this is 100% correct. crush cans are designed to absorb low speed impacts and that's it. however, i should point out crush cans are only as good as if they get hit directly. if you were to hit a pole or a tree dead center or even clip a car on the side of your bumper and miss the the cans altogether, they will do absolutely nothing for you.

 

This would be my guess, just to protect them from liability.

 

Anyone have a picture of the AEV bumper without crush cans??

 

the crush cans go behind the rubber bumperettes and a picture would show nothing.

 

x2 When I put on my bumper I didn't use the cans and it looks the same as all the rest.

 

Strange thing is the bumperettes on the ARB seem to be some kind of fiberglass. It would take some force to crush them even without any crush can inside. If they were rubber or the same soft plastic as the stock bumper I can see worth in using the cans (replace a cheap metal part instead of using an expensive frame straightening machine) But the fiberglass and the cans combined may defeat the purpose.

 

I was picturing the whole assembly missing (crush cans + bumperettes) I mistakenly thought that the entire thing was called the crush cans...


Thanks!

 

If you read through the AEV bumper install instruction posted on their website there are quite a few pictures of this (including CAD imagry so you can see how the layers work together).

 

I went ahead and added them to my ARB install. Didn't take long to do and I have the peace of mind that I did the intall per the instructions.

The bumper caps aren't fiberglass... at least mine are not. Just a tough injection molded plastic. But you can bet that if you ever did tap something without those crush cans it would mush those 'bumperettes' down to the metal. The cans may or may not help, but mine are there and that's enough for me.

I guess it just comes down to if you want to take the time and effort to do it... it can't hurt anything to leave 'em in that's for sure.