Brush Guards

[texaslilly]

Hi,

I have a question about a brush guard design that my father has come up with.

He decided he wanted a certain look on a new car he purchased and has found a manufacturer who can create what he wants.

However, this is not a stress bearing brush guard, it's for cosmetics only.

Now, this might be the wrong place to ask this type of question, but I figured some of you engineers might already know the answer. So I appreciate your bearing with a novice.

This brush guard will be made out of chrome only, as I mentioned, it is only for cosmetic purposes only, and not for protection.

However, what my father is also considering is having more made up and possibly selling to others.

Can he do this? Or are there requirements that they have to be stress bearing? Or can he just state upfront that they are for cosmetics only.

He is planning to meet with an attorney friend on Monday, about product liability and such matters, but he's asked me to contribute in the search for some answers.

But we were just curious if there were any restrictions about designing and manufacturing a brush guard for cosmetic purposes only.

Thanks for any help or enlightenment you may have to offer.

Thank you,

Texaslilly

 

[texaslilly]

Hi again,

I've just read where this is a non-commercial type forum, and I'm not sure if my post will be construed as commercial related since my question is geared toward future developement.

If so, please forgive me.

I'm just trying to find where to get the answers to a manufacturing question about requirements and thought an engineer would know.

Thanks again,

Texaslilly

 

[dkelly]

Hey tex if you want to check out the latest in "cosmetic" brush guards go down to your local Jeep dealer and check out the new Jeep Liberty ( the replacement for the Cherokee) yup that's a plastic brush guard. Must be for going through plastic forests. Then on your way back from Jeep stop in to check out the latest offerings from Lexus and Range Rover. Some of the dealers recommend that you take them off before you go through the car wash.

 

[TheBlacksmith]

Well, it is a brush guard, you don't want it protecting the vehicle from the car wash brushes - it'll never get clean. I just see somebody ignoring the "cosmetic use only" warning, doing some real off road damage and filing a suit. These are the same people that overload an SUV, under inflate the tires, drive in excess of every posted highway speed limit and then sue the vehicle and tire manufacturer when they have an accident.

Blacksmith

 

[GregLocock]

We call these bull bars downunder. I know of a couple of problems with them

1) If you hit a pedestrian then they will get hurt more.

2) The structural ones modify the crash pulse so air bags won't operate correctly.

It would be fairly expensive to show that your design does not affect these two criteria. I don't know how much of a real life problem this is anyway.




Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[Slowzuki]

Brush guards are regulated in Australia and England I believe, ARB and TJM are two models that jump to mind.

Many companies won't allow brush guards other than factory on their vehicle or even snowplows for that matter due to the reasons Greg mentioned.

Off-road a brush guard does not serve a life safety function, it is used to deflect trees and such that threaten to break grilles and headlights. (Except those giant ones on the transports in northern australia! Jeez they're huge!)

But in short, if in the US your new brushguard owner rear ends someone and the guard is even 1% responsible for increasing an injury on someone as compared to the original design you can be found liable!