Smartbars Vs Bullbars, A Critical Comparison

I own a jeep. I’ve always owned jeeps. From the old 70s CJ models to the newer, way more comfy (or so my wife tells me) cherokees. I don’t know why I do, but I’ve always loved them.

On a recent trip, I hit a kangaroo at a low speed. Thankfully the kangaroo bounded off with little more than a fright and there was basically no damage to the vehicle. The incident got me thinking about frontal protection though. If I were going any faster, the damage to the jeep could have been significant, leaving us stranded and putting my family in harms way.

During this chat they brought up the topic of smartbars. Before the conversation, I didn’t even know they existed. So I got onto Google to do some research on the products and found a lot of opinion (most of it based on aesthetics and perception rather than utility and fact) but pretty much no factual information. So me and my mates at All Vehicle Accessories dug a little deeper, and this is what we found.

Frontal protection products are designed to do 3 things in a collision. They are designed to 1. Protect the passengers in the vehicle. 2. Protect the vehicle in a collision. 3. Pretect the object being struck in a collision. So that was my first point of reference. Which product did a better job in a collision, the bullbar or the smartbar?

Its pretty funny when you look around for information on the relative safety performance of bullbars and smartbars. People who love bullbars keep pointing out that at 150kms/h a collision will be fatal. So to be clear, we are not looking at the 150kms/h collission. Rather we are comparing performance of these products at speeds up to and including fatal impact, but not exceeding it. That means at speeds which are less than and equal to the point where a collision becomes fatal to the vehicle, passengers or pedestrian.

The two frontal protection devices perform differently as they have been designed to do different things. Bullbars have been designed to be the “unbreakable barrier”. They are intended to form a barrier between your vehicle and the collision that nothing can get through. Smartbars on the other hand have been designed, through their hollow polymer construction, to absorb, cushion and decelerate the forces of impact. Ie. To be a “frontal airbag” if you like, albeit for your car. When you look at the independent tests, there really is no escaping it. The fact is that up to the point of fatal impact, smartbars protect your vehicle, your passengers and pedestrians better than bullbars do.

To put this point in perspective though, into words you can feel, smartbars are made out of similar materials that they make those big wheelie bins from. Imagine you fell over in the street and smacked your head into a big iron postal box. It would hurt right? Now compare the same fall if your head hit the middle of one of those big wheelie bins. The bin would cushion the impact somewhat and the damage to your forehead would not nearly be so bad. (Or painful for that matter) Thats the way the smartbars work.

Topic 2. Performance – There is no argument that smartbars are significantly lighter than bullbars. This means better performance for your vehicle. To embellish, if you install a smartbar instead of a bullbar, your vehicle will have less tyre wear, less suspension wear and safer handling, just because it is lighter. They also provide better value for money than the alternatives and are more environmentally friendly. Manufacturing smartbars produces less than 1% of the green house gasses which the manufacture of metal bullbars produce. So performance wise, smartbars are more efficient with your car, your wallet and the environment.

Topic 3. Maintenance – Metal rusts. Metal looses its lustre. Metal reflects. A rusting bullbar requires significant work to clean up. A dull bullbar requires significant polishing to make it shine again. And a reflecting bullbar will effect your vision everytime another set of headlights hit it. This is one of the defining features of the smartbar. Maintenance requires a bucket of soapy water, a sponge and a quick wipe down. Thats it. The plastic parts do not rust, they do not require buffing or polishing and they will never reflect light from another source.

These are the facts I found when researching frontal protection products for my Jeep. The protection of my family was my #1 consideration, so getting this right was important to me. If you are considering frontal protection products I encourage you to do your own research, try to seperate fact from the immense amount of image based opinion out there, and pick the product that best suits your purpose.

Looking for advice on frontal protection, Damian Papworth turned to the experts at All Vehicle Accessories

Remote Controlled Toys: Some Amazing Tips For Buying Them

Kids have always gotten enjoyment from pushing a button or holding down a lever and watching their remote controlled toys race through the house on its own. Today, the excitement has captured children of all ages and grown adults as well because they will do flips, climb walls, sail over water, and fly in the air. Obviously, this is one constantly changing industry that will never go out of business.

If you are looking to purchase remote operated toys for your children or that grown man in your life with a child’s heart, there a few things you have to consider. Instead of just looking around stores and finding something that you think they will like, look at a few technical details to ensure they will get the most pleasure possible out of playing with their new toys.

The first consideration has to be what type of remote vehicle you want to purchase. It is no longer a matter of selecting which color car you like best. Today, there are boats that sail across the open water, helicopters and planes that really take flight, and trucks of every imaginable type.

You also have to think about how big you want your toy to be, which really brings your price range into question as well. You can still get smaller scale toys, but today’s market is all about bigger models that resemble the real vehicles more closely. Of course, you can expect to pay more for these larger models.

Going right along with size and price is the power of the toy. There are some very powerful toys on the market that travel fast, but they have one drawback, which is the battery. Batteries have come a long way in recent years, but they still are not very efficient for larger, powerful toys.

Larger sized toys are going to require more power to operate, which means they will have larger batteries that tend not to last very long before needing charged. It is not uncommon for these toys to charge for days just to get 15 minutes of actual use.

This is the reason most parents leave the larger models for older children who want them more as collector’s items or decorations than actual use. Smaller children are better suited to smaller toys with less power anyway.

It is no secret that the price of remote controlled toys is considerably higher than they were in the past. This is because more technology has gone into them, they tend to run faster, and most of them have done away with the wire that used to hold the vehicle to the remote. Also, many are tied to popular brand names, such as the Hummer.

Fiona Wyresdle is an author on Hobby Source where you can read articles on such topics as simulators for RC helicopters and cheep Walkera dragonfly radio controlled helicopters.

Defensive Driving And The Teenage Driving Statistics

As the time arrives for your kids to step up into the actual world, one of the initial pains of parenting a young adult that you will encounter is driving. Since this is a very important lesson that they’ll use for the remainder of their lives, it’s important they get high-quality instruction. Get your kids aa driving lessons and rest assured they’re in good quality hands. Usually, teenager drivers have to get a learning permit previous to getting their authentic license. Drivers’ examination tells us that younger drivers, particularly young men are 75% more apt to have a car collision than most mature drivers.

With figures like these, it is necessary that your teens get superior instruction before ever getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Teenager driving should be looked at as a privilege, not a right. Until current years, public schools presented drivers learning courses to every students who were of age. Due to the rise in insurance to protect these youthful drivers, many school districts have had to abandon these services. It is now on the parents shoulders to send their teenagers to drivers school.

Upon beginning driving lessons, students learn fundamental education about the hazards of teenager driving. Many municipalities require a provisional license be obtained prior to an individual ever gets behind the wheel. For this reason, students must primary learn the essentials of the road. You will begin with easy laws that everyone must know prior to driving. These laws and regulations will be catered to your locale.

You will learn about street lights and signals, right of way and stop sign rules. You will learn about the various parts of the automobile that you have command over and how to master these tools. You may have a mock auto section in your classroom. This is a very important tool. This will allow you to get the real sense of getting behind the wheel without being out loose in the world.

After you pass initials tests letting your trainer know you’re ready to get on the road, you will get your primary lesson behind the wheel. The automobile you drive will have double controls; this lets your teacher make the last decision on each step you take. If something occurs, they can take over and right the situation. While you may not appreciate this, you’ll be glad that someone else can save you and the vehicle if you make the wrong move.

You will most likely commence driving on a course or in a large, empty lot. This is so you can get used to the way the brakes feel, where the gas pedal is and how to turn the steering wheel just the right amount. Once you feel relaxed, you’re ready to get out on the open road.

Generally, you will drive on back roads and in unpopulated areas to get some time on the roads with the least opportunity of mishaps. Your teacher will split time between classroom lessons and behind the wheel training. The further you progress, the more time you will spend behind the wheel. Lessons time is usually about 20 hours of classroom training and 20-30 hours of driving time.

When you have concluded your on road and classroom instruction, your trainer will administer a examination. This will prepare you for the real tests that you’ll have to pass to get your license. You will usually have 3 attempts to pass your drivers test prior to having to go for more coaching. Listen well, be alert and you’ll do just fine.

Nathan Lewit is the hands on owner/instructor of Nathan’s Driving School. If you are trying to fulfill the regulations for the new Joshua law you will need to visit defensive driving Georgia to be eligible.

Loan Calculator Tips To Save You Money

Imagine the next time you join a discussion about simple loan calculators. When you start sharing the fascinating loan calculator facts below, your friends will be absolutely amazed.

An unsecured bad credit loan does not require you to use your property as a guarantee or security for the loan either. As it is unsecured, the loan offers a little more flexibility to the borrower that does not wish to put their home at risk. The First Home Buyers Grant was introduced in 2000 in the dual capacity of off-setting the GST and to boost the property market, and has been of substantial benefit to thousands of home buyers. Each state government administers the Grant for that state, and each applicant must satisfy the state body of their eligibility for the Grant. We periodically crawl and refresh manually-added blogs, but resubmitting ensures that we index the latest posts.

The loan finance site is unusually helpful on the topic of loan modifications, since other information online (in many cases direct from the U.S. Treasury and related websites) is on-point but still either biased towards hyper-technical readings of the plan or a watered-down version intended for an uneducated public.

How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom about simple interest loan calculators that changes everything.

Another use of this is the ability it gives you to find out how extra repayments will reduce the term of the loan and the interest rate. The home loan calculator is a handy way to find out many other details about the loan. You may avail the services of the customer service online to get help with any questions that may crop up in your mind. In order to plan a comparison study and to go for further plan, this home loan calculator becomes easy with the use of internet. In this case, we know the repayment values (cell D15) with the minimum of $300 and the maximum of $1000, as well as the repayment increase step of $100. After that set the address of the cell whose values you want to calculate?

Using online auto loan calculators is the easiest and quickest way to compare various car loan options. An auto loan calculator is a tool that comes in handy to decide on an auto loan that is most beneficial to you. The personal loan calculator at LoanCalculator4U is just a guide and not a quote. Its accuracy is dependent on your financial circumstances. Personal loans will have higher interest rates than home equity loans because they are not backed by recoverable assets. However, you don’t stand to lose anything if you do not pay them off.

Personal loans offer additional finances to borrowers at reasonable terms that are accorded in compliance to their particular state of affairs. An effort is made to offer competitive terms on finances extended to you at personal loans.

Now you can be a confident expert on simple loan calculators. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on simple interest loan calculators.

About the author: LoanCalculator4U.com offers free simple loan calculator resources and helps you find simple interest loan calculator tools for the latest mortgage, car and auto payment rates. You have complete permission to reprint this article provided this paragraph and the hyperlinks are kept unchanged.