ROMIK 2.5" bull bar review
December 30 2011Filed under: freelander land-rover lr2 off-roading
I recently installed the ROMIK 2.5" bull bar on my 2008 LR2. Here are some initial impressions:
- The bull bar is extremely light and will not significantly affect the handling of your LR2
- The bottom of the bull bar is fastened to the skid plate. This seems adequately secure. However the middle of the bar is fastened to the plastic bumper cover with a poorly designed fastener that can not hold more than 10-20 lbs. In my experience the fastener falls out regularly while driving. If both of the top fasteners fall out the bar could swing forward, hitting the ground. I don't want to know what would then happen at high speeds.
- The 2.5" bar is made of very thin steel sheet metal. Since it reduces the approach angle it's the first thing to hit when I take steep inclines. The steel on the bottom of my bull bar is severely bent from off-road use. I'm somewhat thankful that the bull bar is taking the pounding and not the vehicle's lower bumper (which is plastic).
- One of the bull bar's 2.5" connecting members passes right beneath the LR2's center tow point. There's about a 1/4 inch of clearance between the bar and the tow point. This makes accessing the tow point difficult and prevents me from attaching a snatch strap that's any wider than 1/4 inch without also attaching the strap around the bull bar. This would almost certainly damage the bull bar since it'd have to bear the vehicle's weight.
In summary, I would not recommend this product, especially if you off-road. You can forget about mounting a winch or any serious hardware to it. That said, I'm only aware of one other option for LR2's front-bumper: the OEM rubber brush guard (part #LR003319).
If you purchase this be sure to also purchase more secure mounting hardware for the top brackets. I remedied the problem with hefty drywall anchors from my local home depot: Crown Bolt Black Plastic #8 x 2 in. WingIts Anchors with #8 x 3-7/16 in. Pan Head Phillips Drive Screws. These anchors are much stronger than the included fasteners and will not fall out over time. The weakest point is now no longer the anchors but the plastic bumper that the bull bar is mounted to.
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About
Hi, I'm Sam Odio. I'm a snowboarder, off-roader, developer and a life-hacker.
I've worked on a bunch of different projects. My favorites have been a touch-screen controlled bus, a photo sharing site called Divvyshot, and Facebook Photos.