P76,
The way I understand it, the frame too has crumple zones. In every SUV I've ever seen, thus far, the crumple zones are designed to fold parallel with the frame, not latterly. Meaning, the frame is made to crumple up and down, not side-to-side. So, how is it that a bumper, such as the RTE, can hamper this? The only reasonable understanding I can think of is, it would allow the frame to crumple with a lighter hit because the HD bumper is more rigid.
But I mean really, do the ARB crush can really make any difference? The only benefit I can see from the ARB "crush can" style bumper is a weaker mounting design. Is that really what we want??? For those people wanting to keep the SRS capability, sure, it's fine. But if you're going to use your truck with a winch, you want the non-crush can version. It's stronger. In fact, the people who buy the crush-can style bumper to use off-road commonly weld the crush cans solid over time.
But, what makes a bumper "SRS compliant"? The label? Have you ever witnessed the crash tests? Have pictures? Documentation? Do you have any proof at all that ARB will be "SRS compliant" besides the label on the box?
As for the air-bags deploying, I don't see how a bumper could hamper this, either. The air-bags work off of an inertia switch. That means the air-bags go off when a certain force becomes present - not when the bumper or frame crumples. So, again, with a bumper such as the RTE, the air-bag would deploy sooner than normal.
In either case, how does this hamper the safety of the vehicle or the passengers?
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