ARB Summit Bumper and safety

[my2019ranger]

I have a 2019 Ranger and have already gone ahead and had an ARB Summit bumper installed. I have now stumbled upon a lot of chatter about the safety issues with "bull bars" in general that in fact they increase risk of injury not only of pedestrians (no surprise- I knew that in advance) but of occupants of the vehicle with these bumpers.

Now the particular video that started it was this smartass aussie guy

Now ARB insists the bumpers work with air bag sensors and are safety compliant and they put a lot of effort into testing but as the youtuber above asks "Why don't they publish these results?" I have spent a lot of time searching online and can't find any serious proof of actual crash testing. I've heard they only do computer modeling testing. My bumper does not interfere with parking and radar sensors which is good. But haven't had a crash yet so no idea how the airbags would perform. The other serious concern raised is the bumper takes away crumple zone effects which absorb a lot of the shock rather than your body. In the comments sections there are people claiming to be EMT types or whatever who've seen people's legs being crushed and steering wheels in the chest - again lack of crumple zone. I don't think the horror stories specifically mention ARB summit's but....

I would love to hear from anybody with first hand knowledge of the summit bumper in real world crash conditions if possible but would appreciate anyone with any info on the subject to share what they know.
Thanks!

 

[Curious Hound]

Your crumplezone still exists. The bumper is in front of it. I don't see how the bumper would negate the crumplezone. It should reduce damage to your vehicle.

The steering column is supposed to telescope (crumple) to minimize chest injury. Bolting on a stiff bumper won't change that. Frame rails are designed to crumple or telescope. Bolting a bumper on the front shouldn't change that. In many cases things are designed so the engine gets pushed down under the cabin to minimize injiries. Bolting a bumper on shouldn't change that.

 

[my2019ranger]

Your crumplezone still exists. The bumper is in front of it. I don't see how the bumper would negate the crumplezone. It should reduce damage to your vehicle.

The steering column is supposed to telescope (crumple) to minimize chest injury. Bolting on a stiff bumper won't change that. Frame rails are designed to crumple or telescope. Bolting a bumper on the front shouldn't change that. In many cases things are designed so the engine gets pushed down under the cabin to minimize injiries. Bolting a bumper on shouldn't change that.

Right but that's the point. A strong stiff steel bumper like the Summit would stop the oncoming car or tree or whatever from even reaching the crumple zone, no? So all the force from the initial impact would transmit thru the frame... It would be nice if crash tests were done to see what happens to steering wheels and crumple zone.

 

[Curious Hound]

The crumple zone is still free to crumple behind the bumper.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Australia fusses over everything. If they are legal to have on the road there I doubt they are too bad.

I wouldn't be surprised if he is looking for something to stir the pot to get clicks.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Personally, after having a deer jump in front of me before, I’d rather have an aftermarket bumper with some grill/headlight protection, not some tin-foil and plastic monstrosity.

Yes, modern vehicles with all plastic bumpers have some shock absorbing stuff built into them (usually foam). Adding a heavy steel bumper in its place can affect things, depending on exactly how it’s built. As @Curious Hound pointed out, the main crumple zone and stuff is actually the frame/body structure behind where the bumper mounts. The only potential effect that a heavy steel bumper will have on that is to distribute across both frame rails for an off-center hit instead of folding on one side.

On the airbag sensors, it gets complicated because it depends a lot on the sensor and location. My 95 F-150 has the sensors mounted to the top of the core support. Even with the factory bumper, that’s not easily reached. My 00 Rangers have the sensor mounted on the drivers frame rail under the drivers door. I’ve been in two wrecks in 00 Rangers. The first I went off an icy road into a tree, dead center in the grill, factory bumper. The airbag went off AFTER I was completely stopped. The other someone tried to dart across in front of me and wiped across the whole front, bent the frame, all of the things, factory bumper, no airbag deployment. So airbag sensors are a maybe thing.

 

[lowspeedpursuit]

I have a policy of not watching videos where the thumbnail is the host making a stupid face, so I'm not totally sure what his argument is, but I agree it shouldn't matter.

The bumper isn't part of a traditional crumple zone, and it doesn't hold itself up. It's gonna transfer whatever force through to the frame no matter what it's made of, unless the process of installing it involves stiffening the frame.

I've never driven anything new enough that the bumper contains an impact absorber, but if the new Rangers have one stock and aftermarket bumpers don't, then yeah, you're losing that.

Whether a big metal bumper is a good fit for you depends entirely on what you're doing with the truck.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've never driven anything new enough that the bumper contains an impact absorber

I'm not sure of the exact years, but for sure my 1977 pinto has impact absorbers. Apparently not any good for over 5mph though. And all cars of that era had them.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Anything made from 1974 on will have a metal bar of some sort in the front bumper. This will distribute the load of a crash, and like Lil Blue Ford said, in and offset crash most of the factory or OEM bumpers will collapse on the corner that is hit. that said, I believe true crumplezones did not happen until the mid 80s and early 90s. I think the 94 and older Rangers did not have crumple zone frames but the 95 and newer did. A crash that is strong enough to mangle the factory steel bumper bar but not crumple up is likely going to be a very surviveable and walk away from crash. it may still total the vehicle but with all the other safety systems in place even if it is just a seatbelt you will be fine.

A crash that is severe enough to crumple the car is likely a crash that would seriously injure or even kill the occupants and that car is toast no matter the outcome.

So, yeah put a bull bar on and likely you will be fine in any minor crash and may not have any damage to your car, especially a deer strike. the only downside of having such a rigid bumper is that in a moderate crash that would not affect the crumple zones but demolish the bumper, a rigid bumper (as mentioned by lil Blue) would distribute that load over both frame rails and may tweak the frame where the stock bumper would have folded and done more body and cosmetic damage. so its a trade off.

AJ

 

[Roert42]

I think part of the reason for the super flexible plastic bumpers is to do less damage in the even you run into someone at low speed.

Not anything to do with protecting the occupants.

 

[Snoranger]

The factory bumper is part of the crash protection system. Look at the cross section of your standard truck bumper. It’s shaped like a C with a mounting bracket closing in the open part. That bracket and air gap is designed to collapse in the event of a crash. If you replace the bumper with a stronger aftermarket bumper, you’ve eliminated a part of your overall safety.
My suggestion is… if your worried about it, put the stock bumper back on.

 

[Jim Oaks]

If I add body armor to the front of my truck my first concern is if it's going to hold up if it hits something. My last concern is if it's going to prevent the airbags from deploying. In fact, I would hope it would enable me to push something out of my way or keep a deer from destroying the front of my truck and not deploy my airbags.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Airbags generally shouldn't really care, if anything a harder nose would make them easier to pop.

Airbags go off inertia not damage level.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Airbags generally shouldn't really care, if anything a harder nose would make them easier to pop.

Airbags go off inertia not damage level.

Interesting. It appears that while the bumper doesn't change the internal force required to deploy an airbag, it completely alters how that force is transmitted. Because the steel bumper creates an abrupt stop rather than a progressive crumple, the sensors can be fooled into "thinking" a low-speed fender-bender is a much more severe accident, potentially triggering a premature or unnecessary airbag deployment.

In a major high-speed collision, your vehicle's frame rails are meant to deform progressively to shield the cabin.

Because a solid steel bumper acts as a rigid battering ram, it effectively transfers kinetic energy into the frame instantly rather than letting the vehicle's front end deform sequentially.

Supposedly established off-road manufacturers engineer specialized mounting brackets designed to yield and mimic factory crumple behavior during severe impacts, ensuring the sensors receive accurate deceleration data.

I guess people should check the specs and details and see if bumpers have been designed to work with airbags.

As far as ARB, "Designed with modern Rangers in mind, the ARB Summit Winch Bumper Kit w/ Fog Lights for 2019-2023 Ford Ranger works with front parking sensors and adaptive cruise control. An air bag compatible chassis mounting system and a three-piece split pan grille with access doors for winch clutch operation round out the package."

This topic would be a good tech article.

 

[Snoranger]

If I add body armor to the front of my truck my first concern is if it's going to hold up if it hits something. My last concern is if it's going to prevent the airbags from deploying. In fact, I would hope it would enable me to push something out of my way or keep a deer from destroying the front of my truck and not deploy my airbags.

I certainly didn’t take the airbags into consideration when I replaced the bumpers on my ‘23. I didn’t even think about the airbags until it was time to cut a big hole in the dash to mount the GMRS radio.