Aftermarket Crumble Rods (2 Viewers)

[dermolotov]

I like occasionally staring into the hood of my FJ80 and wondering what else I can shove in there. Even with an engine swap, she'll still have a loads of room on the left and right side. I've considered fabbing a cast iron box to fit over the exhaust manifolds in order to bake cookies or cook chicken tendies when driving.

But my other idea was to fabricate two large rods that could add additional crash safety in the event of a driver's side, front collision. There hasn't been a thread on this yet (at least since I can find regarding making it MORE safe) but is it worth the money to adding additional crumple area? Am I just overthinking this situation? Naturally, a roll cage connected to the bumper like in the Aussie FJ79 would probably increase the head crumple zone so it doesn't kill you. But I wouldn't mind additional leg support so I could potentially walk away from a 75mi/h frontal crash into a concrete wall.

 

[jfz80]

Kitchen box = yes

Crumple rods = no

 

[mct75]

It sounds like you want to add javelins to impale you in the chest.

 

[Tools R Us]

A better plan would be not to crash into a concrete wall? My guess; adding structure in that area, would make it less likely to crush, transferring the loads, making the passenger area more likely to crush, something has to give? The concept of crumple zones is they crush, this reduces impact shock to the occupants, making more solid structure isn't likely to have a positive effect?

 

[Tools R Us]

Solid car vs a crumple car.

 

[dermolotov]

I spelted crumple wrong in the title. Nice.

It sounds like you want to add javelins to impale you in the chest.

The "rods" would be similar to the boxes of metals like a frame. Just within firewalls and pushed against the other areas of the cabin.

A better plan would be not to crash into a concrete wall? My guess; adding structure in that area, would make it less likely to crush, transferring the loads, making the passenger area more likely to crush, something has to give? The concept of crumple zones is they crush, this reduces impact shock to the occupants, making more solid structure isn't likely to have a positive effect?

Alright, the concrete wall was a hyperbole. But you are right that the cabin would need to crush at that point, too. A few aftermarket fabricated bumpers have that issue that they don't crush and are pushed into the vehicles causing more damage than if it was just a factory bumper. From what I have read on the ARB, they have done a lot of engineering to actually make this crash-test worthy.

I believe in normal, unibody vehicles, their "rods" are made of frame like materials of steel that crumple once large amounts of force (like rapid deceleration into a wall) are applied. They have this on the driver's and passenger side in case you are trying to overtake on a highway and have your driver's side crash into the driver's side of the passing vehicle. I guess it's radically different in a unibody?

Connect the crumple rods into an aftermarket rollcage?

 

[Rwhat]

Your messing with us right?

 

[BILT4ME]

Primary Collision: Car hits wall
Secondary Collision: Person hits Dash inside car
Tertiary Collision: Person's brain hits inside of person's skull
Quarternary Collision: Person's brain hits back of inside of person's skull
Pentiary Collision: When the body hits the inside of the casket due to the other collisions.

When you make the vehicle stiffer, this transfers the energy into the occupants.

When the vehicle is designed to ABSORB the energy, the occupants survive because the energy was dissipated by sound, crumple, heat so the occupants didn't receive the energy.

Old skool VS new skool.

 

[Kaninja]

There was a saying in NASCAR during the times when the chassis was overly stiff with little to cushion the impact.

Basically after the impact, you could pull the dead driver out, spray down the interior, then a new driver could jump in and continue the race because there was very little damage to the chassis.

Now they flipped it. The car disintegrates around the driver, and the driver gets to keep going to race another day.

 

[ewillis]

In the unfortunate event that I'm involved in a front-end collision, I'm banking on my ARB utilizing the offending Camry as my crumple rod...

 

[bloc]

If you had the proper resources to engineer/fabricate/test/retest this idea.. sure. But you don't. So.. don't.

 

[BILT4ME]

Wear a helmet.

 

[Mandrake]

Unless you are a no bull**** automotive engineer AND intend to crash several 80s to test your design, that's probably the stupidest ******* thing I've read online in a long time.

 

[White Stripe]

I think it would be easier to just buy a 100 or 200 series. Then you get the added benefit of airbags-lots of airbags. I will say, I haven't heard of too many deaths occurring in 80 series' rigs.

 

[dermolotov]

If you had the proper resources to engineer/fabricate/test/retest this idea.. sure. But you don't. So.. don't.

Unless you are a no bull**** automotive engineer AND intend to crash several 80s to test your design, that's probably the stupidest ******* thing I've read online in a long time.

Welp, that's that.

Back to the hood oven I go.

I will say, I haven't heard of too many deaths occurring in 80 series' rigs.

This much is pretty true. But them spending a lot of their time off the road in Africa and South America probably adds to that. Plus if you're driving them in those conditions, crashing is probably the last thing that will kill you.

 

[Rifleman]

Just as an FYI, Toyota already installed side impact protection in 1994, and newer trucks as standard equipment. The following information is from my original 1994 factory sales brochure. Listed under safety in the sales brochure is the following quote "steel side door impact beams help to deflect forces away from the passenger compartment in certain side collisions" end quote.

 

[Oscar Witte]

Just as an FYI, Toyota already installed side impact protection in 1994, and newer trucks as standard equipment. The following information is from my original 1994 factory sales brochure. Listed under safety in the sales brochure is the following quote "steel side door impact beams help to deflect forces away from the passenger compartment in certain side collisions" end quote.

Mine is a 93 and it has steel tubing inside of the doors. I would assume that is what it's referring to.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Mine is a 93 and it has steel tubing inside of the doors. I would assume that is what it's referring to.

Yep, the steel tube is the anti-intrusion bar. Pretty sure they were in the first run of 80 series for the Australian market, and added in for other markets later. I had a 1990 JDM HDJ81 in Australia and had to have an engineer certify that it meet the Australian Design Rules for vehicle safety to be able to register it. Not having the side intrusion bar was a minor sticking point for the engineer.

 

[Joshau]

You know I've been scouring the wrecked car auction sites (www.iaai.com, etc) for the last couple months looking for a good 80 series parts car in my area and was surprised at how every wrecked 80 series looked like the occupants would have survived the crash with only minor injuries. But more on point my only 2 cents on this topic is to make sure that whatever bracing you add in the engine bay doesn't become an unintended projectile into the passenger compartment like steering columns used to be (and engines still occasionally are).

On a related note, if you're looking to kill an hour do a Youtube search for 'iihs offset crashn test' ... there is something hypnotizing about watching various modern cars experience the same exact crash in slow motion.