar there shouldn't be any give, just a strong solid connection. If there is any flexibility then whatever is mounted on the bar will vibrate, and it's questionable as to how much use it'll be in an accident.
read on below advertisement
Even a small knock could see the bar touching the paintwork, so it's worse than useless. Accidents aren't something we plan for our longtermer Santa Fe, but Outback travel is defi nitely on the agenda.
So we needed a decent nudge bar, and decided on an ECB 63mm Series II bar. All ECB bars come with spottie mounts on the second horizontal crossbar, and this model has an additional top crossbar so it marks the end of the bonnet for the driver, and enables extra accessories to be mounted. We asked for an aerial mount, which we'll use for a sand fl ag. That was an extra $34 on top of the $669 RRP plus $110 fi tting. ECB is happy to add other mounts or similar mods to customer specifi cations.
The bar is strong and very robustly connected to the vehicle, passing the rock-the-car test easily. Weight is less than 10kg since ECB uses high-tensile alloy. It doesn't offer the same all-over protection as a bullbar, but certainly improves the car's chances of surviving an animal impact.
There's a lower protection brace to help shield vulnerable engine components, and the bar is airbag compatible. Our bar is fi nished in silver hammertone powdercoat, but there are other options available.
next page »
What's a nudgebar? The answer starts with a bullbar, which is a complete
replacement metal bumper that bolts to the chassis, replacing various front panels in the process. A nudge bar is different; it doesn't replace any panels, bolts on underneath the vehicle and is often much smaller, only covering the centre front of the vehicle.
Many people think a nudgebar improves the look of a vehicle, but there's a much more practical reason for installing one. It's a good mounting point for accessories like spotties, aerials and sand flags. Without a nudgebar you'll be hard-pushed to find somewhere to put these things on modern monocoque, curvaceous 4WDs. The less-obvious benefit is that most bars make it easier to see exactly where the front of the vehicle is, which is a problem with today's bonnets that just curve away to infinity.
All that's good in theory, but many nudge bars just aren't tough enough to do the job because they're not bolted to a strong point on the chassis or designed as anything other than a round-town showpiece. When you rock the vehicle by pushing on the bar there shouldn't be any give, just a strong solid connection. If there is any flexibility then whatever is mounted on the bar will vibrate, and it's questionable as to how much use it'll be in an accident.
read on below advertisement
Even a small knock could see the bar touching the paintwork, so it's worse than useless. Accidents aren't something we plan for our longtermer Santa Fe, but Outback travel is defi nitely on the agenda.
So we needed a decent nudge bar, and decided on an ECB 63mm Series II bar. All ECB bars come with spottie mounts on the second horizontal crossbar, and this model has an additional top crossbar so it marks the end of the bonnet for the driver, and enables extra accessories to be mounted. We asked for an aerial mount, which we'll use for a sand fl ag. That was an extra $34 on top of the $669 RRP plus $110 fi tting. ECB is happy to add other mounts or similar mods to customer specifi cations.
The bar is strong and very robustly connected to the vehicle, passing the rock-the-car test easily. Weight is less than 10kg since ECB uses high-tensile alloy. It doesn't offer the same all-over protection as a bullbar, but certainly improves the car's chances of surviving an animal impact.
There's a lower protection brace to help shield vulnerable engine components, and the bar is airbag compatible. Our bar is fi nished in silver hammertone powdercoat, but there are other options available.
next page »
