devinsixtyseven
Explorer
i know you didn't, and there's little to no point in talking about them on the expo...but that is the point of a *functional* stinger. stingers only have a place on rock buggies that are likely to endo, and any vehicle that had a *functional* stinger would also have a rollcage, or a plan for one in the near future. i have seen them used as intended in pictures and videos, and seen vehicles firsthand which have used them multiple times as intended. only perhaps one or two vehicles on the expo might ever find themselves in that position, and doubtful that it'd be on an expedition. for the rest of the world, it's just extra weight, visual obstruction, and one more thing making the vehicle longer. you can't even pull from most of the "stingers" ive seen, the bar would bend...or the welds would break...or the frame would be damaged...etc...even on the one in the picture there.cruiseroutfit said:
on probably (im making this number up for effect) 99% of vehicles, a stinger isn't even farkle.
all that aside...
there is an awful lot to be said for approach and departure angles that does not involve moon buggies. good angles, combined with underbelly and rocker panel protection, may preclude the need for bridging ladders, winching, digging, or stacking. while i could take a minivan on many trails with the aid of a set of bridging ladders (seen it done to support an "established" camp in wellsville, ohio aka the offroad slum), i see recovery tools as contingency plans, not primary agents for forward movement.
if you're in the middle of nowhere, particularly if it's rained recently, you never know when you may need to cross a vertical-walled wash...no rock crawling, but if you can't get the wheels near the bank of the wash, or keep the tail from dragging, you may not be able to cross without a shovel, bridging ladders and/or a winch. personally i'd rather dig with the tires than by hand, and certainly i'd prefer to dig than bridge up a potentially unstable bank...turning around may not always be an option, if you're the lucky guy to catch the first desert rainstorm on the wrong end of a long spur trail.
labeled, but not often used, roads in the backcountry do not have the same kind of maintenance schedule, funding or care that park or even blm roads have. the nps restores back roads inside the parks after weather damage. sometimes blm gets around to restoring back roads in their areas, but they often have more important priorities, and back roads with little use are low on the list. conditions get worse off blm lands, particularly on roads that are marked on a topo but not written up in a book--little to no travel, so nobody to move the fallen rock for you, fill in the ditch, stack rocks before the ledge...you're not rock crawling, but you might have to do a little creative driving once in a while, and good angles will only help you and are easy to attain for most vehicles.
good approach and departure angles are just as important as a hi-lift, an x-jack, winch, spare tire, pry bar, bridging ladders, and everything else that gets thrown on the truck. angles are not something you have to stop and unpack, and they are easily managed--all it takes in the rear is a little trimming, some touch up paint and a piece of moulding...much less than the cost of a winch or even a hilift. in the front, all it takes is good planning when building, buying or modifying a bumper.
that in mind, consider that a winch which is mounted close to the radiator will be a problem in a collision, whether it's on the road or you stuff the truck in a dune. personally, i continue to run the arb sahara bar because of the safety factor, and have not changed it because eventual changes to the truck will overcome my dissatisfaction with the sahara bar design. i dont think any custom tube bumper will be as safe in a head-on Mex1 collision as an arb or tjm with a designed crumple zone. there used to be a bumper company that built bombproof jeep bumpers back in the day...eventually two drivers with the same bumper wound up in a head-on. the bumpers were intact, but the occupants broke their necks since nothing on the bumper or frame was designed to absorb the impact. that's why youll find only 0.120" wall used in the majority of aftermarket bumpers, whether tube or "armor" style. The company is no longer in existence due to that accident--the story was passed on to me by Mike @ Trucksmith (the Hi9 guy), who steered me toward the arb design vs. building custom tube on the front of my truck.
i recall several pictures from this years' expo trophy which showed a wooden bridge and others which showed entry and exit from a wash. if either bank of the wash were vertical due to recent flash flooding, vehicles with good angles could continue driving where others dug or bridged. if you were faced with a shallow ditch similar to the bridge exercise but didn't have a few logs handy, again you'd be digging or hope you packed bridging ladders. the same goes for crossing partially iced rivers. i can even think of a particular spot on the way to the dollhouse in canyonlands which requires rock stacking to get a stock vehicle over a ledge on an otherwise very easy road, due to the approach angle required for the height of the ledge.
with the amount of money often shifted to shocks, springs, wheels, tires, and snorkels
, why neglect something so easy, inexpensive and helpful to work with as approach and departure angles? arb is not the only "armor" style bumper manufacturer anymore, and there are now offerings with better approach angles. sure, we're not going out with the intent to crawl over the largest rocks we can find, but we might not have a choice, either. i'm not saying stay away from arb, in fact i think i've made a couple good points specifically to get one over all else, but consider the type of driving youll be doing and buy accordingly...they are not appropriate for every situation, may in fact make it harder to get down the trail, and there are "best of both worlds" solutions available. v/r,
sean
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