Bull bars or nudge bars, which are best for you?

For a full list of Toyota Genuine Accessories shown above, click here.

Bull bar or nudge bar, what’s the difference?

Toyota Genuine Nudge Bars are there to protect your vehicle from minor collisions. They’re smaller and lighter than bull bars. Depending on what Toyota you’re driving, they provide targeted coverage around the lower grille area. Either way, they’ll give that added protection from bumps, knocks and scrapes. If you’re an urban driver, who navigates narrow streets and parks in tight spots every day, a Toyota Genuine Nudge Bar is great for that extra piece of mind.

Toyota Genuine Bull Bars help deliver extra protection in the harshest conditions^G7. They’re mounted to the chassis and provide full height and width protection for the front of your vehicle. If a wild animal like a kangaroo darts out onto the road, Bull Bars help prevent damage to the critical systems at the front of your vehicle and get you safely to your destination. So it’s advisable to get a Toyota Genuine Bull Bar properly fitted to your vehicle, especially if you're planning to drive your HiLux, Landcruiser, LandCruiser 70, LandCruiser 300 or Prado^G7 in rural areas. You can get into serious trouble if, in the event of an animal strike or collision, your vehicle becomes inoperable in remote areas. Bull bars are designed to help mitigate this risk and keep you driving in search of assistance if you need it.

Extra equipment for the toughest roads

Toyota Genuine Bull Bars provide the foundation for accessories such as winches, LED lights, bash plates and recovery points that can make a big difference on more challenging roads.

Toyota Genuine Recovery Points are validated on Toyotas; so, in some extreme scenarios, you can trust that they can handle the upper limits of pulling power without permanently damaging your chassis. Toyota Genuine Bash Plates are specifically designed to be fitted to Toyota Genuine Bull Bars for extra underside protection.

It’s a common misconception that brighter lights mean better road vision. Depending on your choice of vehicle, both Toyota Genuine Bull Bars and Nudge Bars can be equipped with LED light bars that use shovel optic technology to strategically create an even beam pattern. The reflectors create a balance between a spot and spread beam to ensure you can see down the road and off to the side. This diffuse light limits distracting shadows and improves visibility, even when roads are at their darkest.

Steel or Aluminium?

The main differences are weight, appearance, corrosion resistance and price. Aluminium is lighter which can make a significant difference to your Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW). They’re also more expensive, due to material costs.

In terms of strength, Toyota Genuine Aluminium Bars are made from high-grade material so lighter doesn’t mean weaker. Aluminium doesn’t rust but does corrode over time when exposed to salt.

Appearance-wise, Toyota Genuine Aluminium Bars come polished whereas Toyota Genuine Steel Bars can be colour-matched to your LandCruiser 300 or HiLux. So you can coordinate steel bars to match the style or work branding that’s within your vehicle’s colour range.

Why genuine?

Toyota Genuine Bull Bars and Nudge Bars are designed and engineered alongside Toyota vehicles. During this process the vehicle and the bar are considered one system, so the standard they’re tested to effectively represents ten years of real–world experience on the toughest Australian roads.

This full integration into the vehicle’s architecture means each bar is properly evaluated for crash performance, including airbag deployment. Beyond that, Genuine Bull and Nudge Bars are designed to work and integrate cohesively with a vehicle’s Toyota Safety Sense^S1 active features – such as Lane Departure Alert, Pre-Collision Safety and Road Sign Assist^S1 – as well as its parking sensors and cameras.

Everything, down to the front grille’s air intake and vehicle's axle capacity, is taken into account. Much of this work happens locally, at the Toyota Product Centre in Melbourne’s west.