I am looking at buying a front winch bumper for my JK - Smittybilt SRC Carbine - are the bullbars really necessary? My preference would be not to use them. What added protection are they designed to provide?

 

Well the bull bar provides a little more security protecting the winch and radiator in the event something were to step out in front of you. Second the bull bar will provide a place to mount auxiliary lighting.

 

Especially a deer lol

 

That little bit of bar isn't going to "protect" the winch or radiator from much. It's thin-walled tube and the bolts are very short. I had a bull bar on my previous smitty and it was easily manipulated by hand.


Bottom line though- if you don't like how it looks then don't buy it.

Smittybilt "stinger" on a jeep that had a flop. You can see how the "stinger" portion tore away from the bumper. There's a reason why the more expensive ones are welded on and gusseted instead of just tube sticking out.

 

Bull bars are mostly for looks and then some will use them to mount lights on top of them, although you can just as easily mount lights to the top of your bumper just as easily. Most of the honest people when you ask them, the main purpose of having one is looks, then they may have some additional secondary justification like preventing deer, tree branch and light mounting that have already been mentioned

Now stingers, those actually have a purpose, where if you're going down a steep enough grade hill, then they can often prevent your Jeep from flipping over frontwards.....bull bars don't help you there.



I have the AEV front bumper which comes in the with or without bull bar flavor, I prefer the non bull bar flavor. I don't like useless items getting in the way of me being able to remove my front grill and reaching my winch line when needed.

 

looking at the hit or flop that blue jeep took, I would say most would far the same. I like the modest protection my Smitty SRC protect my fenders as to just having a stubby bumper. I would also say that the bull bar with winch in place would keep a deer from going into radiator!

 

Looks like you got your answer. BTW welcome to the forum.

 

Yup, deer and large tree branches, lights, and looks.

Realistically they add a little protection for your grill/radiator, and/or winch, but mostly they add height for mounting a light. The higher you mount a light the more effective it is (especially with spot pattern lights). Hints the original reason for mounting lights along the roof line. I still feel my light bar is a tad low mounted on my bull bar, but it is better than just having it on the bumper, and then it would interfere with my winch.

Sent from my iPhone using JK-Forum

 

If you're doing a lot bush riding or live in the country they can be useful on case of animal impact etc.. If you're rock climbing a stinger tends to be the go to type. Here in the UK, however, they're illegal and for the kind of driving we can do here, they're not necessary. I have a LOD Mid-Width bumper without the bullbat and I quite like the clean aesthetics of it:

 

Different things for different purposes. Bull bars (good ones), protect your radiator etc from debris/animals/etc while traveling. Stingers (again good ones), prevent forward rollovers when crawling. You will still roll with a stinger, but its a side roll. Where is if you never had a bull bar on your rig, your rad could take a whoppin and leave you stranded hundreds of miles away from help. I am moving to either an ARB or Pronghorn front bumper with grille guard because of the protection they provide while expedition travelling. I don't rock crawl so putting a stinger on my rig would be useless, and look quite stupid.