Nudge, Roo or Bull bar

[wfdTamar]

Anyone know of any kinds of these for the Octavia? I hit a wallaby the other night (did a bit of damage) and wondered if there were any on the market?

[wfdTamar]

Found this light bar in Sweden at a paltry 565 Euros! Might be able to use the mounting technique for the sub $100 light bars you can get here.

Q-light Skoda Octavia/Scout 10- For 2pc lights - Oljebaren.se

[Fourwinds]

Make sure the bar is OEM and/or compatible for use use with front air-bags. otherwise your insurance company will drop you like a hot potato.

[HAZ79]

There won't be anything available that will protect you from it. Your best choice will be to get a way to mount some decent spotlights to the car. Nudge bar, or number plate bar, or roof rack set back on the roof a bit so you're not getting reflection off the bonnet. This will hopefully let you see them first.

[wfdTamar]

Could get something like this - ugly, but would work and something to mount lights on. Not sure if they're pre made or custom for each car (so available for the Octavia).




Yes, looking for something to mount lights on too. I have some honking big driving lights, but the form of the front of the Skoda (particularly the way the bonnet opens) makes it difficult as the lights are quite deep and the bonnet hits them if they're mounted on a small nudge type light bar (the ones that mount being the number plate).

Then considered an LED light bar and still might go this way. Maybe about 500-550mm wide (the width of the number plate section). Then there's the whole business of - are they legal (being a single central light).

[bobski]

There won't be anything available that will protect you from it. Your best choice will be to get a way to mount some decent spotlights to the car. Nudge bar, or number plate bar, or roof rack set back on the roof a bit so you're not getting reflection off the bonnet. This will hopefully let you see them first.

Hopefully. I figure its the ones *I don't see* that I'll hit. Not that I've hit one yet thankfully! My mate who lives on the other side of Bathurst has hit 3 since moving here a year ago (one resulted in a write off of his Jazz).

There are plenty of moulded bars on commodores/falcons out here like this.

Genuine Holden Commodore VE Sedan Wagon UTE Bull BAR Black ROO BAR | eBay

[brad]

Bullbar praguri inox | Skoda Octavia | www.bullbar-praguri.ro | crom inox praguri bare de protectie bare laterale bull bar bullbar bul bar carlig rolbar roll bar scut fullbox hardtop inchidere bena fulbox full box hard top inox bul bar inox bulbar in thye might have something

Try some of those sonic whistles - i doubt they do a great deal but they are <$10

It is possible to get something made but invariably the animal jumps where the bull bar isn't.

[HAZ79]

Yeah unfortunately nothing that will go on the front will protect it. It will just be another expense as it will fold it. Unless you hit the smallest wallaby at sub 40 kms then maybe you might get away with it. These cars will not take a proper steel post bar which is what you need to hit a roo at over 80kms. The shuroos that aren't powered only work over 60km apparently and aren't that loud.(you need to clean them out regularly too). Proper electric ones seem pretty pricy at $549 plus fitting, but by the time you buy a nudge bar and spotlights is actually pretty cheap I suppose.

[wfdTamar]

I'm only talking wallabies (because I'm in Tas). I hit one at 110 kmph and it broke the black plastic tray under the front bumper, a tab and the globe of the fog light, and plastic wheel arch liner. A bar like the one above would have prevented that damage, though the wallaby wouldn't then be able to hop away from the prang as the one I hit seems to have done.

[bobski]

Some people swear by the whistles. Where I drive though, there's no where for the roos to go in a lot of places, so invariably they hop down the fence line or road and change direction into the path of the car at the last moment. I've got a sacrificial car for that I drive in peak roo times thats worth less than a bullbar.

[wfdTamar]

The thing about the whistles is most people stick them on the front of the car where there isn't going to be a smooth flow of air through them so they aren't going to actually make a whistle.

[brad]

Some people swear by the whistles. Where I drive though, there's no where for the roos to go in a lot of places, so invariably they hop down the fence line or road and change direction into the path of the car at the last moment. I've got a sacrificial car for that I drive in peak roo times thats worth less than a bullbar.

Isn't the idea that the whistles get the roos moving so you are more likely to see them & then you slow down until you pass them?

[DunlopRS]

I have similar issues. Spend a lot of time in roo country. Before this car I have had 4 roo strikes at night plus an emu in daylight (morning twilight - essentially wrote my car off that I had at the time). My solution is not very pretty, but it is very, very effective. It has saved me from at least half a dozen roo strikes in 4 years including one last night (my father is averaging close to 1 a year at the moment - hits that is). The standard lights on the Octavia are woeful - even with nightbreaker globes installed. The eastern greys are not the ones I am worried about, the reds in South Aus that look straight over the top of the car cause me a lot of concern.......

I have a pair of Lightforce strikers, 70w HID 4500K (if I remember right re colour temp) lights mounted on a light bar. They are almost too good - the reflection of road signs can be dazzling.

A city police officer at a RBT site warned me that he could give me a substantial fine for the fitment as they may block the number plate from fixed speed cameras. Country officers don’t give them a second look.

I toyed with putting a light bar behind the grill, but there is not a lot of room and I was never convinced that it would do the job.

Let us know what you end up with and how it goes.

oh - and the roos that are a problem are the ones that you don't see until you are on them - usually hiding just over the crest of the hill in a group of 4.... or the emus that come barrelling out of the scrub on the side of the road at 40 kmph…..



edit - I forgot about the koala I hit - managed to just about pull up before making contact - it ran off - I am not sure who suffered the most shock.......

[wfdTamar]

That was how I was thinking to mount my driving lights. I have a set of chrome Hellas which would go on I think, but look wrong on the car (too old fashioned).

Better ones are my black ones. They currently have dual filament (low and high beam capable) globes, but can be converted to HID. Very chunky and quite robust, but prevent the bonnet opening unless I mount the Unibar forward (which would look even worse). Here they are on my old Vectra:



To get around that obscured license plate regulation the latest Unbars have another mount for the plate at the front edge (you could add that to an old style Unibar easy).



I have two Unbars - one like yours (straight with bent ends) and another with a curve that matches the curve of the Octavia bumper.


Also have one of these - more subtle, better suited to LED lightbars. Can be used upside down so the light bar is under the number plate.



Mysticality has a better thread about lights here:

http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/f149/mysticalitys-light-thread-67827.html?highlight=light

[brad]

DunlopRS - why haven't you fitted HIDs in your projector housings? I did it years back and it transformed the car. They still wouldn't overcome the high beam inadequacy but help when you can't get the big lights on.

I think anything behind the grille would be pretty useless because of the shape of the grille fins.

Anything mounted under the numberplate would be too low unless you are trying to counteract fog.