Is single cab pickup more dangerous in rollover?

[Imaan]

Couple friends were discussing about the power to weight ratio (advantage) of recreational pickups and one of them mentioned that single cab pickup is very dangerous in case you rollover in offroad. His logic was as there is no C pillar so entire impact comes on A and B pillar completely and B pillar (right above driver head) takes lot of beating and get crushed. Sounds logical, but what do you guys say or have seen any rollover incident of single cab and how much damage it caused to the driver?

[Rahimdad]

Imaan, that is a very good observation and your friends are partially right in them assumption. Although I have not seen any trucks in roll-overs, but from my observations I will try to answer your query.

It makes absolute sense that a vehicle with 3 pillars will better support the roof from caving in than a vehicle with 2 pillars.

However I have seen Toyota Land Cruiser from the tour company which had roll cage and unfortunately the roof caved in and the A and B pillars completely bent. The reason for this is the GAO body that Toyota used to show off about having crumple zones. They considered the body crumpling on impact so that the driver would not get the same jerk from the accident which he would in case of a firmer body. What they dd not consider was what would happen in case of a roll-over. Result, the roof caved in completely and the A and B pillar were completely bent.

In another case one of the FJ Cruisers with us just made a slight error and tipped over with a couple of very light rolls, the result was not so bad, but the roof caved in a bit and some damage to the A-Pillar and one month after running behind the insurance company the FJ Cruiser was written of as it needed and new roof, new wind shield and a new A-Pillar. Just too expensive to repair.

I saw 6 of the worst roll overs in off-roading in Dubai with little or no harm to the passengers or the car, 3 of these were with the Jeep Wrangler, 1 of which was a flip from the front bumper getting stuck in the sand from the jump and the car flipped over on its front. The roll cage on the Wrangler is amazing and minimum injuries to the driver and just a few dents and in case of the Hard Top, a replacement for the Hard-Top as it is made of fiberglass.

In 2 other cases both bad roll overs with 7 to 8 rolls all the way down the dunes, these were the Land Rover Defender which needed on one side mirror to be replaced after we put the vehicle back on its tires from its belly. The second was a Land Rover Discovery 1 which needed the roof to be banged back up in its place and the wind shield to be replaced with a little pain job, no damage to any of the pillars. Although the Land Rover is made from Aluminium, but the roof is a solid piece of metal that just does not get effected so much.

In conclusion, it is not only one factor that determines the outcome of a roll-over. The type of body used by the car company, protection like a roll cage, which surface it rolls over on, whether its rocks or soft sand and many other factors determine the outcome. But taking the same kind of truck and similar surface the result on the 2 door would be worse than on a 4 door as observed by your learned friends.

Hope this satisfies your curiosity.

[Danny]

Hi Imaan, your friend thinking is just a thinking and assumption. Companies making these single cab especially American boys like Chevrolet, GMC, Dodge etc think and consider this fact 100 times more due to NHSTA presence  in US and their rigid rules for safety. 

If you are held up due to this fact to not to buy, then check their safety rating esp rollover ratings and make your mind.

[amitaj]

I don't think number of pillar decide the strength, but the build quality and how strong they are made makes most of the difference. 2 or 3 (numbers) doesn't counter or distribute the impact.