Front Bull Bar

If I put a bull bar on the front will the front impact air bag system still work?

 

yup

 

That is actually a good question, as I had not thought of that. My Aeries bullbar, just like the Westin, is attached by only two bolts, not four, so it would pivot into the bumper in a crash. I guess the question is would it diminish the performance of the airbag system.

It is attached to the bumper, so its a question of the mechanics of the airbag system and how its deployed. I am interested to hear who has knowledge about this.

 

the sensor is inertia triggered.

a certain amount of energy is needed to blow the bag

 

the air bags are not triggered buy hitting the bumper. There is a accelerometer in the truck that triggers the air bags when the truck comes to an instant stop the air bags are deployed. You can't go hitting bumpers with a baseball bat like the movies and set off air bags.

 

1. A bull bar provides 0 protection to your truck in a crash. they are made of thin tubing and pivot from the bottom of the truck. They are essentially just for looks or maybe to mount a couple lights to. It will not affect anything since it will not do anything. If you rear end someone your bumper will still be doing the work of soaking that energy up.

They also tend to cause more damage than if they were not there, since a ton of the force is where the bull bar is pressing into the bumper, rather then distributed over the entire crash contact area.

2. All of the above would matter if it was a strain gauge based system. It isn't afaik. As mentioned about it measures G forces, and if your truck experiences enough negative G's in the proper direction, the airbags deploy.