ARB Sahara bar ? ?

Hi All,
New to the forum, Just placed my order today for a new D40 ST, very stoked! took advantage of year end specials and the drive away pricing. First Nissan so should be fun times....

Working through what bull bar to get now, really thinking the ARB Sahara bar is a good compromise between looks and functionality.

The only thing concerning me is the lack of protection around the headlights and the alloy section of the bar.

Has anyone had any experience with hitting animals and busting up headlights or bending the alloy?

Cheers for any advice

Welcome

I had the same Dilemma, I liked the look of the Sahara but it sort of defeats the object of protecting your vehicle. I ended up going for the ARB Deluxe bull bar color coded silver and I am very pleased with it. It looks mint and I have no regrets not going the Sahara. Check out some pics of the 2 bars online. Then decide.

Cheers
JonO

Welcome to the forum!

Don't forget the ST is a Thai build and the chassis is different to the Spanish D40 - ARB should be aware of that.

I've not hit a roo with mine (yet) but even with the best protection there's always a chance that a tail will smash through the grill and thump the intercooler, or a head will smack the headlight. Unless you drive an Abrams off-road vehicle, you run that risk.

In general though, the Sahara bar is reasonable protection and it's lighter than the Deluxe model. The extra kilos do cause your suspension to sit lower and when your vehicle is compressing its suspension, it does it harder with the extra weight.

Consider cost vs looks vs function vs risk. If you're not traveling highways at night, the risk is low anyway. If you need a winch or may consider a winch in the future, remember that full alloy bars don't support winches (you can do it, with bracing in behind).

Roo whistles are a good addition too. Don't bother with the electronic bullshit, either. $5 whistles are all you need - scares most animals except the roos, who are just so bloody stupid they come OUT to investigate what that whining, whistling diesel sound is and oops *thump* Fred, don't *thump* come out here *thump*. You too, George.

Oh, too late.

I have the TJM, bounced plenty of Roos off it without a mark so far. Not as good looking as the ARB but a fair bit cheaper.

http://www.tjm.com.au/Portals/0/xmod/packages/webedit/attachments/08-178_t15snavaraKC.pdf

Thanks all,

Jono I am in the same bind, do i go the deluxe or the sahara??? The sahara certainly looks better but then the whole point is for bouncing the roo's off it.

The weight argument that Old tony raises is a fair one, I'd like to keep weight off the vehicle as much as possible as the D40 sits low enough as it is

Oh the decisions.....

would be interested to hear if anyone has had some 'in action' reports on the sahara ??

Old.Tony said:

Roo whistles are a good addition too. Don't bother with the electronic bullshit, either. $5 whistles are all you need - scares most animals except the roos, who are just so bloody stupid they come OUT to investigate what that whining, whistling diesel sound is and oops *thump* Fred, don't *thump* come out here *thump*. You too, George.

Oh, too late.

Click to expand...

I love those roo whistles. The previous owner had some fitted, and I met a few roos in the three months I left them on, then I took them off and two years later no roos yet...

so i just got back from the perth 4wd show, there was some impressive bars on display there.
I decided to go with the practical viewpoint that a bullbar is there to protect and not just look good and bought a TJM T13 steel. It is identical to the ARB deluxe but way better priced and comes with foglights and a bash plate(show deal on the free plate). Fitted and colour coded came in at $1850.

The ARB priced up retail was $2350 colour coded and another $400 for the foglights.... go figure..

TJM said the T13 bar for the Navara was just released last few weeks so new product for the punters out there looking at the ARB deluxe bar.

dougo1983 said:

Has anyone had any experience with hitting animals and busting up headlights or bending the alloy?

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My record is 4 roos and 2 wombats in the same shift, but my brother beat that when he took out 7 cows and killed 4 outright. Wildlife is just an occupational hazzard when driving the hours of midnight to sunrise in country areas. Both alloy and steel will bend if hit in the right place, steel may stop more and sometimes alloy may push into the panels under the weight of the collision but neither will stop everything.

I like the roo whistles, can't prove they worked without doubt but we never hit animals in the cars that had them. We never had them on the trucks but many years ago we tried the ShooRoo's and they weren't as effective as they claimed but then when there is mobs of roos numbering 20 or more it's hard to expect anything to work 100% effectively.

The best defense you have against any wildlife is your right foot, the slower you go the less chance of hitting wildlife and the less damage they will do if it does happen.

KraftyPg said:

my brother beat that when he took out 7 cows and killed 4 outright.

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Dang, now that's economic stimulus. Keeping both the body shop and pet food factory in business.

Yeah was a near new company truck too, shiny, white, cow shit and blood spread up the doors, strangely enough the truck didn't come back from head office after it was repaired and we all got left with the old 8 tonners with 350K+ on the clock.

KraftyPg said:

Yeah was a near new company truck too, shiny, white, cow shit and blood spread up the doors, strangely enough the truck didn't come back from head office after it was repaired and we all got left with the old 8 tonners with 350K+ on the clock.

Click to expand...

Suddenly this "economic stimulus package" is sounding like "Building the Regurgitation Revolution".

Yuck!

The most annoying fact of the whole experience is that the rules in Victoria (and maybe other states I don't know). If the fences stopping the cows getting out are broken or the gates are open the farmer is at fault and responsible for damages etc. If the fences are intact and no gates open the driver is responsible, despite the cows being on the road in the first place.

Even the cop said he didn't agree with the law and the only thing that stopped my brother from getting a ticket was that the farmer said there was foxes in the area scaring the cattle and pushing them through the fences and that he'd take responsibility for it.

This happened about 10 years ago and I'm not sure if the laws have changed since but it's something scary to all drivers who travel in rural areas if it hasn't changed.

I haven't seen a post and wire fence that will 100% stop cattle yet. They're more like a request than a demand.

McDonalds seem to manage to stop them.

Wooden posts go a long way to diverting them but neither barb or sparky is enough to stop them if they are spooked. Most times they break the wire when they go through but if per chance they don't break it the law as it stood 10 years ago stated the farmer wasn't at fault. It's like the law is suggesting a driver purposely herds the cow out of the paddock and runs into it too see how much damage they can cause. But I don't think it works the other way, if the driver plows through the fence and hits the cow I don't think the driver can claim the fence was down and the farmer is at fault.

For the record the bar they bounced off was a black steel bar fitted at the factory by Mr Useless Diesel and it bent far enough back that it dented the front panel of the truck which is about 6 inches or so from where the bar sits when installed and straight.