Thursday
February 26, 2009
by: Kevin McIntyre
Carrot River: Cars in Canada must have a bumper capable of being hit at low speed and absorbing the energy. Trucks and vans which are classified as trucks are exempt from this requirement. Kevin has installed on his van a clever solution to improve the safety of his vehicle.
While surfing the web I came across a website called Super Bumper. I have no idea how I found it but that’s the story of the web.
A Super Bumper is a unit that slides into the 2″ receiver on a Class III receiver hitch, is 24″ wide and takes the impact if you’re rear ended of a “victim of someone parking by braille”. It is protection from those who think their all season tires and ABS will actually stop their cars when they jump on their brakes in the winter. The channel on the shank has a slot machined into it for the unit to slide on via the retaining pin and inside the shank is a series of rubber blocks. The outside of the shank has rubber doughnuts – if you’re hit, these rubber blocks / doughnuts take the force. According to their website, a one ton truck with this installed can absorb an impact of 4.4 MPH and not damage your vehicle.