Advice on dodgy bullbar install

[nickknock]

Hey All,

I had an Ironman Deluxe commercial bull bar and 12,000 pound winch fitted to my car about a month ago. First up, i'll list all the really bad things.

1) They installed the +ve cable to the winch between the radiator and the vehicle itself the run accross the top of the engine, near the oil filler cap, it was pulled so tight that the cable was about 1mm from shorting out.
2) the control box for the winch fell off, due to bolts not being done up tight enough.
3) The wheel flares were cut at different lengths, about a thumb and a half gap on one side and a thumbs gap on the other and not cut at all straight. A blind man could have done better, i shit you not.
4) Spot lights weren't done up tight enough, almost lost one.
5) Last but not least, I've just tried out my high lift jack on the jack points and the whole bar moves!! I have to sit on the bar to put it back into place. I'm assuming it's not suppose to do that???

I've since re-done the cabling and put sufficient protection around it, as i'm a sparky and didn't trust the installers to do a proper job without stuffing it up.

It's gone back to the installation place twice now for the flares to be straightened and the bar to be re-aligned. I've just spent the last hour trying to tighten all the bolts as much as possible to stop the bar from flexing hard up against the car, but it still does it. Surely it's not suppose to do that??

If anyone has this same bar and uses a high lift jack, can you shed some light?

Thanks

[Mooons]

Check they have put in the correct size bolt
A small bolt in a large hole will always give you some movement

[nickknock]

Hi Moons, thanks for the reply.

I did check that, looks to be 12mm bolts, which is what is in the install instructions.. but i'm still thinking that might still be too small..

[viking shippy]

Photos mate and did they really rout the battery cable over the motor...

[al coholic]

As far as the bar flexing....I have used a high lift on all types of bullbar or rear bar and there is some degree of flex.....some more so than others, but they always go back into place. This is more flex in the bar itself.....not moving on the bolts. There is a lot of weight on that point of the vehicle when using a hi lift

It does sound like there is more of a problem in your case however. Apart from checking the bolt size/hole size like Mooons suggested.....im not sure what else you could do to fix it.

[nickknock]

Viking - They sure did mate.

Al - I thought the bar would flex, but it certainly doesnt pop back into place! I'm half expecting the thing to fall off when i use the winch lol

[viking shippy]

If it was me I'd threaten to pull the pin give them one more chance and if it doesn't come up to scratch. ask for them to return the truck to original condition and give you a full refund...if they refuse go to fair trading...last resort though.. I've had a bit of experience with this and comes out on the customers side more often than not ..but you need to have your facts well documented and witnessed if possible ...good luck

[daryn]

Photos mate and did they really rout the battery cable over the motor...
Name and shame them

As per the rules:

If you have a problem with a particular company DO NOT post it up on the forum at all. This is easily construed as slander and bears legal issues. There are always two sides to every story and without the other persons view it is not fair to post your issues.

We do not name and shame.

[nickknock]

I wasn't aware of that rule, sorry about that. Anyway, I will give them another email and take it back to them again, or just bite the bullet and put some bigger bolts in it. Kind of sick of dropping my car off to them, it's quite a hassle!

[NowForThe5th]

I have an Ironman bar and even though I installed myself, still had the problem with it rotating.

The problem is that the holes are oval so that you can get some adjustment and it doesn't matter how tight you do the bolts, the bar will still move.

There were no instructions with my bar so i just looked up some posts here by others who had done their own installation. About 3 years later I was looking for something on the Ironman web site and found instructions for installing my bullbar.

The instructions now say that you should instal the bar, align and tighten the bolts and then drill two holes on each side, through the plates where the other bolts are to hold the bar in place. These holes should be the same size, exactly. as the high tensile bolts that you are going to put through them. Once you instal the lock bolts and tighten them up the bar will no longer move.

[nickknock]

I have an Ironman bar and even though I installed myself, still had the problem with it rotating.

The problem is that the holes are oval so that you can get some adjustment and it doesn't matter how tight you do the bolts, the bar will still move.

There were no instructions with my bar so i just looked up some posts here by others who had done their own installation. About 3 years later I was looking for something on the Ironman web site and found instructions for installing my bullbar.

The instructions now say that you should instal the bar, align and tighten the bolts and then drill two holes on each side, through the plates where the other bolts are to hold the bar in place. These holes should be the same size, exactly. as the high tensile bolts that you are going to put through them. Once you instal the lock bolts and tighten them up the bar will no longer move.

That is awesome info! Thanks mate. I did see some small, look to be about 8mm holes, pre-drilled on the bar itself, next to where the 3 bolts are on each side, For a quick moment i thought they may have been for that!