Home Made Bull Bars And Sorts - legalities???  

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patts
Post #1 post 7th September 2008 - 02:13 PM
hey guys,

i wanna make myself a custom bullbar and rear bar for my hilux. making of it is taken care of. A mate told me unless its complianced if you hit someone then you have no insurance because its defectable?? whats your thoughts as i cant afford to get one made but crappy alloy one looks shitty.

cheers patt


In S.A btw
tim_koelma
Post #2

As far as I understand it...

All mods of this nature have to comply with ADR standards. You will probably need an engineering certificate which I imagine comes with most approved aftermarket bull bars installed by a proper workshop.

Insurance is a totally different issue... if your car can't get a roadworthy certificate (pink slip here in NSW) then it won't be registered and won't be insured. After an accident, your insurer has to work out if you were at fault (thus making it a claim against your policy, but this is usually decided by the police in the case of a serious accident). Driving dangerously, breaking the law (including illegal mods), etc. can void your insurance entirely, depending on your policy.

Most insurance policies will include a clause that states you have to tell them about any modifications to your car. They usually include this in the section about things that might alter your premium (eg. bullbar makes your car more deadly; 3rd party component of your insurance increases.).

Most people don't tell them about mods (like gauges, rims, etc) and these never make the car more dangerous so it doesn't matter... you just can't claim the value of these mods if your car is ever written off or stolen. But mods like the a new bull bar alter the risk-ratio of your car; they make your car more dangeous. So if you crash into something or someone with a new bull bar they don't know about, they could choose to void your policy and walk away.

Additionally, if you hit someone and something on the car is obviously defectable and hasn't been engineered you might be charged with GBH or manslaughter, depending on the result. I suppose that would depend on how negligent the police believe you were in installing your bull bar and not having it engineered.

There's also negligent driving occasioning death which, as I understand it, can include being negligent enough to drive a car that isn't roadworthy.

If you're silly enough to go through with your plan I would check up on the facts and perhaps carry a copy of the SA Roads Act in your glovebox along with a copy of your insurance policy, the ADR rule book and the business card of a good lawyer.

Unless you can get it properly engineered... my suggestion would be to stay away from any 'back yard' fabrication of this nature. Save your pennies until you can afford something safe and legal.

patts
Post #3

anyone ever got a home made bullbar engineered or sorts. whats the cost?? can you just take it through regency???

booflux
Post #4

You DO have to build it to meet ADR guidelines which is not hard at all. You also will not get an engineers report when ARB fit their bar to your car. IF you have airbags it gets a whole lot more complicated and I would suggest not to go down the custom route as all sorts of things do come into play under the ADRs.

At the end of the day its like any other custom mod ring the transport governing body in your state and ask. Some faceless person on the net telling you it will make your car a death machine and another telling you, you can do it mean squat if you dont check it out for yourself.

tim_koelma
Post #5

Too right. The people here can only give your their interpretation of the law and most of us are from QLD or NSW anyway.

booflux is right, we faceless people on the internet can only get you so far. The rest you need to do on your own.

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