Rooted as it is in Australia and America, the word “bull bar” is a bit of a misnomer in South Africa. Unlike Shane, Wayne and Bradley in the outback Down Under, we don’t shove our cattle around with bakkies.

Maybe we should rather call it a “goat bar” here in Africa. (Or hands up for “taxi bar” …) But unless you’re a farmer, that scaffolding welded onto the front of your bakkie is there to protect it, and to improve your vehicle’s off-road capability. The term bush breaker (from the Afrikaans bosbreker ) is therefore probably more apt, but we’re saddled with “bull bar” nonetheless.

The more important thing is, when you’re ready to buy your first bull bar, don’t sommer have it welded together by the Botes Broers there behind the silos. There are some important things to consider. A home-welded bull bar, for example, could interfere with your vehicle’s airbag system, or if you want to fit a winch, the bull bar might be in the way.

On the following pages there are some more considerations, and some nice bull bars from which to choose.

Why should I buy a bull bar?

1. Not just pretty, but safe too

Okay, it makes your Defender look a bit meaner, but a heavy metal frame on your vehicle’s nose will considerably decrease the insurance claim when a camelthorn jumps into the way of your vehicle again. Or that rude white delivery bakkie …

But the main advantage is that it could prevent you from getting stranded somewhere in Kaokoland with a cracked leaking radiator.

It also makes a difference to your safety and that of your passengers. At Burnco 4x4 recently, I saw a Land Cruiser that had hit a cow. The bull bar was pushed right up against the bonnet, but apart from a broken headlight and a slight dent in the body, the vehicle was intact and the occupants hale and hearty. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of the cow.

2. For driving over things

If the nose of your luxury new SUV gets stuck on the first rock at the bottom of Baboon’s Pass, you know your car’s approach angle is too small.

The approach angle is the angle between the ground and the imaginary line between the bottom edge of the front bumper and the place where the tyres touch the ground.
The bigger this angle, the fewer rock steps and logs you will hit.

The problem is that an increasing number of the newer 4x4’s have a plastic fender that hangs as low as a dog’s tongue. It’s meant to make the vehicle more aerodynamic on tar roads, but in the bundu that bumper breaks off like an ice-cream stick agains the first termite mound. And everybody knows what that kind of calamity costs nowadays.

We recommend that anyone who goes off-roading, whether it is on dunes or grade 4 or 5 trails, replace the Tupperware with a bull bar that sits close to the vehicle.

3. Enough room for your toys

A bull bar is the easiest place on which accessories such as a winch, radio antenna, spotlights or fishing rod holders can be fixed onto your vehicle.
If you’re having a bull bar mounted, it’s important to tell the workshop what other accessories you are planning to add. Winches can only be mounted onto winch-compatible bull bars, while spotlights require a secure base so they don’t vibrate while you’re driving.

A wobbly beam of light is irritating, and eventually your expensive light could break off somewhere between Nampula and Pemba, and then you’ll have a cadenza!

4. For getting out of the dwang

Apart from bumping into termite mounds, another easy way of destroying flimsy plastic bumpers is to use them for recovering the vehicle with a towrope or kinetic strap on uneven terrain or to use a high-lift jack on it.
Rather use the high-lift jacking points on your brand-new bull bar to jack up the bakkie or the bow shackles attached to the recovery points for fixing a kinetic strap to.

After all, the bull bar is made of steel and bolted to the chassis. Most bull bars are sold with holes for bow shackles. Just ask the guys in the 4x4 workshp to weld on some high-lift jacking points onto it.