What is a Bull-Bar?

Some of the four wheel drive vehicles these days have their muscley looks enhanced by the simple addition of a bull-bar . A bull-bar can come in many shapes and sizes, and be made from different construction material, but essentially a bull-bar is a strong, tubular structure attached to the front of a vehicle to protect the front sheet metal panels in the event of a collision with an animal.

Effectively, the bull-bar will supersede the bumper and make it largely redundant. Bull-bars also offer a protective shield against scrub, logs, banks etc. if placed on a serious off-roading vehicle. In combination with side steps and rails, the bull-bar is part of a vehicle’s “bar work”. Some would say that bar work is not necessary, but for people who actually use their vehicles for off-road purposes, the bar work provides critical strength and protection and should therefore be considered as an essential part of an off-roading vehicle. A “fair-dinkum” bull bar is designed to protect against animal strike, which is more likely when travelling in off-road situations where grazing or wild animals are not used to regular traffic passing by. A general phenomenon has been recognised in Australia that even on bitumen highways, there is an increased risk of animal strike between sunset and sunrise. While colliding with a rabbit is pretty trivial for you, colliding with a sheep or kangaroo is much more serious. This is where a bull-bar can protect you and your car.

Small bull bars are known as “nudge bars”. Nudge bars do not extend to the full width of the vehicle, but still provide some protection to the bumpers. Nudge bars look faintly ridiculous on large 4x4s, which have the body shapes that require the big bull-bars to match. Smaller SUVs and MPVs, however, can have their looks enhanced by the smaller nudge bars, whereas the larger bullbars would overpower the smaller vehicle.
We hope that helps answer the question ‘What is What is a Bull-Bar?’!

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