Frontera Bullbar stuff (prev: for Francesco)

[JaSiN]

Here is a custom alloy winch bar, seems to be ok when winching....



the bar is the same width as the flares but it sits to the right... its had a hard life...

[si]

Fly3r & Muvit,

I don't suppose I could trouble you guys to get some measurements of the bullbars for me could I?

I will get the points which will need measuring, but it'll take me a short while. I have to ask my friend who's doing up the CAD drawings of the bullbar, he's asked for some specific measurements in order to get the drawing right...

I'll post a couple of pics with the areas drawn in that he wants measured.

Thanks in advance.

Si

[si]

Jasin,

That looks quite good.. but I dare say that it's pulled over towards the right because of the winching with alloy? Dunno, may be right or wrong, not sure.

I quite like Alloy bars, but I'm worried about bending, or breaking, I broke a mount on an alloy bar I had on my WB Ute years ago.. it was a top looking bullbar though.

I like the LightForce lights on your bar there as well mate

Si

[JaSiN]

once i took it off to put the winch in it just never went back on straight. i think they are ment to have a steel cage that bolts them to the chasis...

have tried straightening it... no luck...

other than that plenty of room for the wheels and approach angle.


Cant wait to see what you come up with!

Jas

[si]

JaSiN,

Can I ask where it came from and about how much they are worth?

It does look like you've got a great approach angle there..
Did you have to extend the under-engine bash plates at all? or was it all ok with that, plenty of other bits to bash on??
(I am guessing (probably correctly) that the under body bash plates on the MU are identical to the Fronty A series because everything else is virtually the same (with exception to rear end of the body etc which is the same as the LWB but on a SWB body and a few other little bits))

Si

[Jimmu]

Here is what mine looks like

With 31's
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2838398980778634408

With 33's

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4831731463471314633

Jimmy

[JaSiN]

si said:

JaSiN,

Can I ask where it came from and about how much they are worth?

It does look like you've got a great approach angle there..
Did you have to extend the under-engine bash plates at all? or was it all ok with that, plenty of other bits to bash on??
(I am guessing (probably correctly) that the under body bash plates on the MU are identical to the Fronty A series because everything else is virtually the same (with exception to rear end of the body etc which is the same as the LWB but on a SWB body and a few other little bits))

Si

You would have to ask Yarno, as he had it made for his bar, i think it was between 1200 - 1500 to have it made, but i think they had 2 tries at it, it not the best made bar tho, shocking welds and jagged edges.

the bash plates are the standard one, and it has the gear box and transfer box plates as standard, which seem pretty good.

its a shame the MU's didnt have the coil rear like your fronty.


Jas

[si]

Actually, the early Fronties in the UK came out with leaf rear springs

I'd kind of like coil, but it's more trouble than it's worth, and I find that with leaf springs when out wheelin' you a much better feel of what you're going over, thus you don't go too hard and stack it

No worries about the bar.

Jimmu,

Nice vids mate. Nice bar on there as well..

Tell me, how did you lock the front diff, I'm gathering it's a standard front diff, and I am randomly guessing that the diff is welded up??

Nice truck, looks unstoppable with the locked front diff, is the rear locked as well?

Si

[si]

Thusfar this is what my friend has come up with... and still progressing, but this is from the wonderful pics you guys have provided.

(I'll still need to get some exact measurements shortly tho.)



So what do you think?
I like it.. and it's going to cost me about HALF of the cost of an ARB bar (delivered to the UK and VAT (same as GST only WORSE)) to get it custom made..
Mind you though, found the ARB bar for the B series Frontera is available from ARB in the USA for HALF the price of one from Australia as well!! ODD.

Anywho, comments welcome

Si

[fly3r]

whats sitting beside the fair leads?

Looks good!

[si]

I think that's the plug in point for the winch control..

But not 100% sure as I've only seen the pics from this angle as yet


My mate is definitely talented when it comes to using CAD tho.. he's made that simply from the photo's I've give him plus a few slight modifications that I've asked for..

When the bars go on top for instance they won't come straight down at the corners.. they will wrap around the corners slightly and come down at a very slight angle.
Thus giving a little bit more strength to the top bars that protect the corners of the bonnet etc, if they were impacted by say a deer (or a roo) they would be a little stronger and less likely to bend back if the force was transferred down to the main bumper part (the real strength area) at a slight angle.

I'm waiting for the next instalment of pics.

[fly3r]

If you hit a deer or a roo, the pionts that matter are the mounts the bul bar are sitting on, thats where it will pivot.

[kykin]

just got my 97 tf 2wd TJM rodeo bar on, bit of welding and brackets required, got it for $100 at a wreckers on the goldcoast. im happy

[si]

Nice clean truck you've got there mate.. and one heck of a bargain on that bar!!

Now if only I could find one like that for that sort of price.

Mind you, got someone working on a custom one as above, but unfortunately under stupid new EU laws I can't have the bullbars on the top, only the winch mount bumper bit.

However the bit that will be made will be the bumper and after that I'll pop along to my local metal fab workshop and have the bars made up for me and welded on, then take the whole thing off and look at powder coating it, or perhaps just several good layers of black will do the job, I think powder coating is perhaps just a needless expense for not much gain because it still chips and rust can go to town underneath without being visible, I'd prefer to see rust and kill it.

Thanks for the pics of your bar mate, looks good on there. I find the underneath of it quite interesting because it sort of dips down where the mounts are then goes back up again, do you know why it does that?

Si

[muvit madness]

si said:

Nice clean However the bit that will be made will be the bumper and after that I'll pop along to my local metal fab workshop and have the bars made up for me and welded on, then take the whole thing off and look at powder coating it, or perhaps just several good layers of black will do the job, I think powder coating is perhaps just a needless expense for not much gain because it still chips and rust can go to town underneath without being visible, I'd prefer to see rust and kill it.

I disagree as powder-coating is baked on at extremely high temps & is a lot more robust & scratch proof as opposed to 7 coats of paint which is still easily scratched & probably wont have as good a finish either? unless it is sprayed in two pack.
Most MFG's of most bull-bars & bar-work alike e.g tjm are powder-coated. Sure enough it is still chip-able but if a chip test was done on a powder-coated item & say a painted item i'm sure the powder-coated one will win hands down.

cheers
muvit

[Jimmu]

si said:

Jimmu,

Nice vids mate. Nice bar on there as well..

Tell me, how did you lock the front diff, I'm gathering it's a standard front diff, and I am randomly guessing that the diff is welded up??

Nice truck, looks unstoppable with the locked front diff, is the rear locked as well?

Si

Its got a LOKKA brand auto locker in there. Fitted by superior engineering.

The rear has a tightened reconditioned LSD which works awesome. It chirps on the road if I give it some around corners and gives excellent traction off road.

Yeah it is pretty much unstoppable. Flex is the only real weakness due to the IFS front.

You need the extra power/torque it has to push the 33's hard though.

Jimmy

[kykin]

yeh the powder coat is the way, tougher, nicer, i even considerd a dark blue powder coat on my bar there.... think he quoted me $250 or something...

it seems to have coped a small hit under neith as the removable winch plate has poped a tak weld, but it still seems to have been a similar W shape from new.. just not so /\ in the middle, it does meet nicely with my bash plate as is so i wont bend it back straighter. looks like a mean Batman Wing or something. ill have to look at a new rodeo grill to fill that hole. Will it go straight on any one know? the one with the dip in the middle im talking bout.

i did get pulled over for not having the plate on thoe, hehe, he let me go as i showed him the fresh welds, that i have now painted over with some matt black rust quit, it had lots of surface rust after its first 2 days on.

[si]

Cool... I wasn't too sure about powder coating, specially considering that it is likely to be expensive over here.. everything is

Anyway.. will have to look in to it.

Si

[slightlydodgy]

hi si did you ever get the rest of the pattern for your bumper I might make one. Others are prob interested too

[si]

Hi mate,

Unfortunately I'm STILL waiting for the finished piccies.

I will give it another try shortly and see how it goes. I'm hoping to get the finished CAD drawings so that I can give them to a metal fab guy to see what it'll cost me to have made.

Will keep you updated mate.

Or drop me a line to [e-mail] and remind me once in a while.

On that note folks, if you've got any favourite 4x4 parts suppliers or clubs then pop along to www.4x4world.org and submit them so I can start adding to my list (I've not started on building the lists as yet cos I've been busy with work/truck mods etc but I will be doing it soon) go submit some stuff

Si