Slee Rear Bumper Crash Test (Unofficial, Unsolicited, Unplanned)

[Hayes]

I'm also happy to know that all the people are unharmed.

My $.02:

I have Slee bumpers on the front and rear of my 80, and although I am confident that they offer superior protection to the truck in small impacts, I hope the day never comes when they are part of a large crash. The idea that the unyielding bumper and hell-strong Cruiser frame offer better protection to the occupants is a sketchy one in my opinion. BIG impulse needs room--spreading that energy through the car body (outside of the occupants' cabin) is what safer automobiles do.

I'll never question the quality of my Slee gear, but I'm skeptical that the factory bumpers would have provided less protection for your family.

Hope you get your 100 back to top shape.

Hayes

 

[e9999]

we had a similar accident recently. My wife was stopped on a freeway and got rear ended by a teen doing probably 50 or so at impact. This was in a new Prius. Prius was totaled with the rear crushed. Car ended up much shorter. There were 2 people in the back. All walked away with no injury. Crumpling zones did their job. I was impressed.

 

[sleeoffroad]

My only issue is that I have to keep telling my father that "No, he doesn't make a bumper for your new Tundra".

No, but we have sliders for it now

 

[jonharis]

No, but we have sliders for it now

Mr. Slee finally chimes in with that? Classic.

 

[AimCOtaco]

I remember coming across a webbing based cargo net that would attach to welded in tie down points. It was like 2.5" webbing and looked like it was stolen from a military cargo aircraft. That would reduce concerns about the barrier collapsing and becoming a dangerous object. Surprised we don't see more cargo barrier solutions in this section. The webbing version would be more compatible with the reclining mid row seats anyway. Anybody run something like this?

That 4-runner's gear breaking the mid row seat has me reconsidering what I already know about those projectile hazards. That's also why I keep my 100lb lab in a kennel in the cargo area rather than let him roam. Nice to read about everything that can be learned from this otherwise unfortunate event.

 

[hks3sgte]

Good thing everyone walked out without a scratch. Gotta say that Toyota makes pretty safe cars as well.

...also, I think safety goes hand-in-hand with a quality product.

 

[1loudLX]

You don't have to worry too much about things in the back flying forward in a rear collision. Any looks items will be launched towards the rear glass. Now if you got impacted in the rear hard enough to then hit something in front of you, and the rear glass broke in the initial rear impact the yes you'd worry. Cargo barrier is most important for front collision and roll/over safety. Now obviously one of you has just read this and is thinking some crazy way to have a rear impact that launches everything forward just to prove me wrong. So if Jon spun out and hit something with the back of the truck, he'd want the barrier to prevent people from flying into the cargo area...but items still won't be flying into the passenger area unless there are bouncy balls that impact off the rear intact glass and come flying forward and bounce off someone's forehead. Ok well that's not the craziest accident, someone think up of one.

 

[jonharis]

I'm going to look hard at designing a cargo barrier out of webbing. I have zero interest in a solid one now the more I think about it. It has the potential to be much more dangerous than not having one.

This website will do all kinds of custom configurations. With a few measurements and determining strong mounting locations, I think it could make a pretty nice system. Custom Nylon Webbing Barrier Nets

 

[Fallon 40]

http://raingler.com/?gclid=CNX1uNyUh6MCFSD3iAodEmwPcQ


This guy made me a custom size cargo net for our 40 roof rack
Awesome product. He can make any size you want.

Ken

 

[AimCOtaco]

You don't have to worry too much about things in the back flying forward in a rear collision. Any looks items will be launched towards the rear glass. Now if you got impacted in the rear hard enough to then hit something in front of you, and the rear glass broke in the initial rear impact the yes you'd worry. Cargo barrier is most important for front collision and roll/over safety. Now obviously one of you has just read this and is thinking some crazy way to have a rear impact that launches everything forward just to prove me wrong. So if Jon spun out and hit something with the back of the truck, he'd want the barrier to prevent people from flying into the cargo area...but items still won't be flying into the passenger area unless there are bouncy balls that impact off the rear intact glass and come flying forward and bounce off someone's forehead. Ok well that's not the craziest accident, someone think up of one.

Loud,
I guess I'm worried about collisions at either end. Damn hard to predict which end will hit next. I was noting that the 4-runner had cargo shift forward toward the passenger space during it's frontal collision, breaking the mid row seat (which is where my 9-yr old sits).

Jon,
I will look to see if I can find the one I referred to above. I must admit I think it was in the Quadratec catalog from my XJ cherokee days.

 

[hoser]

The tricky part about the webbing based cargo nets is there is no good anchor points. The easy anchors points around the grab bars are low and would leave a sizable gap between the net and the roof line. It seems like it needs some framework.

If anybody wants to give it a go, I have cargo net I'm not using. The bars can be removed if I drilled out the rivets.

If anybody wants a crash tested Milford Barrier, this person is selling them on eBay. I don't think anybody will be importing these again if the current exchange rate holds. These are full barriers that will help prevent the seats from giving out too.

 

[jonharis]

If anybody wants a crash tested Milford Barrier, this person is selling them on eBay. I don't think anybody will be importing these again if the current exchange rate holds. These are full barriers that will help prevent the seats from giving out too.

Important to note that it states these are tested to 130lbs at 30mph. Aside from these being relativly low numbers, the bigger issue with this claim is that it is not actually crash tested in the vehicle. The barrier may be fine but my concern is how the barrier interacts with the vehicle and vice-verse.

I do love the pics on their website though. I would be willing to wager that there is more than 130lbs behind everyone of those.

http://www.milford-auto.com/products/cargo_barriers

 

[jonharis]

Here are some photos of the interior of the 4Runner. As you can see, this guy doesn't mess around when he goes camping, he lives large and packs large.

It's hard to see see in the photo but everything was tied down to the 4 factory mounting locations in the truck. You can see the green strap loop around the hi-lift and into the floor mount. A lesson to never underestimate what can move around even when secure, imagine if this was a 70-80mph crash.

Here is the aftermath. This made me especially glad about the drawers I have because this movement has potential for injury for second row passengers.

 

[The Jade Bean]

Here are some photos of the interior of the 4Runner. As you can see, this guy doesn't mess around when he goes camping, he lives large and packs large.

It's hard to see see in the photo but everything was tied down to the 4 factory mounting locations in the truck. You can see the green strap loop around the hi-lift and into the floor mount. A lesson to never underestimate what can move around even when secure, imagine if this was a 70-80mph crash.

Here is the aftermath. This made me especially glad about the drawers I have because this movement has potential for injury for second row passengers.

That 4Runner is a 3rd gen right? Are you all thinking a safety net to go from top to bottom or just cover the open area above the rear seats?
I have thought about the second option before, but I have the third row seating and once we launch our company they will be used regularly so a net might not be a good idea for third row seats that are being used? Also I fully intend on using our expedition trailer and the roof rack for caring any of the serious gear.

There is a MUD member on here that makes the metal barriers for most of everything I believe.

~Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.

 

[jonharis]

^ It is a 3rd gen.

Corbet is the Mud Member and his company is Speski Off-Road. He make a quality product. I just don't see a metal barrier in my future.

 

[The Jade Bean]

This isn't what I was talking about but I did find this...




https://forum.ih8mud.com/200-series-cruisers/433997-cargo-barrier.html

~Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.

 

[The Jade Bean]

^ It is a 3rd gen.

Corbet is the Mud Member and his company is Speski Off-Road. He make a quality product. I just don't see a metal barrier in my future.

Yeah that's him! Maybe something like his but with meshing? I'm thinking if your gonna do it that it should go from top to bottom.

~Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.

 

[hoser]

Important to note that it states these are tested to 130lbs at 30mph. Aside from these being relativly low numbers, the bigger issue with this claim is that it is not actually crash tested in the vehicle. The barrier may be fine but my concern is how the barrier interacts with the vehicle and vice-verse.

I do love the pics on their website though. I would be willing to wager that there is more than 130lbs behind everyone of those.

There is more to it than just the one 130lb impact at 30mph. The 130lb is a single object which can potentially cause the most damage. They also need to withstand 265 lbs of loose objects not weighing more than 44lb each and 640lbs of objects not weighing more than 9 lbs each.

True, not of their barriers are "crash tested." They do make hundreds of different models and to do such would cost an extreme amount of money. However, they DO crash test some vehicles when auto manufacturers requires it.

I do not have any documentation that Toyota required crash testing, however, Milford is the OEM manufacturer for Genuine Toyota Cargo Barriers. For such a large manufacture to not require this in addition to their own testing would surprise me.

 

[jonharis]

It would be great to see those data. Maybe all this talk of a metal barrier potentially being unsafe is hoopla. I still feel that a nylon barrier would be safer if the mounting points could be figured out.

 

[hoser]

I do think metal barriers can be dangerous if not designed properly. But with the Milford barriers, I don't see any obvious impalement hazard. The mounts have bends in them and are designed to absorb the impact. I'd even say the full height barriers would offer "some" added rollover protection.

I stumbled onto this pic... it doesn't really show anything except that it was crashed.

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_1134/printArticle.html