NS LWB Rear Bar Damage

[Scar]

Just wondering if anyone has encountered a similar problem to what i have had today.

Took my Pajero onto the sand and took on some decent sized sand dunes, it performed fantastic and I managed not to get it bogged at any stage, seems to be the trick to drive it in manual mode and keep revs around 3.5-4k as it is there it seems to develop all the power (V6)

However on return it appears that at some stage I bottomed out on the rear end and the bumper bar scooped up a whole heap of sand and it was bent out of shape and stopped the rear door from opening. After removing the bar and a bit of bracket bending etc the bar is now close to as good as new but it has me wondering how to go about stopping this in the future.
My car is booked in to get a towbar fitted and a small (50mm) raise in the near future and I am hoping this will go someway to stopping it happening again. Anyone experienced this before??

I am totally impressed by it's abilities in the sand though, you can count one 1 hand the number of times I have driven a 4x4 off road and it made things very easy, it seems happy to drive on the beach all day in 4HLc in auto and once dropped into manual mode and revs kept around the 3.5-4k mark it handled all dunes that stopped a few other cars on the day.


Thanks
Jason.

[Walker]

I think on previous models, hitting the rear bumper when offroad was always a problem. (there is a fair bit of overhang). They have put a metal skid bar across the bottom of the bumper on the NS which will help offorad but wont help much in sand.

Sorry, I can't help much. Lifting it will help a bit otherwise just careful driving. My Landrover Discovery had a similar problem and I just put up with it until the rear bumper was finally pulled off and then I made my own steel rear bar.

[Endorphin]

It's a factory option called a sand scope. It allows you take a bit of the day home with you...

[Scar]

Thanks Adam,
That bar has done nothing to help me in the sand. I am hoping the lift and the tow bar might stop it happening in the future. I drove fairly sedate as I am relatively new to 4x4 and especially on the beach, went up all sand dunes and made it up all of them but a few descents I turned away from.
Seem the spare tire stoppped alot of the damage as the bumper bent up till it hit the spare and could not move any more.

Will see how things go with the lift and tow bar.
I don't think the bar bumper bar can handle more of my beer induced "fixit sessions"

Thanks
Jason.

[Scar]

Endorphin,
Aren't MMC kind to us.
I have that Factory fitted option all over my driveway now.

Cheers
Jason.

[Sandgroper]

Scar,
It's been a problem since the NM (2000). After I fitted polyairs to my NM with about 10psi in them it all but fixed the problem for me. They stopped the bouncing on the sand that was causing the rear to drop and scoop up the sand with the bumper and then getting damaged.
Sandgroper.

[mrbitchi]

Do a forum search for "scrapper bar".......

[Wilmo]

I think your post on the scraper bar was deleted when the forum was 'refreshed' a couple of months back John. Can you re-post any details?

[mrbitchi]

My scraper bar.

[Eastie]

Thanks John - any chance of some further details of design/how you've attached it or another pic of the profile from underneath?

I've bent the rear bumper on my swb ns twice now despite the increased departure angle so I can imagine how easy it would be to damage on a LWB.

[mrbitchi]

This one shows it a bit better.


It bolts onto 2 tabs welded onto the towbar. Then the outer is bolted to the tie down loops on the towbar. Basically just a flat piece of steel with a slight upward kink about halfway along, where the plastic starts, to follow the bumper profile.