Originally posted by TJ:
We went through that scenario on the jeeps and their reinforced bumpers...
The decelleration rate is what sets off the bags sensor's...and the sensors are not on bumper or horns...
Essentially...when I run into a 120 lb deer at 50 mph, if the truck doesn't slow down fast enough "Suddenly" for the sensors to assume I hit something that will make me slam my face into the dash hard enough to ~ die, they don't trigger the bags.
If I hit a wall, or the back of a mack truck, etc...and the truck is actually slowing down suddenly enough -Suddenly stopped-, BANG! the bags go off.
The crumple zone can slow the process a bit by allowing the truck to stop slightly more gradually, but we are talking about a few inches...and its not like the sleeve/reinforcement is likely to support the force = mass times acceleration.... involved with that type of collision.
On jeeps at least, it doesn't seem to make enough difference to matter...and my worst impacts in the X were deer, not mack trucks, and ~100 to <200 lbs between 25 and 55 mph...and the bumper didn't budge, the frame horns didn't crumple, the deer pretty much absorbed the impact and transformed the involved energy into venison puree, etc.
I need to improve my lighting....might avoid more deer that way...
:rolleyes:
If I hit something hard enough to matter, I'll report back if the bags went off...otherwise...
.... I'm with Dagger, It doesn't seem to be enough difference to matter.
I think the differences that you see will come at low speed collisions. More than likely if you hit something at 50 your airbags are going to go off, but if you get into a minor fender bender they shouldn't.
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