Roll Bar Or No Roll Bar?

We had a iron duke-powered 2a at the house that we bought just for the OD. I think it was $200. It ran and drove like a raped ape, but it had no roll bar, top, seat belts or brakes. It had the original 2a tubing windshield frame. I took it out bombing through the thick brush in the fields when I found a sapling that was a bit stronger than the jeep. The front left tire hit it, and it shot me out of the seat and flipped the jeep over on its side. It aaaaallllmost flipped upside down, but it fell back onto its right side. It was on a side hill, and it probably would have completed the roll if it had went any further. I was crab-walking backwards to get out of its way and was backed up against a rose bush. It would have came down on me for sure.

My dad was livid... Because I crumpled the fender.

The moral of the story is, an accident is a collection of random actions. Sometimes the smallest thing can save you; sometimes the most protection in the world won't. Life is a roll of the dice. Live it how you want.

 

Well said.

 

A new Tesla killed his driver this week. With all the electronic and safety aboard!

 

This question comes up now and again and usually it's 90%/10% in favor of a roll bar.

I'm in the 10% camp. My A1 is pretty original and the roll bar on it was not right. A friend has it now but I can get it anytime I want.


I drive the vehicle as safely as I can: limited speed, never on slick pavement, improvements to brakes, steering, tires. All that sort of thing.

In wildland fire, we carry a fire shelter- designed to save your a** should you get trapped. Google it if you want a pic of it. Anyhow, I always work as if the shelter is not on me. I have to carry it but see it as just an annoyance. I NEVER make decisions that might put me in the position of needing it. (The Canadians and Aussies don't use them). Anyhow I drive my jeep with the same mentality- I drive it in a way that I will never need the roll bar. Can unusual circumstances occur on the road? Sure they can. Ask any motorcyclist about that. I sold my bike because of that uncertainty and my inability to feel safe enough around hurtling boxes of steel. But I don't feel that level of concern with the jeep. In my mind, it doesn't even approach it. Driven sanely, they're fine. I ask no more of it than it was designed to offer.

Now, that said, get me doing much wheeling and I might put the roll bar back on, at least temporarily. They have their purpose.

 

I was co-piloting in a race once where we came up on a jeep that had just rolled over onto its hood/front cage hoop. The course was narrow, and there wasn't room to fit past the rolled jeep. I unbuckled and hopped out to see if I could at least rock them out of the way to get past while my driver looked for an alternate route. I looked in to see if the occupants were safe, and my heart skipped a beat. Their jeep rolled over onto a 5" wide tree stump that was poking up through the windshield area, and the co-pilot was holding onto it, as it appeared to be going into his chest. I waved my driver over to help. We managed to get the jeep flipped back onto its side to see the stump was cut at the exact angle that he was resting against it. Any closer, or cut at a different angle, and he would have been killed for sure.

I managed to help him out. Stinking like booze, he yelled at me for ripping his sweatshirt. Karma missed by a few inches.

 

It's not about your own driving habits and your ability....if you don't trust yourself, you shouldn't be driving.
It's the knucklehead who runs the red light/stop sign and T-bones you that you should be worried about.
Then you would be dead right.....
But hey, it's your life....do you fell lucky ?

 

BECAUSE of "all the electronic and safety" aboard, IMHO.
And a fatal childish fascination with gadgetry.

Like gunner with his 'shake and bake' shelter, I believe in making my own choices, and thereby staying sharp.

 

well said ARMY jeeps never had roll bars or seat belts . but you drove them with respect to the way they handled and conditions . the way you drive any jeep .

 

I hate the look of my roll bar... but, honestly, it's just stupid to put one of these things on the road without one. There really is no valid argument to the contrary.

People can embrace that it's dumb and do it anyways (as I do when I take mine off for car shows), but we all need to know that there's nothing stopping our faces from becoming a skidmark on the road other than a bunch of trusty omix-ada parts on a vehicle that will likely roll if swerved over 20mph.

 

This. Nuff said.

 

I work heavy construction. Bull dozers front end loaders excavators even little bitty Kabota tractors have roll bars. AND SEAT BELTS. It is a proven fact that not having a seat belt on can lead to serious injury or death. As to no Military jeeps having roll bars. You are correct and a WHOLE lot of guys got killed because of it.

Do as you will its your life and the world is over populated so I guess its a win win.

 

I didn't realize this was such a hot topic lol. @Mark Wahlster that win win comment was lost in translation.

Hope everyone's having a fun safe July 4th wheels on the ground preferably.

 

On the other hand, some studies have also shown that people wearing belts tend to take more risks when driving. Maybe that was a factor.

 

Twin 2, you are incorrect about roll bars in military jeeps. I did 20 years and in the latter days of the M151 they installed roll bars because of that vehicles tendency to roll.
This is a world of free will, do what you want, but remember your wives, kids, moms, and dads that will be left behind. They are the ones that will suffer when they are left behind.
That is why I ALWAYS wear a helmet on my motorcycle.

 

In the late 60s I was on early morning guard duty at the front gate of Camp San Luis Obispo for a weekend of National Guard. The unit was sleeping in tents maybe 2 miles from the armory. They had forgotton the revelie recording they used to wake the troops and sent a fellow in a jeep back to the armory to get it. It was very still and he had the jeep wound up tight. Screaming. There was a right hand sweeper and it sounded like a dozen garbage cans being run over. Then silence. I called it in and he was dead. No seat belt or roll bar. He left a wife and 2 kids. I will never forget the noise.

 

not when I served . nuff said

 

I dont care if anyone uses a roll bar or not. Convertible cars don't generally have one and motorcycles don't either. Its always your own call. I use one in my jeep. I do agree that it may be a false sense of security for the most part if you don't have a front hoop connected to the roll bar.

A couple things I would consider that have been mentioned. If you decline the use of a roll bar, then no seat belts. I would rather be ejected than have a jeep crush me. That doesn't mean that post ejection, you won't get run over by some other guy.

I use a roll bar and have a 3 point seat belt. Basically from having the steering shaft impale me in a front end collision and to keep me IN the jeep on rough areas. I drive my jeep as I would a modern vehicle, to a point, and it can be a bit bouncy. New vehicles have a highly engineered safety system that all work together and just adding a portion of that system and expecting similar safety results from a basically 70 year old design is not gonna work.

Some of us have rolled jeeps and if they were inside of it upside down, they probably owe their lives to the roll bar.

I crashed my 77 CJ5 into a telephone pole one night at 45 MPH in 1991 or so. Slid on ice sideways. Hit the passenger side. Bounced off the pole, up on 2 wheels, ejected on to the road and hit my head on the roll bar on the way out through the soft top. I was not wearing a seat belt. I was knocked out for a second and came too sliding feet first toward my jeep. I was covered in gasoline as the pole ripped out the rear axle and gas tank.

Fortunately I was wearing my biker jacket and didn't get road rash and didn't light on fire either but did have a pretty good concussion. I was lucky. Everyone who survives a crash in an old jeep is lucky.

The funny thing is that the CJ5 was a rust bucket. I completely plated the inside and outside in street signs and pop riveted and bonded the seams. It looked good, until the impact popped off and buckled them. When the cops and ambulance showed up the reflective part of the signs that was affixed inward was reflecting the headlights. Pretty funny. Didn't go to jail and refused medical treatment. Had a full on concussion too.

Put that jeep back on the road and sold it all crunched and bent up too for almost what i paid for it.

Everything you do in life has an element of danger in it. My job is to minimize the danger to not burden my family. I should have a full cage connected to the frame to that end. I dont. Thats basically it.