fabtech crash bars

[hkusptac]

Looking at the fabtech offset intrusion beams. Anyone know how well the retain the safety standards as the originals? It says on the site that they are 1/4" thick. Anyone know how thick the factory ones are?

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[OFC Ranger]

No one knows, they have done no testing. Is their crash bars better than none? Probably. That is the only answer that is realistic. Anything else is scien-guestic.

 

[Bluebeastsrt]

Fabtech is pricy. The BDS bars will probably do the same job for 1/3rd of the price . Which ever you go with. The install is a giant PITA!I wished I would have used a sawsall and made quick work of the stock bars in hindsight.

 

[hkusptac]

he install is a giant PITA

really how? I saw on mine there are just a few bolts to remove the old ones. is there more involved?

 

[Bluebeastsrt]

Well you have to take of the front bumper to install the fronts. That's the easy part. That only took about 45 minutes to an hour. To get the bars installed and the bumper remounted. The back bars you need to remove the foam material under the back of the wheel well. That was brutal. Crawl under there and eye it up. You'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[Stangman570]

Well you have to take of the front bumper to install the fronts. That's the easy part. That only took about 45 minutes to an hour. To get the bars installed and the bumper remounted. The back bars you need to remove the foam material under the back of the wheel well. That was brutal. Crawl under there and eye it up. You'll see what I'm talking about.

No need to remove the front bumper to install. I used the BDS on my Ranger and the Fabtech on my step dads Ranger and zero issues with sliding these in. Now to get the old bars out I used a sawsall on mine and I must have went through 3 blades per bar. Next go round when I did my step dads I used a cut wheel like BUUUUUTTTTTAAA.

 

[Bluebeastsrt]

Sounds like a nice short cut. The rear bars are where the nightmare is waiting.

 

[Mr.Scary]

Doing my truck this weekend the all makes sense to me

 

[HenryMac]

Looking at the fabtech offset intrusion beams. Anyone know how well the retain the safety standards as the originals? It says on the site that they are 1/4" thick. Anyone know how thick the factory ones are?

I dug into this a while back... here is what I wrote on a previous thread.


When buying aftermarket parts you really need to be careful. You really have no idea their experience and engineering / testing unless you ask. And then they should supply some sort of certification documents to prove what they are saying.

I have been unable to find any crash bars that are as strong as the OEM set-up. But I wanted to give FabTech the benefit of proving the strength of their crash bars.

I contacted FabTech via email and asked:
"Did you do any actual destructive testing to verify the design is as strong or stronger than the factory design?"

Their reply:
"Unfortunately we do not have any destructive testing of our intrusion beam kit. The bracketry is made of ¼” thick American steel and welded here in our manufacturing facility in Southern California. "

I then asked:
"Any Finite Element Analysis that shows the replacement parts are "equal to" or "superior to" the factory OEM pieces? "

Their reply:
"Unfortunately we do not have any info like what you are looking for. "

When it comes to strength of a beam, the outer dimensions are the governing factor, much more so than the thickness. They are always pointing out that their crash bars are 1/4" thick... that's better than oem, but that in no way means it's stronger, due to the smaller beam size.

Caveat Emptor: Buyer Beware

For very little money FabTech could verify the strength of the bars by having an Engineer perform Finite Element Analysis of the stock configuration vs their bars.

 

[ddtcm81]

Doing my truck this weekend the all makes sense to me

how did it Go?

 

[GatsbyNC1]

I'm looking into this myself. Is there also any difference in clearance from the BDS intrusion bar versus the Fabtech with regards to running larger tires?

 

[Mr.Scary]

how did it Go?

Sorry never got to it I have my friend who is a ford master tech installing them this Friday for me.

 

[hkusptac]

I got mine and will be installing them soon also.

 

[Superdannyboy]

I put the BDS on front and rear, however the rear did barely rub so I took the rear bars off. Running 285 75 16's. I have the stock coils on bilstein 5100's at the highest setting. I believe it is 2.4" of lift I don't remember. 3" of front lift would clear with the BDS crash bars in the rear. I also removed the heavy duty plastic behind the wheel liner and used one of those threaded holes to pin the liner back some more.

From the look of it, fabtech looks like it has more of an angle on the bars IDK.

 

[HenryMac]

I installed the ready lift anti-intrusion beams. They are impressively beefy, and add some needed clearance. I currently have a 275/55/20 tire (2" level), and with the wheel locked both directions there is still plenty of room. My rim is 9.5" wide 12mm offset. I would think I could fit a 33"x11.5" tire, based on the additional room available.

Their advertising states "Retain the safety and security benefits of occupant protection." Ask them to send you some sort of certification documents that provide evidence that their anti-intrusion beams are stronger or even the same as stock.

Buyer Beware...

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