Woz1976-MT
New member
First, the engineers are correct... when you are only talking about transferring energy from one vehicle to another. But there is usually at least one human being in one vehicle. The better question is: how is the energy from a collision between two vehicles transferred to the occupants?
I'm not an engineer, but having investigated/studied hundreds of MV crashes thus far, I have very good understanding on mechanisms of injury to humans from crashes.
For the engineers here, correct me if I'm wrong, but in the milliseconds following a vehicle crash no energy is transferred into the human body -- only Newton's Law existing at that point (the body will simply continue moving in its original direction or remain stationary). Eventually the human body will come into contact with some part of the vehicle (or even the other vehicle) and then energy is transferred to the human body.
In crashes, that is usually the seatbelt, airbags, and subsequently much harder structures (steering wheel, glass, dash, other solid vehicle structures, etc.). There can also be intrusion into the passenger compartment of one vehicle by another vehicle (these are usually quite devastating).
As I see it, the rock sliders will not crumple (thus not absorbing/dispersing energy), but they may, MAY, help prevent intrusion into the occupant compartment. However, the rock sliders may also hinder the side airbag sensors as well (which are usually some form of contact sensor -- the tiniest delay might not provide the desired result of side airbag deployment).
Ultimately, the question of "will my sliders give me better protection in a side impact?" cannot be succinctly answered. They might provide some intrusion protection to the lower area of the occupant compartment; they might provide some structural rigidity to the rocker panel area; and they might also create a slight delay of the side airbag system (resulting in a chance a human body might not be in the proper position during deployment or that a human body will contact something rather solid before the airbag can deploy).
At the end of the day, I don't care what my 4Runner looks like after a crash (I have insurance) -- I want to be alive and with as little/minor of injuries as possible.
I'm not an engineer, but having investigated/studied hundreds of MV crashes thus far, I have very good understanding on mechanisms of injury to humans from crashes.
For the engineers here, correct me if I'm wrong, but in the milliseconds following a vehicle crash no energy is transferred into the human body -- only Newton's Law existing at that point (the body will simply continue moving in its original direction or remain stationary). Eventually the human body will come into contact with some part of the vehicle (or even the other vehicle) and then energy is transferred to the human body.
In crashes, that is usually the seatbelt, airbags, and subsequently much harder structures (steering wheel, glass, dash, other solid vehicle structures, etc.). There can also be intrusion into the passenger compartment of one vehicle by another vehicle (these are usually quite devastating).
As I see it, the rock sliders will not crumple (thus not absorbing/dispersing energy), but they may, MAY, help prevent intrusion into the occupant compartment. However, the rock sliders may also hinder the side airbag sensors as well (which are usually some form of contact sensor -- the tiniest delay might not provide the desired result of side airbag deployment).
Ultimately, the question of "will my sliders give me better protection in a side impact?" cannot be succinctly answered. They might provide some intrusion protection to the lower area of the occupant compartment; they might provide some structural rigidity to the rocker panel area; and they might also create a slight delay of the side airbag system (resulting in a chance a human body might not be in the proper position during deployment or that a human body will contact something rather solid before the airbag can deploy).
At the end of the day, I don't care what my 4Runner looks like after a crash (I have insurance) -- I want to be alive and with as little/minor of injuries as possible.
op2:
