I think you can trust it. At least for some duties. But you have to decide just what you want to trust it for. What kind of driving is the Bronco going to be doing most of the time? Will you need it more likely for a trail accident, or for protecting the kids on a long freeway haul? Or planning to do all the Colorado passes someday maybe?
If the latter, then as good as yours are, I think I'd want more.
Sport bar, light bar, show bar, tube bar, bed bar, cage bar. You name it, for over twenty years starting in the early '80's everyone tried to come up with a clever name that did not intimate that it would save your life in a rollover and literally NOBODY called them "roll bars" anymore after that. Too many chances for a lawsuit.
In the last twenty years or so though, more and more companies (even us) are willing to go out on that limb and call them what they were originally intended for.
The real problems started when companies started catering to the street crowd that wanted something cheap and shippable to mount their 8 KC's on in the bed so they didn't have to drill holes in their truck. Those were designs that were made from thin materials with poor engineering other than for looks, but then consumers expected the cool looking stuff to protect them too and for even the chrome to get them home. I think that's when more and more manufacturers, no matter what they thought they were making it for, put those decals on every bar. Even seat belts were not sold as "protection" from crashes.
And I'm sure the smaller mom-n-pop shops were quick to jump on that particular bandwagon so they didn't lose everything if something went belly-up.
I remember in the '80's when Rancho suspension got sued, and settled for a pretty big payout to a family of a drunk driver that rolled his custom K5 Blazer and got himself killed unfortunately. The only problem was that Rancho didn't have a single product on the vehicle. Not even shocks!
What they had, and what the lawyers and everyone else glommed on to, was the "Rancho Suspension" decal in the truck's window. Just a decal!
The San Felipe bar is a version of the old Smittybilt bars from the late sixties to the mid nineties or so. Made out of 2" .120" wall tubing and quite strong. But a small bar of any design all by itself and simply bolted to the body without tying into the frame and adding the front and/or rear cages is just moderate protection for the occupants in a rollover. Again, better than nothing, but still not a cure for the headache of some types of accidents.
I'd trust both of the ones you're speaking of (especially the new cage) implicitly in a slow rollover on the trail (which is likely what most of us probably think about when buying one I think?), but sure would not want to test the old single bar in a 60mph freeway crash!
It's still better than what came in a Bronco from the factory though. Literally nothing...
For overall protection then, it's custom or (almost) nothing. With "custom" meaning not only having one purpose built for you personally, but can also mean some of the newer designs trying to update the protection of the old-school stuff. Your new one is kind of a semi-custom and with a few additions could be as strong as almost anything out there.
Does not mean though, that a custom bar could not start with the San Felipe as a base too (lots of custom cages have started out life that way) but I'd want a little more if I was trying to achieve maximum protection.
And that coming from someone that's driven Broncos for over 50 years with just that single bar in the back! Both of my Broncos have essentially the same San Felipe bar. The one in my '71 is in fact a Smittybilt that has been lightly modified for clearance (kickers shortened) and the '68 has an actual Wild Horses San Felipe.
Back to your original question (I think%)) about the builder. They were good at what they did. But I don't think you can go by the manufacturer's name only either, when talking of a protective device like this. You have to base an opinion on the part itself and be your own judge. Even Smittybilt, which got it's name and reputation from making hard core Jeep, Cruiser and Bronco roll bars back in the day (even though they were often minimalist by today's standards), also made crappy many-piece chrome bed bars for hanging lights and looking cool at a show. Remember the "4-and-3" bars? Four main hoops and three kickers per side? All in the bed of a short bed stepside Chevy truck! Hardly room for an ice chest and not going to do much good even with all that bulk of metal, if the bed tears away from the frame in an accident and leaves the cab unprotected.
They made them in three flavors. Thin-wall fully bolt-together, thin-wall partial bolt-together, and thicker wall fully welded. Only the fully welded ones were strong enough to be called protection, but man were those a bear to ship!
So if a bar is thin and flimsy, has a flimsy design, or poor weld quality, it's worth passing by. Are the welds crappy and pitted with blow-through holes and uneven depth? Or are they well laid out and solid and look like quality welds? Many aspects to a good bar vs a weak one. Including how it mounts to the vehicle. Of course you knew most of that already and even said you were not a metal expert, which is why you were checking in and asking the questions in the first place. I just wanted to add more details and my opinions (of course!) to the discussion.
Bottom line is that your new bar is an upgrade from the old.
Ultimately we all have to be the judge of what we put our heads under.
Paul
