Law on Bull Bars re pre 2007 Defenders

To All:

I would like to put the old style full bullbars (see below) on my 1995 110 300 TDI. They will be of good use for me off-roading and deer stalking to avoid damge. However, I live in North London and will use the car around town. Does anyone know if I can do it legally, as my car was manufactured in 95? I have seen some other posts, but they dont seem to address older cars.

Thank you,

Z

yes.

Legally you can

When you tell your insurance you have them fitted they may we load your premium to the roof , seen it before on other 4x4 marques . ****s .

Had the last laugh when they asked for a qualified engineer to sign off my modifications....

Wrote up a brief of what i did and signed it mr "top drive" BEng mechanical engineering (hons)

Was waiting for a reply along the lines of we mean a mechanic.....shame it never came as i was ready to set to it on definition of engineer

top drive said:

Legally you can

When you tell your insurance you have them fitted they may we load your premium to the roof , seen it before on other 4x4 marques . ****s .

Had the last laugh when they asked for a qualified engineer to sign off my modifications....

Wrote up a brief of what i did and signed it mr "top drive" BEng mechanical engineering (hons)

Was waiting for a reply along the lines of we mean a mechanic.....shame it never came as i was ready to set to it on definition of engineer

Click to expand...

That's worth remembering, my bro is a chartered engineer so could write me a letter if I swap engines

Where did you buy the bull bar from?

I really don't want to be a wet blanket but I believe that bull bars are practically useless. I know that they were big in the 80s and 90s and no Land Rover was complete without them but personal experience has taught me that they cause more damage to the vehicle in a collision than without the bull bar. In two cases, on my old Series 3, I smashed the offside wing when I had a collision on the nearside (the bullbar bounced back and damaged the wing and i bent the chassis dimb irons.

Thanks for everyone's reply. I have not bought them yet, but see them on ebay etc, and some of them are old from the 90s. And yes, insurance agents can be at the bottom of the barrel, I just had a bad experioence with one mis-selling. And yes, full bull bars can be useless and probably not worth the hassle, but then I am not only British but also American and they saved my truck from damage several times when I hit deer. I probably end up getting the newer ones with a winch bar. Seems like a good trade off.

Z

As said, yes you can legally fit them.

They're not meant to offer collision protection, so ignore that, it's a complete red herring.

What Bull Bars were for originally, hence the name, is for moving large stock animals around at low, like walking, speeds, not for running into stuff. In this country, unless you have a large stock farm and need to herd animals they're pretty useless ... especially if they're as crap as the ones in the OP's picture .. with only two mounting points in the middle, which means the 'wings' will have more bounce and flex than a trampoline ... They need more, strong, mounting points at the ends to be of real use .. and even then the bumper, if it's standard LR, is likely to bend at the ends anyway if it meets any particularly stubborn stock, or even decent brush wood!

A properly fitted HD bumper and well-made, well mounted Bullbars can be a boon in tight green lanes for keeping brush from scratching the headlights/front wing, or for moving small branches/trees out of the way, but to my mind still pretty useless as they're way too much weight where you don't really want it!

But it's your choice .. the above is just my opinion ..

Roo bars are what you need. Im just back from working in western australia . Everything innthe bush ha roo bars on. From your landy to your hyundai lantra!

reiny said:

I really don't want to be a wet blanket but I believe that bull bars are practically useless. I know that they were big in the 80s and 90s and no Land Rover was complete without them but personal experience has taught me that they cause more damage to the vehicle in a collision than without the bull bar. In two cases, on my old Series 3, I smashed the offside wing when I had a collision on the nearside (the bullbar bounced back and damaged the wing and i bent the chassis dimb irons.

Click to expand...

As Paul D says, they are not meant to be a form of collision protection.

And they do have uses. As the name suggests, they can be used to slowly come behind an animal to prevent it from turning in a lane, or even just to block a gap in the hedge or stockade. If a large animal like a bull even rubs itself on the front of your motor while you are doing this, it will make a hell of a mess of your landy if you don't have the bars

They are also very useful for tieing halter trained animals to while you are leading another out of the box, or even to tie up for washing at the country shows.

And they take some of the strain off the alloy wings when you are crunching through interference fit vegetation.

Turboman said:

"...interference fit vegetation."

Click to expand...

:hysterically_laughi

blackstrat said:

:hysterically_laughi

Click to expand...

Recognised term round here!

Sout west is very warm and wet, lot of lanes aren't used much, main hazard of laning round here is it might have grown over!

Turboman said:

Recognised term round here!

Sout west is very warm and wet, lot of lanes aren't used much, main hazard of laning round here is it might have grown over!

Click to expand...

Just love the term.. I'll tell Matt who lost his window when we last went interference-fit laning..

"Interference fit Vegetation" .. My noo favourite Landy expression, many thanks ..

:hysterically_laughi

Yep, it seems the real deal also attaches to the undercarriage, a little overkill for the UK:

Roo Bar:

when i had my old landy and had the wrap round bull bars i declared them to my insurance company and i called them nudge bars. no issues and it didnt cost me anymore.

ZMann said:

Yep, it seems the real deal also attaches to the undercarriage, a little overkill for the UK:

Roo Bar:

Click to expand...

Bloody hell!Are thy zombie roos?

I had very similar bull bars on me classic, were next to useless and zero strength. They got ripped off and took bits like the indicators with em. Also made the steering really heavy.
Had a MOD style hd bumber on me fender, it was good and had a recovery point in the centre. Also had a A bar on that which was only there to hold the spots. That was also useless in an impact. Did have light guards on the fender though, they seemed ok.

goonarmy said:

Bloody hell!Are thy zombie roos?

I had very similar bull bars on me classic, were next to useless and zero strength. They got ripped off and took bits like the indicators with em. Also made the steering really heavy.
Had a MOD style hd bumber on me fender, it was good and had a recovery point in the centre. Also had a A bar on that which was only there to hold the spots. That was also useless in an impact. Did have light guards on the fender though, they seemed ok.

Click to expand...

A large male kangaroo can top 7+foot tall standing up and can weight 200kg+.

Saw plenty of the big ####ers when I was there last summer, they are fecking big and appear to be a slab of walking muscle.

Bull bars ain't gonna help

Jam1 said:

Bull bars ain't gonna help

Click to expand...

He's a well built fellow He'd probably tear your bull bar off and shove it where the sun don't shine.