ARB 40 "Catchers Mask" Bull Bar

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lcwizard said:
Is there really a market for this? ARB discontinued it for poor, make that absent,
sales. Al at Man-a-Fre said he sold two in ten years and he's one of ARB's top
Land cruiser dealers. The guys in Texas gave it a try with no luck. I'll give it
a look which would involving buying the craigslist bumper for a template but just from looking at it I'm guessing it will be a 700.00 bumper, wholesale, if built in lots of ten.
Click to expand...

Dave, I was told by a manager at ARB in Seattle that they discontinued their "catcher's mask" style bull bar because of liability concerns. There was something about it being a potential hazard, but I don't remember the details. That was almost 10 years ago.

The fabricator in Texas is down the road from me and as far as I know, he never made any attempt to promote his product other than word of mouth.

I'll bet you could sell 10 of those easy, right here on MUD.
 
lcwizard said:
Is there really a market for this? ARB discontinued it for poor, make that absent,
sales. Al at Man-a-Fre said he sold two in ten years and he's one of ARB's top
Land cruiser dealers. The guys in Texas gave it a try with no luck. I'll give it
a look which would involving buying the craigslist bumper for a template but just from looking at it I'm guessing it will be a 700.00 bumper, wholesale, if built in lots of ten.
Click to expand...

Dave I'm not sure if my bumper was made by ARB or not but it is sure close. If you want to use it as a pattern I would gladly loan it to you. https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/568518-bullbar.html
 
There was some legislation in Australia concerning liability with all bull bars. That didn't , however , stop them from building all the other better sellers. If there had been enough demand in other countries they would have continued as Kaymar did with the FJ40 rear. It had been discontinued in Australia but because orders in the USA continued they kept a small amount in production for North America. Styles change.
In the 80's it was 12" lifts, tons of chrome and 4 shocks per tire. In the 90's the grill guard I built sold
over a thousand units. By 2001 the rock crawling phase of style kicked in and I couldn't sell two a year.
So far what's selling is minimalistic high approach bumpers. The ARB had anything but good approach
angles.
It would take three or four builds to work out the production bugs in a bumper like that so a potential of ten sales is not very attractive unless people are willing to pay for the R&D for a custom project. Jigs alone would take a day or more depending how consistent you wanted them to be. Most shop rates are between 75 and 100 per hour. Without an establish process to built that bumper a small shop would spend 8 hours from cutting to cleaning. Leave 100.00 to 200.00 for outsourcing cutting and braking the channel ( depending on what can be performed in house ) and you end up 700.00~1000.00 before powder or paint. Developing an assembly process and building in lots can reduce cost 30 to 50 percent. The rotary jig alone cut two hours on production times on our FJ60 bumpers by reducing handling time
and builder fatigue (they're big and heavy). I put about 800 in time and material but I build about 60~70 bumpers a year on it
 
grant5127 said:
We sold every one that was ever made with no worries.. The problem is "GREED" the dude that was making them went up in price so much that he priced himself out of the game...
Click to expand...

No $hit. When I visited his shop with Daniel, I was quoted a price of $500 for an ARB "catcher's mask" style bumper, out the door including powder coating. That couldn't have been more than 3 years ago. Now he wants $1K? :hhmm:
 
I believe the issue in Australia is with bars that lean forward, potentialy knocking pedestrians or cyclists downwards. The catcher's mask style would qualify, since the main bar is forward of the bumper.
 
and yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds (getting knocked downward when struck by a vehicle of any type seems inevitable). But being in California, I am used to hearing ridiculous "potenials."
 
lcwizard said:
There was some legislation in Australia concerning liability with all bull bars. That didn't , however , stop them from building all the other better sellers. If there had been enough demand in other countries they would have continued as Kaymar did with the FJ40 rear. It had been discontinued in Australia but because orders in the USA continued they kept a small amount in production for North America. Styles change....So far what's selling is minimalistic high approach bumpers. The ARB had anything but good approach angles.
Click to expand...

Dave, I don't give a rip about rock crawling or approach angle but I do want something that will fend off deer, elk, moose, and stupid pedestrians, and protect the fenders. My present bumper is your 4+ Bull Bar, but it's too narrow to offer the protection I need. How difficult would it be to modify your bull bar bumper by making it wider and extending the tubing on each side at the same level as the fender's leading edges? That may be a poor explanation, but I'm attempting to describe something similar to your FJ60 winch bumper. My winch is a Warn 8274.

[URL="http://www.man-a-fre.com/pa/pictures/52100-60bbw011.jpg"][URL="http://www.man-a-fre.com/pa/pictures/52100-60bbw011.jpg"][URL="http://www.man-a-fre.com/pa/pictures/52100-60bbw011.jpg"][URL="http://www.man-a-fre.com/pa/pictures/52100-60bbw011.jpg"][URL="http://www.man-a-fre.com/pa/pictures/52100-60bbw011.jpg"][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]
 
See I like that the bars on that 60 go higher than the 40 version and that the bumper extends all the way across. I think Lee and I have a similiar "want". Lee, you should take a picture of your bumper and than print it off and draw the extensions you would like to see on it and post it back up
 
Bought mine 13 or 24 years ago- 625 shipped to the door
gnarlyAlby.webp
gjjCairo 99.webp
 
Lee sent me this picture and I think we both agree that something like this would be idea. Neither of us knows the make, what do you think Dave?
image-494166101.webp
 
Sully73FJ40 said:
Lee sent me this picture and I think we both agree that something like this would be idea. Neither of us knows the make, what do you think Dave?
Click to expand...

I found that pic through a Google search for FJ40 bull bar. No idea who the truck belongs to or its manufacturer. As Sully says, it's a simple design and pretty close to what I'm looking for, and not very different from some of the 4+ bumpers.
 
They said they have tried to take it down multiple times
 
Go to Harbor Freight and buy a cheap ass bender + 2 joints of 1 1/2" black pipe from McCoys + 1 Saturday afternoon + welder +2 cases of beer = the creation of your choice..... That's what I did...:wrench: may not be perfect, but it has knock down power.. that's all I care about......
DSC01544 (Custom).webp
 
Sea Knight said:
Dave, I don't give a rip about rock crawling or approach angle but I do want something that will fend off deer, elk, moose, and stupid pedestrians, and protect the fenders. My present bumper is your 4+ Bull Bar, but it's too narrow to offer the protection I need. How difficult would it be to modify your bull bar bumper by making it wider and extending the tubing on each side at the same level as the fender's leading edges? That may be a poor explanation, but I'm attempting to describe something similar to your FJ60 winch bumper. My winch is a Warn 8274.

I've never seen an ARB up close in person. If the channel is one piece without tapers to the ends then I could base it on the channels I already build. However in the pics it appears to be a tapered channel. A one piece channel is far cheaper to build than the three piece style in all the 60 and 80 series bumpers. Cost of the base channel before capping the ends is about 35.00. That's material 22.00, cutting 9.00 and braking 4.00 based on 20 channels. The ARB is more labor intensive than the bull bars I build, twice as many bends , 10 fish mouth notches and nine miter cuts vs our 0 notches and 4 miters. 25 ft of 2" tube vs 5 ft assuming you want the bottom part of the ARB. Although the cost of the 1/2" uprights on our bull bar exceed the material cost of an extra 20ft of 2" tube (23.00 ea ) the 20 ft of tube requires an additional two hours or so of
bending labor to form it into a finished product where the 1/2 plate is ready to assemble. Based on size I'd estimate 15~20% more for powder charges.
Right now the retail on our bull bar is 475.00 I believe. If I add two hours time that adds 150.00 to a wholesale , that adds 250.00 to the retail price.
That's based on a bumper built around existing tooling. If the bumper is a close duplicate down to the formed channel and fairlead supports I would guess it would be another 100 or so. But.. I might be wrong about their channel. I can't tell from the pictures I have.
Click to expand...
 
another thing to consider is shipping. The size of the ARB probably makes UPS a non-contender, especially if you send it powder coated. I'm guessing 95lbs ea. A 95 lb bumper on a pallet that weighs 35. That 130 lbs class 150. To dallas that's ~190.00. Two bumpers on a pallet go class 92.5 for the same price. Three bumpers, same pallet..25.00 more.. and a fourth, 20.00 more
So one bumper ships for 190.00 ea but four ship for 60.00 ea.
 
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