Off Road Adventure

It has been about two years since we first installed ARB’s Bull Bar on our expedition based Toyota FJ Cruiser. In the early days of the FJC, our choices were limited to only a handful and ARB was there in the beginning. These days FJC owners have a wide array of the options when it comes to an aftermarket shell style bumpers and ARB remains as the standard others are measured by.

ARB is one of the best known companies for aftermarket 4×4 products.  Headquartered out of Australia, ARB has been building their 4WD products, outback tough for more than three decades.  And in our case their bumper lived up to its reputation.  Originally installed on our FJC to protect the front end on our Arctic Ocean adventure where there is always a real chance of colliding with wild life… large wild life.  After making the journey north the bumper continued to guarded the front end from trees on numerous 4×4 trails and back road obstacles across the west.

Our overall impression?  This is a strong, well designed bumper (strong enough to hold your favorite pint glass or three Hooters Girls on a photo shoot).  Intended for expeditions in the Australian Outback, the bumper is built tough, supports a winch and houses built-in IPF fog lights as well as top mounted off road lights.  This is the only after market bumper we know of which has been crash tested.

On the down side, like all shell style bumpers, that mass of steel is heavy and its square style pushes a lot of air, contributing to lower mpg.  When the rig is flexing over rocks or running fast down washboard back roads, expect a little rub from the bumper on the corners and fender flairs (we found this to be true for us and other ARB equipped FJCs we looked at).

Quality construction, bullet proof design and a reasonable approach angle makes the ARB, in our opinion, the top shell style bumper on the market today.  The ARB Bumper provided years of protection and performed well regardless of the terrain.  This is a product we can recommend to anyone looking for a shell style expedition bumper.

This is also the point at which we retired the ARB Bumper in order to test a tube style front bumper, but that’s another story…  off road advneture accessory