Armor - do you wait to get crashed into first?

westcott designs posted a testimonial of their rock sliders that ended up protecting a 5th gen runner getting t-boned at 40-50mph.
The pictures looked unscathed. Without them it would’ve been very different.
That’s good enough for me.

not planning on driving into a brick wall at 100mph

I’d guess most street impacts aren’t that great of an impact anyway (but enough to cause damage)

aside from less common wild crazy things that can be bad either way
And hopefully catch out of the corner of your eye in time to avoid
Like a person coming in hot to hit the back of you at an intersection (check mirrors and surroundings often) or seeing from your peripheral someone running a red light
(Have experienced both of these things multiple times)

At the red light, car coming in hot right at me, lights off, I got out of the way and they went through the light

or the red light runner, (could see their headlights fast approaching at night) E9X BMW IIRC, saw it coming and hit the brakes even though I had green to not get hit

I mean yeah. It is a c channel frame which has pros and cons. Probably not gonna be boxing it any time soon (not even sure the truck would be worth doing that to)

 

I buy armor because my vehicles spend more time offroad than they do on road. If it was a purely street driven vehicle, I wouldn't armor it at all. The vehicles are designed to protect yourself and others in collisions. ANY modifications reduce the ability of your vehicle to perform as expected in a high speed crash.

And yes I get the "hurrr durrr my sliders dented their door and my truck is fine" rhetoric. In reality, you don't want anything on the truck that could possibly interfere with the way the vehicle is designed to perform in a crash.

 

ARB is crash tested

seems to serve as a deterrent too
Stock used to be people “oh yeah ima try some dumb shit in front of this guy”
Now they see the bumper and are like “never mind”

 

^This
I hit a deer and it totaled my front end. I had the body shop put an ARB on so the next time I hit a deer, I can take the truck to a car wash and just hose Bambi off my bumper instead of being without my ride for 2 months.
Funny enough, I also notice people are a bit more leery around me since installing the bumper, and that works for me.

 

I find that too…lol!

 

I wouldn't buy armor to protect my truck for street use. This stuff weighs a lot and often multiplies damage and injury in a bad car accident. If you're offroad enough to justify the armor, go for it! If you're going overlanding (truck camping) once every few months, you'll be fine without it. Sliders are a great option regardless of what you do, I am more referring to massive heavy gas-drinking front and rear bumpers that force you to upgrade all of your suspension to hold the weight.

 

I keep hearing how the ARB bumpers are “crash tested,” but I’m curious to see where they find money to purchase all the vehicles they make bumpers for and crash test them in all the markets they are sold in.

Because they don’t.

And until I have a video of them crash testing every vehicle they make a bumper for, I’m not going to believe this.

 

You’re wrong, they do, just do some research and you’ll find the track videos of them ramming obstacles (water barrels, with the same makeup as a large animal, Kangaroo, deer…,) at 50mph with no damage to bumper or vehicle.

or you could just search the threads here on TW and read about the many ARB owners who hit a deer at high speeds and were left with minimal to no damage to either bumper or truck.

Obviously hitting another vehicle will wreck your bumper and or truck but that’s not what they’re designed for, they’re designed for protecting against large animals that feel inclined to suddenly step out into the middle of the road. I live in an area with lots of deer, and it’s the only reason I installed one.
Just recently totaled my front end due to a deer. I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Also, I only lost 1 mpg. Still average 18 mpg in the city.

 

They likely trialed their design early on with some Land Cruisers and a Hilux and just reproduce the design for every other bumper model they subsequently have made based on the theory of it working similarly. And test a newer vehicle here and there. It’s basically just 2 frame horns with built-in crumple zones with an outer fascia.

Just Google “Arb crash test” and you can find some images of trucks with ARB stickers on them and their bumper getting sent into a wall.

 

But that only applies to that bumper and that vehicle.

You can’t extrapolate crashworthiness or crash safety with different vehicles otherwise manufactures would say this car is sort of similar to the one we crashed 15 years ago so I guess it’s good to go.

But yet “crash tested” has become almost synonymous with ARB bumpers.

 

Im only guessing they do that minimum based on the available photos/vids out there containing test vehicles that are on their home turf to comply with Australian dot regs. The bumpers that were resold in the US for the Tacoma/4runner being based on those for the hilux and hilux surf prior to ARB really coming out with a dedicated US market design don’t need to meet any criteria, thus why you are correct in that there isn’t a video out there of a US market Tacoma being crash tested with and ARB.

That being said bumpers designed around a frame platform shared globally should fare nearly the same. They designed the crumple zones to allow the airbags to trigger as they should stock. Which would be why an Australian prado should have the same crash characteristics with an ARB as a a US market Lexus GX.

That’s all that anyones really getting at when they mention ARB has done at least some testing as opposed to American market small fab shops.

 

30 seconds of searching yielded this, I’m sure there are more examples out there for those that are interested. This is for TJM but you can get the idea of what they offer for animal protection.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i2foHYCS92w&pp=ygUOYXJiIGNyYXNoIHRlc3Q=

 

Whatever ARB does, it’s 100% more than any other company, cause as far as I know nobody else does any sort of crash testing.

 

But that doesn’t mean that the bumper on your vehicle has been crash tested or they can make any claims about its crashworthiness. That’s the point.

It’s a brilliant marketing strategy and on every single vehicle forum I’ve been on since the Internet was a thing somebody brings up ARB is crash tested and that justifies their higher price.

 

Nice Australian Bull Bar

 

For me, all the armor is for off-road protection. Sliders were first. Then the IFS/front skid plate and a bumper I could mount a winch on (not a full steel bumper...I didn't want all the weight and approach angle has not been a limiting factor). After the front bumper I installed a high clearance rear because departure angle sucks and I was dragging the receiver fairly often. The last pieces were the transmission and transfer case skids.

None of this was for protection from other vehicles but I have had paint transfer in parking lots on my rear bumper and sliders from people bumping the truck when parked.

 

This looks pretty definitive to me
Dash cam of a nearly head on collision with another vehicle. Front end still looks good.

 

You probably can extrapolate performance on a Toyota given how little they change things

the deciding factor for me was get it next day without 3mo lead time
Though the few others that offer full hoops do look better and have better approach angle

 

Friend of mine totalled his truck with a plate bumper in front, though I suspect it would have happened anyway..and if not it would have injured him more.

Yeah, I figure it's different in your situation and if I wanted armour I would have done the same as you.

GRRRRR

People who do that should be jailed! Sorry for bitching but someone rear ended my wife Christmas week and the phone light was all over his face. Lucky him, not a scratch and she's been unable to work or drive since.

I like your thought though. Or perhaps something like a taser to zap the bellend and perhaps short out their phone

 

My Fj and Tacoma both have the ARB. The initial reason was need for a winch mount and the ARB's are really made for the Toyotas. 15yrs now and the only problem is the powder coat fades.