Bull Bars

[RadarGrrl]

The L300 and the 1st series L400 have the nice prominent bull bars up at the front end, nicely useful for brush, deer, small children, skateboarders etc. But my 2nd series L400 only has what looks like an outline of one embedded right in the bumper. Is this, in fact, an embedded bull bar, and if so, how skookum is it compared with the L300/L400-I?

[Firesong]

It's only for looks. No practical application. I'm looking to put something on mine.

[RadarGrrl]

It's only for looks. No practical application. I'm looking to put something on mine.

Durn. So what options are there for a little extra deer protection up front?

[Firesong]

Horny avoidance. So far..

[RadarGrrl]

Horny avoidance. So far..

Makes sense...

[Mr. Flibble]

I think that they were removed from the Series 2 because the Series 1 was good at channeling pedestrians under the chassis.

[glenn]

It's true, it is the result of a change in Japanese regulations which no longer allowed any kind of bull bars on production vehicles in 1998. You will notice no bullbars on any Japanese vehicles after this - even the L300's got the no bullbar bullbars. It was all in the interest of pedestrian safety.

[Firesong]

I heard it was to reduce the cost of insurance claims.
Collapsible bumpers versus getting hit by the bar.
Either way it was changed.

FS

[macro]

Horny avoidance. So far..

I'm sure there's a great joke here somewhere...

[FalcoColumbarius]

I can see it: Two tonne vehicle with bambie bars doing fifty kliks smokes a person stepping out from the kerb gazing at their I-phone could do a lot of damage, whereas a two tonne vehicle without bambie bars doing fifty kliks hitting said zombie and they should be okay. Kinda reminds me of the logic behind the dreaded EGR valve.

Falco.

[Firesong]

I heard it was more like grazing a car at 5km with Bambi bars does more damage than without. Hit a person regardless of bars hurts people

[FalcoColumbarius]

I heard it was more like grazing a car at 5km with Bambi bars does more damage than without. Hit a person regardless of bars hurts people

What about zombies?

[thelazygreenfox]

Mine are removed and IMHO it looks better. The tubing is such thin wall that hitting anything would push the bars back intio the body anyways.
TLGF

[Firesong]

My 1990 l300 took a deer right down the middle. Slight bend to the bar and a dint in the skid plate underneath. Lucky

And yes. Zombie bars are a good thing ;)
It always seem to be the tires getting hung up on collected zombie bodies lol

I look at a push bar not as an absolute. But a means to hit a deer, be damaged but able to proceed home or somewhere so I'm not broken down on the side of the road with a busted up rad or something. Won't always work out but a better chance.

[Morganizer]

I read somewhere that the L300 was designed without bull bars, and they didn't think it looked quite right. So they dressed it up with bull bars, purely for aesthetics.