Brilliant Bars: inside AJ’s Total Truck Gear

Rear Vision | First published in Australian Custom Trucks, Issue 2, Summer 2013.

What goes into a bullbar before it reaches the front of a truck? ACT visited AJ’s Total Truck Gear at Torrington, near Toowoomba, to follow the work from a customer brief through drawings, cutting, fabrication and final checks.

Anthony Thrush and general manager Steve Shapland began with AJ’s Metal Polishing in 1994. They polished for bullbar and rollbar makers, then added repairs to fuel tanks and bars. After moving into a new shed in 2004, the business expanded into manufacturing bumpers and front underrun protection device (FUPD) bullbars for heavy vehicles.

From a drawing to a finished bar

Workshop manager Warwick Tickner told ACT the company had more than 150 designs at the time of the visit. A customer could request extra posts, lighting or a company logo, but the design still had to meet the applicable requirements. A draughtsman prepared the drawings and a job packet followed the bar through production.

The drawings went from the computer to a plasma cutter, which cut the components to size and reduced waste. Fabricators then assembled the steel backing plate and aluminium pipework. Tickner explained that the bars had been tested or simulated to the drawings, so the crew checked measurements as the build progressed and again after welding.

The range ran from straightforward bumpers to heavy haulage and mining push-pull bars. AJ’s also polished tanks, wheels and battery boxes and supplied accessories including lights and signage. The visit showed how a visually distinctive bar could be built around a practical, repeatable manufacturing process.

Words and photographs: Chris Smith. The photographs below were recovered from the original ACT Issue 2 print file.

AJ’s Total Truck Gear staff reviewing a bullbar design in the workshop — Workshop staff reviewing the design and build process. Photo: Chris Smith / ACT Issue 2.

AJ’s plasma cutter shaping metal parts for a truck bullbar — The plasma cutter prepares parts for a bullbar. Photo: Chris Smith / ACT Issue 2.

Rear Vision: where is it now?

This account records the workshop as ACT found it in 2013; it does not establish AJ’s current operations or the later history of the trucks pictured. Did you build one of these bars, work at the shop, or run a truck fitted with one? Tell ACT what happened next and share a current photograph if you have one.