On i35 south bound this morning... stop and go traffic... everyone slammed on their brakes.. I got pinged from the rear and it sent me into the suburban in front of me.

I've got an ARB up front. I've been hit in the front several times. Strangely enough, most of them were people backing into me when I was stopped.

Previously, my ARB kept me from taking any damage at all. It was wonderful. However, this time, having the ARB was my curse. The damage I took on was very heavy.

My ARB was attached with 4 bolts. I had been considering drilling some extra holes and using more bolts, just to secure it a little better. I was told that you want the ARB to slip on a big impact to avoid damage to the frame... so... I just never added those extra bolts.

So yeah, 2 bolts sheered off... the other 2 acted like a hinge and the ARB just flipped right into my finders, my hood, and my grill.

Here's the damage:







And the bolt:

Damn! Where on 35 were you? That's definitely good info for us ARB owners. I guess if you put enough stress on anything it will break, but I thought the ARB would do better in a wreck.

I guess I'll have to stop aiming for stupid drivers.

I hope you and everyone involved was ok. Bummer about your X. Hopefully you can fix it (and the ARB).

No one was hurt and the ARB is fine. The wreck was at a rather low speed.

I think, perhaps, the bolts had been weakened over time with a number of previous low impact hits.

The question on my mind is: Is it better to bolt the ARB down tightly so it can't move or to let it loose enough to slip if it needs to.

In this case, the slip did a whole lotta damage. My poor baby :-(

Oh yeah, and the guy who hit me from behind... he drove off quickly.... hit and run.

edit: I was on i35 south near the sandy lake exit.

If it was enought to sheer the bolts and flip it on you, you probably would have had frame damage. I'd rather fix body panels over fram damage any day. It never driver quite right after fram damage. Keep in mind your probably still ahead fo the gamw as you didn't take damage that probably would have resulted from those idiots backing into you.

that's some odd damage.. it doesnt even look like the bumper got touched at all!.. sorry to hear, it always sucks getting into accidents

Ouch...That hurts to see ANY damage to an Xterra...IH 35 Sucks...I reside in SA, and travel on IH 35 alot, and it gets pretty congested...

I'm not familiar with ARB bumpers, but I assume the bolts came with it for the install? You're probably right about the thing just being stressed over time, but still seems odd to break the bolt. Go to someplace like tractor supply and replace it with some grade 8's. Then drive around town looking for the fool who ran into you and test the stress of the bolt out on their vehicle.

Glad everyone was ok. Here's hoping the cops can track down the culprit.

The cops didn't even come out because it was a non-injury accident... and I didn't get the guy's license plate number... I honestly thought he was trying to get off the road like me and the suburban... by the time I realized he was leaving the scene, I couldn't see a license plate number or any other identifying marks.

That definitely sucks. What happened to the vehicle that met up with the buisness end of the ARB?

Damn the bolting must be different from 00-01 to 02+ mine bolts on with six bolts.

Sorry to hear it really sucks.

I'm not entirely sure the bolting lined up just as it should... I had one of the last Frontier ARBs that had to be slightly modified to fit... it wasn't made to fit my '00... that might be related to this problem.

As for the Suburban, I nailed her bumper dead on in one spot... crunched it good and deep... but didn't cause any other damage to her vehicle.

Honestly, the demage to my truck looks severe.. but the impact of the wreck was not.

so, did you not have the bolts that go down to the D.O.T. holes?....being that it was an earlier bumper?....or do you have a body lift and have to relocate the bumper?

My fender is a little "tweeked" from falling into a deep rut and the other side of the hill hit the ARB and pushed it up into the fender.....If there were any more braces on the ARB, I wish they would be on the "wings" of it.

if the DOT holes are those little eyes at the very bottom, then no, I didn't have those in there.. just the 4

That's a bolt failure, NOT an ARB bumper failure. Be sure, everyone, that you seperate that out in your mind. Those particular bolts, holding any of the aftermarket bumpers, would have done the same thing. They evidently were either grade 5 bolts, over-torqued, or previously damaged.

This shouldn't be a warning of the ARB, but rather to make sure all the bolts on your rig are torqued properly, and in good shape!!!

Geez, that sucks. Sorry.

Good point on the previous damage...

I was backed into twice in parking garages while stopped.. both times shifting the bumper.

I hit a deer going about 40... took the deer out, no damage to the truck... but again, the bumper shifted.

Each impact was hard on the bolts... I should have replaced them. I also should have had at least 6 bolts on the bumper.

In retrospect, I'm not suprised that the bolts finally sheered. It was my dumb. It was just something I neglected.

I just didn't want someone to read the thread, and then start bashing the ARB bumper... Too much of that crap going on, already.

Hell, if anything, I'd say that shows the ARB is pretty darn stout... If you look at it the other way, the bumper snapped a Grade 10.9 bolt, which should have about a 20,000 lb shear strength rating for that size bolt. And it snapped 2 of 'em... Not too shabby, since the bumper doesn't seem any worse for the wear.

I will probably be viewed as the skunk that came to the party.

One thing to remember is that in any collision above a certain threshold, something has to give. In other words, you can make the bumper very strong, and the mounting bolts very strong. It will then be the body or the frame of the Xterra that will sustain the damage.

The factory bumper setup is designed so certain parts are "sacrificial". The bumper is weaker than the mounting brackets and mounting bolts. The brackets and bolts are weaker than the frame, and so on... The frame should only sustain damage after all the other parts have been deformed beyond a certain point ("sacrificed").

I cannot think of any situation where you would want the mounting bolts to be loose. This would make them more likely to shear, and not perform to factory specification. Use a torque wrench to set them properly.

My comments above are not intended to be critical of any particular brand of equipment. There are many choices in the marketplace; research them carefully. :rolleyes:

well that just blows, sorry dude

Well...with everyone shouting, "Why'd you buy that poser brush guard?" and "Get a real bumper- ARB" I guess it finally goes to show that if wither bumper fails, it ends up in heavy front damage. I would have to say that if the accident was low speed as you say and those bolts sheared off, you'd better get some heavy duty bolts as mentioned and hook it up right.

I would rather take some slight front end damage from hitting a Suburban with an ARB than take hood damage hitting a shopping cart with a brush guard. The ARB in this case saved him alot more potential damage. With a brush guard it would have been much uglier.

Yeah - if the bumper is OK, and the bolts sheared, that's a bolt break, not a bumper break. (Bumper at least looks fine)

It sucks that you had an ARB, but got whacked as if it were a Brush Guard.

:rolleyes: