"Gregness" wrote:

That blue International COE looks like it is set up to drive through the livestock pens rather than to them! Only place I have seen that kind of protection is in Alaska and northern Canada, where the moose are to stupid to get out of the way. Are there that many kangaroos to run into on your roads down there?

There sure is that many roo's and they have no road sense at all , worst times I find are dusk and dawn for hitting roo's and to make it even worse the only green pick we have a lot of the time is on the road beside the bitumen were the showers of rain run off and of course the roo's then hang out
The littlle blue COE is what we call a ACCO and they used the 3070's ACCO's on interstate linehaul type of jobs hard to believe now

Paul

Thanks for posting the rally pics Ian.
Looks like a good weather event for the weekend.

Yes it's the norm with trucks and ute's (pickups) to have bull bars fitted and yes on the trucks the bar tilts forward to open the bonnet/hood or tilt the cab.
Gilbert.

As for hitting roos on the road . it is not unusual to hit many in the one night. dont even pause when they jump out.
During times of drought some roads will be lined with dead roos.

"Neil" wrote:

Yeah Greg, I was wondering what the actual stats on hitting kangaroos, emus, and cows was in the Great Southern Land. It must be pretty high because every truck and even pickup has one. They also all have snorkels and I notice NZ pickups are now getting those too, which is probably because they come in the same order from the factory as the Oz models.
I notice that they tilt out at the top - to stop the animal rolling up and coming through the windshield? We had one on the Superliner which hinged to tilt forward in order to lift the hood. Got rid of it eventually and just had a plain aluminum bumper, broad enough to stand on.

Video to give you an idea about numbers Neil .

I won't post it here but do a You tube search on Wolf Creek 2 - Exclusive Horror Movie Clip.
Warning pretty graphic but is a movie and i doubt they used real kangaroos .

I have seen it this bad with roo's

what most people dont realize is there is a estimated 4 times the amount of roo,s in Australia since white man came here as most of Australia had very little surface water but as the country has been opened up and stations have sunk bores for stock water the roo's have spread

In the desert country the animals come onto the tar road at night in winter when the temp can drop bellow freezing and sleep on the tar as it holds the warmth of the day for a long time

Hi, Folks.
Thank you, ianoz, for posting these photos. I have only just arrived home from other activities and will get mine downloaded and some of them posted soon.

Re the bullbars - there are other reasons besides 'roos for having bullbars on vehicles on country roads. In quite a few places in the 'Red Center', camels are every bit as much of a hazard as 'roos and bulls/cattle. Camels were imported here from the Middle East in large numbers in the late 1800s - early 1900s for hauling freight wagons on Central Australia because of their ability to handle the dry conditions better than horses or bullocks. When trucks began taking over the transport needs in these areas, the camels were simply turned loose to fend for themselves, which they did in fine style. Australia now has more camels running wild than Saudi Arabia and we have 'ackshully' exported camels back to Saudi Arabia for camel racing.

Then you can add in wild horses, donkeys and goats and you have a pretty fair menagerie of animals which are all capable of doing some damage to an unprotected vehicle.

Still another reason for having a bullbar on a truck is to stop it from running OVER a car or other lighter vehicle in the event of a front-end collision. The idea here is that it is safer for the drivers of both the truck and the lighter vehicle if the lighter vehicle is pushed ahead of the truck rather than being run over by it. If a lighter vehicle does go under the front of a truck, it almost always immediately renders the truck un-steerable 'cos the front wheels are off the ground and it also exposes the occupants of the lighter vehicle to a far greater risk of being crushed.

Just my 0.02.

"gauntjoh" wrote:

I guess they make sure they rarely if ever have to reverse those doubles and triples, it would be interesting to see someone doing so.

They can and do on regular bases reverse road trains Andrew will be the man to best describe how this done I feel he has spent more time doing this than me it can take me a couple of goes (or more ) to hook up a road train were as blokes doing it all the time it looks like a walk in the park compared to my mixed up effort hodge podge of a effort LOL


Paul