Bull Bars
It is common knowledge for any car enthusiast that bull bars provide a number of benefits to an automobile. However, in order to reap the most benefits from them, motorists need to use them only in the appropriate situations. Such a possible circumstance might arise from a simple drive on the roads in rural areas. In many cases, bull bars are not at all necessary, and car owners themselves need to find out whether they should use bull bars or not. A few types of roads also require that vehicles have bull bars attached to them; as a result, motorists need to find beforehand whether their route of travels includes such roads.
Automobile owners who drive mostly on the metropolitan roads, bull bars are not necessary. In fact, sometimes, the bull bars may lead to disadvantages rather than benefits. The risks are mainly for people without bull bars than those equipped with one. The risks mainly arise from the possibility of a collision between a vehicle with a bull bar and one without. Since the roads of cities do not require the use of bull bars, automobile owners are highly discouraged from using them.
The safety of unprotected road users depends on respective manufacturers of bull bars, who are under constant pressure from the community to start designing bull bars that does not adhere to the requirements of certain roads. Because of the possible risks associated with that of bull bars, manufacturers of vehicles should not fit one to their vehicles without a strong reason and professional advice. The same goes for importers of these vehicles.
Bull bars are very strong objects that are attached to the front of vehicles. These bull bars are, in most cases, made of reinforced metals in order to make them sufficiently rigid. However, there are manufacturers are also selling bull bars made of plastic as well. The main function of bull bars is shielding the vehicles from damages, which may incur to the headlights and the radiator of the vehicle. The damages mostly arise from collision of the vehicles with wild animals such as kangaroos, and as a reason, the safari four wheel drives are the most common users of bull bars.
Bull bars are popular in countries such as Australia where there is a large population of wild animals, and especially kangaroos. Kangaroos are known for frequently colliding with vehicles travelling on the roads. Since these animals are considerably larger, they are capable of not only disabling the vehicle but also causing injury to people who are inside the vehicles due to hard brakes and such.
As discussed earlier, four-wheel drives are the most common vehicles to contain bull bars. However, of late, many commercial and passenger vans have also adopted these bars. In fact, modern armored sedans are also regularly being equipped with bull bars nowadays.
Bull bars may also present risks to users of the vehicles fitted with these bars. This is because most vehicles already contain a strong enough structure in the front. This structure is mainly required for reducing the forces, and the accelerations caused by these forces, during a collision. As a result, if a bull bar is fixated to the front, the structure becomes less effective in dealing with collisions than it was before, and can often make the collision sensors ineffective. The collision sensors determine when the life-saving air bags inflate - in times of serious accidents, bumps or collisions.
In order to deal with the multifaceted issues of bull bars, many manufacturers are aspiring to design bull bars that will automatically detach from the vehicle during a collision. In this way, the vehicle will not show lower crash performance. However, this design is not very effective for collisions with animals; as a result, the use of bull bars is still a controversial issue with the real effectiveness dubious due to the numerous cons it brings on the table.