Crash Thread with Photos (1 Viewer)

[jaymar]

A few of us have been chatting about Cruiser crashes with ARBs over here:

ARB-type front bumpers (safer?)

and a lot of the old crash photos in various other threads are MIA--so I thought I'd start a thread devoted to 80 Series Cruiser crashes--stock, ARB, whatever. One of the many reasons to drive one of these--for me, anyway--is safety while ON-road. I'm sure many others feel the same.

Photos, tests, stories?

Post 'em if you got 'em...

Here are two to kick things off, which came from Jason at Cruisin Offroad. The Cruiser is wearing one of his rear double swingouts (with no tow hitch); the scrapheap that rear-ended it appears to have been stock. To be fair, the CO bumper did a powder-coat touch-up.

Figure I've seen says 40% of all US crashes involve one vehicle rear-ending another, so I'd call this good insurance...

 

[LockedCollector]

Yeah Arb would have been nice. Oh well, buffed right out.

 

[greentruck]

SNIP
Figure I've seen says 40% of all US crashes involve one vehicle rear-ending another, so I'd call this good insurance...

BTDT, but in my 1976 FJ55. Stock bumper, guy hit me with an AMC Pacer IIRC at around 25-30 mph. Looked pretty much like the Nova Scotia truck's offender, because the 55 has that tie-together x-member at the rear like the 80 does. Armoring it will certainly help, especially with the wings.

Would post a pic, but we're trying to keep this 80-specific???

I will say this about protecting the rear of the truck, it may still cause significant issues for passengers if your headrests are not in place, which shouldn't be an issue for most of us these days. My 55 had the bench seat, and even the mounting points for the headrests in the frame -- but no headrests. An in-between year for safety improvements or something, they were already required in cars IIRC. I even bought the headrests later on, but sold the truck, leading to a nice garage find that benefited a fellow forum member over in the 55 Forum a few years back. The whiplash it gave me still causes problems and took months to semi-recover from to begin with. Never underestimate the benefit of that headrest IMO. I know all too well what doing without it will cost you.

 

[finseeker]

Lady hit my truck parked on the street. Totalled both her xterra and my lx450. Her insurance paid me almost 10k.