[AndrieK]

Even though the bonnet / grille shape requires the bar shape to be slightly different, the material and fabrication required for the two styles will be almost identical.

Only logical reason for a price difference would be manufacturing volume. If they make a lot more S1-3 bars, they can make them cheaper. Otherwise they’re just charging more because it’s for a more “modern” vehicle… and they can…

I seriously doubt they would’ve done airbag compatibility testing on either.

 

[AndrieK]

They are listed as airbag compatible

After being directly involved with the development of various genuine OE frontal protection systems for 20 years, I can tell you that “listing” a bullbar as airbag compatible means nothing.

Other than doing computational crash simulation or physical crash testing, it is near impossible to disprove, that a bullbar listed as airbag compatible, is not airbag compatible. A lot of the smaller aftermarket manufacturers exploit this.

 

[AndrieK]

I thought I’d just leave this little nugget here…

 

[AndrieK]

I have a Genuine Nissan bar on mine and for the type of driving I do, I probably don’t need one. I’ve seriously considered taking it off and putting an OE bumper back on as I can do without the extra weight and sometimes think the Y61 looks better with its original front bumper. But then if I do take it off I’d have nowhere to mount my front camera, UHF antenna or light bar.

 

[AndrieK]

Funny… I have the opposite opinion on Cadogan.

I don’t particularly like his style and his presentation is quite often over the top, but when I look past all that and I put my engineering hat on it is, most of the time, very hard to argue with the facts. Physics is physics and you can’t argue engineering principles away.

You could say that they way he goes about his videos is a pity, but YouTube says there are 339,000 people who seemed to enjoy it. (For he record, I’m not one of them.)

 

[AndrieK]

I'm an Engineer as well 🙂, and have 4x4'd for 40 years.

I know you are, and from what I’ve seen, a very good one at that. And what you do with your Patrol and the way you operate it has always fallen into the “common sense” category in my opinion.

But I also have a fair bit of automotive engineering experience (since that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 23 years) and have first hand knowledge of what happens in the aftermarket accessory world. And no matter how big a d !ck he is, what Cadogan says is pretty much on the money.

 

[AndrieK]

I always liked the original nissan supplied GU steel bar. @AndrieK would know but I think they were engineered, constructed and supplied by ARB?

Correct. Steel bar was made by ARB. Alloy bar was made by TJM.

 

[AndrieK]

Hmmm! Must have been change somewhere, mine was made by ECB.

Could be. Series I, II, & III is before my time. There was also a stainless steel brush guard tubular style bar early on that was a factory bar out of Japan. It was quite expensive which is one of the reasons a local development was kicked off.

Fun fact… Nissan AUS also exported the ARB steel bars to South Africa.

 

[AndrieK]

Easiest way to confirm if a bar is Genuine or not is to check the part number on the compliance plate. Should be either 11 or 12 digits. First digit should be an F, six and seven should be VC or VD, eleventh should be A and twelfth (if applicable) should be U.

Mine is F2210-VD150AU. Alloy bar of the same era was F2200-VD750AU