BULLBAR is the
cornerstone of
all four-wheel
drive builds.
It’s the building
block that will
define your 4x4
more than any
other accessory.
Consider this: There are
two identical 4x4s sitting in
the workshop about to be
transformed into off-road
rigs. One is going to be fitted
with a sleek, colour-coded
steel bumper with a hidden
winch mount; the other is
destined for a no-nonsense
five-poster. It’s obvious the
direction both of these builds
will be taking, and what each
vehicle will be used for.
However, with so many
options on the market, it can
be difficult to narrow down
what will work on your 4x4.
In years gone by it was a
whole lot easier: look at thethree or four bullbars that
would fit your 4x4, buy the
one you liked the look of
and fit it. These days we’re
spoilt for choice, with options
ranging from hidden winch
mounts inside the factory
bumper right through to
steel bullbars that’d mow
down a full-grown cow
without flinching.
So we’ve decided to cut
through the marketing
jargon and bring you the ‘no
BS’ guide to buying the right
bullbar for your 4x4.
We have enlisted the
help of some of the largest
bullbar manufacturers in the
world, in order to establish
what the real differences
are between steel, alloy, and
plastic, and we’ll outline
the pros and cons of every
bullbar design you can
imagine. Most importantly,
we’ll tell you what is legal to
fit to your 4x4.WHAT’S IT MADE OF?
BEFORE you worry about
polished fairleads and
built-in bottle openers, the
first major decision is the
actual material your new
bullbar will be constructed
from. In days of old you
chose steel if you wanted
something heavy-duty,
or alloy if you liked your
adventures on the fancy
side. With the introduction
of plastic and high-strength
alloy bullbars, things aren’t
so simple anymore.
The main factors to
consider are density and
tensile strength. Put simply,
density is the heaviness of
a material at a set volume,
so in this case 1cm^3 of steel,
alloy or plastic. Tensile
strength is the maximum
force a given material can
handle before failing.
At first glance steel is
the clear winner in thetensile strength game,
with a rating of roughly
2750kg/cm^2 , compared to
aluminium with 2300kg/
cm^2 and LLDPE (linear
low-density polyethylene)
with 305kg/cm^2. Of course,
all of this is dependent on
the quality of materials
used, but it still doesn’t take
into account a lot of very
important factors.
The first is density. A
1cm^3 chunk of steel will
weigh three times as much
as a same-sized cube of
aluminium, and almost 10
times as much as LLDPE
in the same size, meaning
you could have a 10cm thick
slab of LLDPE for the same
weight as 1cm of steel. This
is something engineers take
into consideration and use to
their advantage.
Adam Craze from Ironman
4x4 said: “With better grades
of aluminium, we can designLaser-cutting
bullbarsat ARB.Aluminum Ironman 4x4 bars are
almost as strong as steel, but
weigh up to 30 per cent less.92 http://www.4X4australia.com.auGEAR BULLBAR GUIDE