One of the pillars of the ARB product line would have to be their winch and bull bars. For a long time their quality, their innovation, their speed to market was just so far ahead of everyone else it.
… of course they were also the most expensive.
In a lot of ways ARB have their bull bars to thank for underpinning their growth into the multi-million dollar company they are today. Their overall brand rode beautifully on coat tails of what their bull bars where known for – being awesome.
Whilst I think the competition is closer to ARB these days and bullbars aside the quality of some of their other products have actually been passed by the competition, when in comes to bull bars in this off-roaders option they are still lead the pack.
I recently had a big reminder of this as my good friend set about purchasing a new bar for his Toyota Prado 150.
Kicking back in the shed with a beer in hand we started exploring some of the options for the new bar. We had some IPF extreme spotties sitting in the cupboard already, so the bar needed to cater for that. My mate hated chrome bars so alloys were out of the question and we had plans for some UHF coms in the future so aerial mounts were needed.
Note: I’m not a big fan of alloy bars either. Bling aside, the big plus with alloy is the weight, but what you gain in that you loose in strength.
We started looking through the options
Toyota factory bar
Man do they make 150 Series Prados look crap! We moved on pretty quickly
TJM
I’m a big fan of some TJM stuff. I have their 12,000 pound winch strapped to my 100 series land cruiser and a bunch of other recovery gear. They also seem much more friendlier customer service wise than ARB. But we headed to a 4X4 show to see their bars in real life and sadly left pretty disappointed – the build quality just wasn’t there. In the demo 150 series there was a small gap on one side, huge on the other. The quality of the steel felt thin and the welds didn’t give us a heap of confidence.
EBC
Alloy specialists — moving on.
Ironman
Ironman’s stuff, I’m sad to say, seems like they just copied the ARB specs and sent it to the same factory that makes the TJM bars. They look the part, but go and have a close look, a real one on a car, you’ll start to see the reason they are cheaper.
The rest
There were a few options like outback accessories, but we were starting to scrape the barrel. We knew that the only one with the build quality, and options we needed was going to come from ARB.
ARB
There’s a reason so many cars are fitted with an ARB bull bars and it’s not so they can show the badge. The quality of the product is just so far ahead of everything else that’s commercially produced. Someone (or more than one person) really thinks through how they can make their bars better every year and every model and they back it up with a production quality that is super impressive.
There’s a lot not to like about ARB as a company, but it’s really hard not to love their bull bars.
We tried to find every reason in the book not to by an ARB one, but when push came to shove, if you can afford it..
when it comes to a bull bar it just doesn’t make sense to look anywhere else.
But we we’re done yet!
We had now chosen the bar we wanted, the deluxe bar. It was not time to get it a cheap as we could. We went into ARB Kilsyth to get a feel for the price. We walked out and cried a little, but had a price line in the sand. We then approached them at the Yarra Valley 4×4 Day we got offered a bit of a discount, but not where we wanted to be. We then headed to their ‘garage sale’ back at Kilsyth HQ, but they were in no mood to do a deal but recommended we head into the next 4×4 show in Melbourne as that’s where they’ll be doing the best deals.
So with cash in hand we sought them out at the event and put a nice package deal on the bar, colour coded and fitted with some under body protection.
With a bit of persistence we got the price we needed.
Dear ARB: Keep the quality where it is, and the innovation coming and we’ll all be buying bars from you for years to come.
… we can talk about the other stuff later.
You might also want to check our the ARB Alloy Bar review we’ve published.
Gudday, thanks for the great review. One point I thought was interesting is that your friend was so anti alloy bars but chose a colour coded bar instead which look IMO way worse than an alloy bar!
Anyway steels the go! Thanks again!
Yeah… I’ve owned more matte black than color coded personally.
But his Prado is a lot more fancy than my poverty pack 105 series. I have to admit though the wifes 200 series has a color coded bar ARB. But steel all the way for me too.
Have to agree with you. ARBs bars a pretty good.
Sad they make them in Thailand now.
Mine was made in Kilsyth….
I thought they were still made in VIC?
Ended up with an ARB. Very good quality. The fit is excellent. The gap between the bar and the car is small and constant all the way around. An excellent fit. IPF’s that bolt straight in! Winch on the way that also bolts straight in. Very happy.
G’day Shane, I know the article is oldish now but as a store that sells many of the brands you refer to, I thougt I would just chime in. I do not sell ARB simply because they would not supply us unless we stopped doing dealer work. We do however sell and install the others.
I personally run the ECB bullbar which I noticed you glazed over. There are aluminium bars and alloy bars. Most OE offerings are at best 3mm aluminium are are really all about adding margin to a vehicle sale. They are certainly not the best bar. ECB is an alloy, T6 Industrial to be precise and it is 6mm. I and many of my customers enjoy thr peace of mind and weight saving they offer. I have seen first hand some scary animal strikes without issue and I like the fact they are not pinned as they can move a little to help absorb thus reducing an airbag deployment. Anyway, enjoyed the read and keep up the good work, more than anything, remain independent! Cheers, Paul
Hey Paul. I might ping you on email and get a bit more feedback from you on the alloy. I’ve always has steel — that’s why I glazed over it in this context – but things change!
I’m always after an opp to school up on it. I’d love to do an alum, vs alloy, vs steel comparison.
I just bought a base model Amarok MY17, looking at bars for first upgrade, ECB are lighter than steel, lifetime warranty and have all same features as ARB plus recovery points not included on ARB range.
Any feedback appreciated
Brando
Yeah, I get the lightweight idea, fuel, power. Don’t get swept up in lifetime ‘warranty. I’d guess it covers workmanship, not damage.
It’s about fit for purpose. We’ve got two cruisers. 1, has been built to beat up – steel all the way, The other is more a tow vehicle, so I’d consider alloy on this one.
Hey Shayne,
What is the colour of the Prado pictured in the article.
I do like very much.
To be honest, it’s some fancy photography from ARB — I think it’s just the charcoal with some filters applied… but agree it looks pretty hot!