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Safety of super strong bumpers

Mastiff

Mastiff

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I debated about putting this in lounge, but it's sort of on topic... A few days ago I had a serious "fender bender" in my 2011 Jeep Unlimited. I rear ended a guy in an F150 at (guessing) 25 mph, brakes locked. Technically my fault; he was at a dead stop in the left lane. I hit him and the Jeep TJ behind me hit me.

Anyway, my Jeep has the factory front plastic/flimsy metal front bumper and an aftermarket plate steel rear bumper. The front bumper crumpled into a crazy pretzel shape, then sacrificed the grill and a bit of a front crossmember. In the rear, the bumper is unscathed, though the spare tire levered over into the tailgate and bent it in. The TJ front end was demolished (grill, hood, radiator, etc.). Nobody was injured BTW.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how that front bumper may have done its job for me and soaked up a lot of the impact. I wonder if a tough front bumper would have just broadcast the impact directly to the frame, and me, and maybe caused the airbag to deploy, etc. What do you guys think?

I know this hardly applies to K5 situations compared to newer stuff that is probably designed with crumple zone type stuff in mind, but a factory K5 bumper would probably provide some of that effect compared to a indestructible aftermarket winch bumper.
 
Well from a logical stand point I would think its the opposite of safe. In order for a solid, beef bumper to win you have to be the overcoming force. Other wise I would think the energy is just going to transfer straight into your frame. The car industry support my train of thought, because just like you said "crumple zones". Even look back into the 80s when they made bumper shocks to meet slow speed impact requirements. The name of the game has never been rigid. Its always been sacrificial.


That being said, in slow speed beef bumpers are awesome.
 
I would say for your 2011, a factory set up would help with harder hits. But for my 85, with it's (comparing to my current) thin steel stock bumper and small bumper brackets, the "impact" would be the same since there's no "crumple zone". Directly behind the bumper is the frame, so any shock is going directly there regardless of bumper. If the accident was off center, it would do a lot of damage and be "softer" on me than my current big bumper which wraps around the edges.

just my thought
crumple zones rule the day though (EX: '59 impala vs new impala youtube video)
 
Crumple zones work. Period.

The strong bumpers transmit the impact force to a softer medium, usually the human body.

The crumple metal, bumpers, etc absorb the energy before it reaches the passengers.

Your instincts are right. :waytogo:


I believe one of the members here recently had a family member saved by crumple zones in an accident
 
I am trying to figure out how your airbags DIDN'T go off at approximately 25 mph. A guy at work's newly licensed daughter was pulling into the garage and hit the gas instead of the brake and hers went off going around 5 mph when she hit the back wall.
 
But with plating, crossmembers, tie it all in with a full cage..... You make tank that just blows through the other vehicle :thumb:
 
Stein said:
I am trying to figure out how your airbags DIDN'T go off at approximately 25 mph. A guy at work's newly licensed daughter was pulling into the garage and hit the gas instead of the brake and hers went off going around 5 mph when she hit the back wall.
Click to expand...

I could be off a bit, but it certainly wasn't 5. Deploying airbag is a big deal since it's expensive and can cause minor injuries itself. None of the vehicles had our airbags go off, and we were all surprised they didn't. I think it's good design, since we didn't need it.

But with plating, crossmembers, tie it all in with a full cage..... You make tank that just blows through the other vehicle
Click to expand...

Except that every other vehicle is a 3/4 or 1-ton 4-door pickup these days...
 
A lifted truck puts the bumper at about head level for the Civic/Prius/Neon driver. Forget about damage to vehicles for a minute and think about what happens to the people when a giant bumper rips through the cabin space. I hope I never have to see this.
 
Blue85 said:
A lifted truck puts the bumper at about head level for the Civic/Prius/Neon driver. Forget about damage to vehicles for a minute and think about what happens to the people when a giant bumper rips through the cabin space. I hope I never have to see this.
Click to expand...

My friends in highschool would laugh because they would swear I was putting my winch over the trunk of most small cars when I stopped in traffic.
 
I have such a bumper on the front of my Superduty. The ARB is far stouter then the OE bumper but still conforms with the crumple zones and is air bag compatible. Haven't hit anything yet *knock on wood* but with an 8000 lb truck lifted 8" its not going to be pretty regardless. For perspective I'm 6' and the top bar of this bumper is at my shoulder.

They can do a lot to make everything safer but physics is still physics, bigger for the win.

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izzy1776 said:
They can do a lot to make everything safer but physics is still physics, bigger for the win.
Click to expand...
Yeah, physics is physics (science)...and management of energy is engineering (the application of science).

A big-ass steel bumper will protect you from annoyance damage (ala-fender-bender), but doesn't make you or your passengers "safer" in the event of a highway-speed accident. An 8" lift only makes you more unstable than you were in stock form.

Champ cars go 225MPH, weigh a shade over 1500lbs, and are filled with methanol. The last three driver deaths were in 2003, 2006, & 2011. Engineering, FTW.

[YOUTUBE]0cp9sE-2OYU[/YOUTUBE]
 
Can't argue with you there. Engineering is where it counts. But at least when people see me they are a lot less likely to pull out in front of me.
 
I'm going to speak up on this one.

I don't remember what forum it was on, but there was a guy who had a CrewCab dually Ford Super Duty with a ranch hand bumper on it, and he was on a divided highway doing about 70-75, when a Nissan Titan pulled out infront of him. He hit that Nissan square in the bed, took the bed off and went up and over the frame. The airbags deployed in both trucks, and Ford guy only had some bruises, while the Nissan guy had some pretty severe whiplash.

I had pictures of the Ford somewhere, but the bodywork was almost perfect, but the big bumper was tweaked to the side just a tad, you could tell the frame was bent, and the front axle was ripped clean off.
 
Not bad for hiway speed collision...


A Titan is a good size truck.

I drive like the proverbial old man. I like going about 5 mph slower than the crowd. They filter around me and stay all clustered up as they go.

there's a lot of dumbass's out there. I was one years back....:whistle:
 
62 fat guy said:
Not bad for hiway speed collision...


A Titan is a good size truck.

I drive like the proverbial old man. I like going about 5 mph slower than the crowd. They filter around me and stay all clustered up as they go.

there's a lot of dumbass's out there. I was one years back....:whistle:
Click to expand...

Just so you're not the guy doing 5 under in any left lanes. :D
 
I have actually had cars and trucks back up slightly when they pulled farther than normal out into an intersection and saw me coming..............

Have not had a wreck with it so far, but have hit more than my fair share of trees. Most of the time, I just slowly push them over and drive on through. But a couple of times I had to take some out at speed.

Snapped off about a 6 inch pine at about 40 when I came over a hill in deep sand trying to head off a deer and found one of my friends stuck in the middle of the road.
It was either hit his truck or the tree.
Bye Bye tree.......
No damage to my truck, and I got in front of the deer.

My old Torino Elite had a pretty substantial rear bumper. It had energy absorbing "shocks" mounting it to the frame.
But, I had mounted a very heavy trailer hitch which tied the bumper hard to the frame.

I was stopped on a highway making a left turn, when a guy in a Volkswagon squareback slid into my rear end.
It put a scratch on my bumper, and one of his headlights flew out and broke a couple of my tail light lenses.
Darn near ripped the whole front end off his car.

His insurance company thought I was trying to pull something and sent a guy around to examine our cars when my claim was so much smaller than his.

I agree that energy absorbing engineered systems are a good thing in a bad crash, but there is something to be said for strength and mass.........
Especially in low speed bumps.

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