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21 Posts
I recently had the misfortune of a head on accident...an uninsured, unlicenced feral was speeding up on the wrong side of a dirt road on a mountain and slammed into me aroung a blind corner. He then took off and left me stranded however my eagle eyed wife took down his number plate. The police arrested him several days later but we were approx 2000 km from home on holidays and needed to be sent to a nearby town on a tilt truck. A local panel beater got us mobile again albeit quite bent so that we could resume our holiday. The acident took out the front driver's side fender, bumper bar, grille, lights, inner guard and a whole lot of other parts. It's in at the local panel beater now being brought back to life. The driver's wing of the brush bar took most of the impact and was destroyed however the centre part seems OK. Here in Australia I am having all sorts of problems in sourcing either a second hand bar (new is impossible) or even the damaged wing.
I have noticed in several photos on this site that there appears to be a rubber infill plate where the wings used to be which fills in the gap on the sides of the main bar.
Are these standard parts and if so, does anyone know where I could source them?
By the way, I estimated that the terminal speed at impact was over 100 kmh (he was doing around 70 kmh and I was around 30 kmh). The Rangie was so solid, neither my wife or I felt any of the impact. The flexibility of the brush bar appeared to fling the other car, a small Suzuki 4WD with steel bars front and rear, approx 2 to 3 metres backwards into the side of the mountain. Berfore the accident we were considering parting company with the Rangie due to ongoing reliability issues with the EAS. However, two days before the accident we converted the EAS to springs and OME shocks. The conversion to springs has been a very good investment. Because of the way the Rangie took the impact we now feel that we are in one of the safest 4x4's on the market and intend to keep it for the foreseeable future. I doubt that other 4x4's such as Prado's (which was our preferred choice) would have come off as good.
Great forum and thanks for your help.
I have noticed in several photos on this site that there appears to be a rubber infill plate where the wings used to be which fills in the gap on the sides of the main bar.
Are these standard parts and if so, does anyone know where I could source them?
By the way, I estimated that the terminal speed at impact was over 100 kmh (he was doing around 70 kmh and I was around 30 kmh). The Rangie was so solid, neither my wife or I felt any of the impact. The flexibility of the brush bar appeared to fling the other car, a small Suzuki 4WD with steel bars front and rear, approx 2 to 3 metres backwards into the side of the mountain. Berfore the accident we were considering parting company with the Rangie due to ongoing reliability issues with the EAS. However, two days before the accident we converted the EAS to springs and OME shocks. The conversion to springs has been a very good investment. Because of the way the Rangie took the impact we now feel that we are in one of the safest 4x4's on the market and intend to keep it for the foreseeable future. I doubt that other 4x4's such as Prado's (which was our preferred choice) would have come off as good.
Great forum and thanks for your help.
