Mountain Man Tim

indeed, strapping on the bull bar did a number on it due to leverage and bull bars just being there to hold lights/brush guard/maybe take a hit from wild life that saves your radiator. if you want to keep using this bumper you should have your metal guy cut the bull bar off and weld full brace plates to the tweaked areas, then reweld the bull bar on (should be cheaper then a new bumper, and allow for safe use of it again) if done right it wont be ugly once you grind the welds and repaint.

life is a harsh teacher of lessons like this, physics is a bitch.

LOST

Damn that's a tough bumper!

Pull that hard from any other roo bar and it would have torn right off. Send a pic to the guys at ARB USA yet?




For those not familiar with Australian made bumpers the "roo" bar (hoop) is designed to protect your radiator from kamikaze kangaroos and razorbacks.
Much like the deer and wild pig population problem we have in north America. Collisions usually happen at night, alone, in a remote area.

CerOf

quite familiar with it. Have had two ARB bumpers on two different jeeps and spent some time wheeling with the North American ARB folks a few years back. A force pressing against the hoop would be a stronger situation, such as striking a deer or kangaroo. Pulling away from the jeep is weaker, like a strap hooked on to the hoop is definately wrong. It is a shame the bumper was mangled. I still think the winch plate area is probably okay. Again, based on an Internet photo.

Sent from some string and a few tin cans.

Stubicon

They are right. Once the metal is stretched its fatigued and can't simply be pushed back into place to retain its original strength.

Do you have any better pictures though? It's possible you could have a welding and fab shop cutout and replace the bent plates.

Vladimer

Omfg lol. From your initial description it sounded like it was a little out and you could argue how much it was pulled out... THAT ... is definitely pulled out

The winch plate on that ARB would be fine, it doesn't look like it got minimal tweaking as it sits between the frame rails and attaches to the front middle portion.

For the upper hoop, I'd either bend it back or have a shop cut it and redo it. Bending it back will make it weaker but that is the top of the hoop so really... how much 'weaker' will the bumper be after as a whole? I can't imagine much at all, it is just the top that is bent. Not even the hoop is bent, its litterally the top portion the hoop attaches to.

If the cost for that is close to the the bumper cost then I would just get a new arb.

One way or another, please have him use the proper recovery points on the bumper. Last thing you need is the weld on the hoop busting and a metal hoop flying into you or the recovered vehicle. The hoop is not made to be a recovery point

Stubicon

^^^ he makes a good point. If the top plating isn't used for mounting the winch then don't worry about it. Just get a welding shop to heat it up, work it back into place as best they can, and maybe add some gussets to reinforce it. Just hope it doesn't crack. The bar is more of a brush guard and winch protection anyway.

Oh, and unless you can weld and fab or know someone who can, it can be pretty damn expensive.

Vladimer

Not the greatest image as the picture was taken for another use, but that hole with the 4 bolts is what mounts to the passenger side frame rail. You can see the winch plate kind of out of focus on the bottom left of the image. The winch plate is supported by the bottom and front of the bumper. Any damage to the very top I do not think would weaken the recovery points at the bottom or the winch in any meaningful way.



Also... make sure the included bottom two bolts by the recovery point are attached to the frame and you are not just using the frame rail bolts.