Thread: Toyota Hilux - Which Bullbar

Another random thought. ABS plastic vs fibreglass canopies.. I’m not sure what I’ve got on my Colorado, just asked for a canopy with sliding windows when I ordered it, think it’s plastic.

Steel one?


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Originally Posted by MSL

Steel one?


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Sounds expensive

Originally Posted by stagstalker

Another random thought. ABS plastic vs fibreglass canopies.. I’m not sure what I’ve got on my Colorado, just asked for a canopy with sliding windows when I ordered it, think it’s plastic.

I'm getting one of these https://www.utemaster.com.au/ute-canopy/

Strong, great access and lock/unlock with utes central locking - but not cheap

@stagstalker have a look how the two canopies are mounted. From what i can work out and seen the plastic ones have these big four inch wide plates that come down through your tough deck. So they take a big slot out of your tuff deck and looks like shit. That's on a sr5.
Also i know you have a dog so don't forget the grills that go on the back window.
Both canopies are made by Beaut ute and the price difference between the plastic and fibreglass is about $100.
Also i think the plastic one has a lift up window in the front for cleaning and the fibreglass has a sliding front window.
Hopefully someone with a new hilux can confirm all this info?

Over the years I had allot and steel bars and collected a few animals, trees and other obstacles. Both have pros and cons.

Arb make good bars. You need protection around your lights, would buy a bar with out it.

I run arb winch bar on my prado with upgraded springs, shocks and 40 mm lift. Winches and cable are pretty heavy.

Hear good things re Ironman products.

The front axel weight of the patrol weighed 1620kgs befor i put the arbs and winch on the front.Its got plenty of trackion up front.In 16 yrs iv never replaced or upgraded the suspension springs or shocks.No drop on the front.The old patrol taken a beating over the yrs.I put 400kgs of dri mix concrete in the back last week.Thort it might be too much for the rear suspension.The old girl hardly dropped at all.Tyers hardly flinched.Tough old truck at 548000ks.

Originally Posted by Trout

The front axel weight of the patrol weighed 1620kgs befor i put the arbs and winch on the front.Its got plenty of trackion up front.In 16 yrs iv never replaced or upgraded the suspension springs or shocks.No drop on the front.The old patrol taken a beating over the yrs.I put 400kgs of dri mix concrete in the back last week.Thort it might be too much for the rear suspension.The old girl hardly dropped at all.Tyers hardly flinched.Tough old truck at 548000ks.

Over the last 25 to 30 years, shock absorber life on my 4WDs has typically been around 60,000 km max.

It would be interesting to know what would happen if you took one of the front shocks out of its strut assembly.

On old vehicles I’ve worked on that have never had the shocks replaced, you can pretty much guarantee that you can push the shock’s shaft all the way in and it won’t push itself back out, because it is depressurised. In effect the spring has been doing all the work since whenever. If you know what you’re looking for you can feel it quite easily as you drive.

That’s not to say that’s what you will find on your Patrol, there are some old school oil shocks from back in the day that were incredibly durable, like old the Koni designs. These days many of the shocks we buy are actually generic Chinese made designs, painted different colours with different branding - Not hard to end up paying double the price for a specific shock that is exactly the same as something much much cheaper.

Putting new shocks in an older vehicle can transform the driving experience, and it’s not particularly expensive.

Would be interesting to get them tested one day.The shocks are original factory shocks,so theyll be 21yrs old this month.Might get my son n law diesel machanic to have a look at them next yr.

Ive fitted many different bullbars to Hiluxs.

ARB would be the most popular next is genuine.
Both these require the front bumper to be cut. This looks absolutely shit imo!

Ironman and MCC both don't need any cutting of the factory parts.
They're a simple bumper removal and then fit bullbars. Which is far nicer looking.

@stagstalker… something to consider when looking at canopies is fitting an air vent. If you end up doing lots of dirt road mileage, especially down south or in the western Ruapehu or Taranaki, you will find that traditional canopies on wellside utes are often not perfectly airtight and they can suck in bulldust like nothing else. There is nothing more annoying than pulling up at camp in the evening and finding all your gear is covered in gritty dust.

The way to fix this is to create positive a pressure inside the canopy by using an air intake. There are several different designs and some can be retrofitted. Front mounted, roof mounted. These are a necessity in my book.

@cambo that’s interesting and definitely sounds more appealing. I will enquire and see if fitting an ironman bullbar will have any effect on warranty.
@Flyblown that’s a good idea. My current canopy does that on summer gravel roads. Pain in the ass and I have been laying a piece of foam or rolled up sheet at the hinge of my tailgate to combat it.

@stagstalker the warranty bullbar make thing sounds a bit off to me considering ARB and genuine Toyota made by ARB are the most expensive bars I think they may just be trying to milk you a bit and don’t think it should make a difference to warranty so long as Toyota fit it.
I’ve had ARB bullbar in the past on a 2016 hilux and to be honest don’t think they are worth the $$. I’ve just decided I’m going to get an MCC bar for my 2020 hilux now that they are making for the current model.


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The patrol whole front from bottom of grill down got smash when i ran up the back of a BMW in CHCH,lights went reds,Wrote it off with my 3ton baby.So it was cheaper for the insurance company to get panel beater to strip off the smashed skirts off front of patrol,bolt on the ARBS on the chassie .About 3days labour difference they reckn to refiitting new skirts and painting.So i brought the 9000lb super winch and got that fitted into the ARBS.Took panel beater about 1hr to fit arbs on.Just trolleys them under front of truck and line up and bolt them up.Easy as,wire up winch and im away.
Insurance payed for ARBs and labour.
I payed for winch.
Good deal i thort.

Have just fitted a mcc falcon bar on my new hilux and a rear bar whick incorporated the towbar as well.
You need to replace all of the suspension to carry the additional weight.
Also fitted a 11000 lb winch.
Ute sits approx 40 mm higher all round and drives great