| Overview |
| Much like ensuring your vehicle is mechanically sound, ensuring that no external influence can do harm to the vehicle, is also key to reaching your destination. Now I would agree that the priority should be by ensuring you don’t stick the land rover in a position where you are risking it. However this is not always possible and accidents happen, whether avoidable or otherwise. Therefore it is better to be proactive and try to ensure any damage can be kept to a minimum. |
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| Bumber and A-Bar |
| We have decided to stick with the standard bumber and A-Bar on the Gweneveer. Many people upgrade these to fit a full bull bar or even a winch bumber, however we felt that this was not necessary for the additional cost and weight. |
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| Now the benefits of them are clear, if you hit anything you potentially save the vehicle. As we are not in a rush we aren’t planning to drive at night and therefore massively reducing the risk of hitting animals, also we are not doing serious off-roading and putting ourselves deliberately at risk of running into trouble. |
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| Diff Guards |
| Not being an expert off-roader, or at least not yet means that we are likely to misjudge one or two things and putting a dent, or even cracking a diff would be horrendous on the journey. So for the little outlay to include this protection it is a simple choice to fit. All diff guards are simply galvanised steel and therefore not a lot of difference between different ones. We obtained ours from Paddock Spares, a rover axle type for the front and a Salisbury diff guard for the rear to fit the TD5 back axle. |
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| Steering Guard |
| There are not too many variations on steering guards. In essence they all do the job of protecting the steering damper and the track rods from being smashed by rocks. The first decision to reach is Steel or Aluminium, with the latter being significantly lighter, though more expensive. Some steering guards come in a single construction, with the front welded to the side plates; others require you to bolt the front to the sides. This just leaves you with the aesthetics and whether you want integrated towing eyes. |
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| We opted for the Paddock Spares heavy duty aluminium steering guard. The reasons we chose this was the weight saving over steel, but more importantly because it has towing eyes. We don’t have a winch bumper fitted so the only option for towing is from the chassis and when you fit the guard it uses and covers the front section of the chassis, this then eliminates the ability to add Jate Rings (square shackles for towing). |
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| Light Guards |
| Now some would argue that this is a little bit excessive, but this is all in the aid of protecting key elements. Most countries can be fussier than here with ensuring a road worthy vehicle, so to eliminate any hassle with the local law, we have added Simbar Light Guards from John Craddock Ltd. These are well made, however I did have to send the front guards back as one was not completely square when I installed it. |
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| Chequer Plate |
| It is too much fun not to stand on a land rover, whether it is to see over a hedge or to climb into the tent the wrong way! Panels on the wings and bonnet are not strong enough for a cuddly sized man to stand on, so there was the need to add the 2mm chequer plating, from MM4x4. It does have a nice visual benefit (we went for black), as well as being a neccesity because we have opted not to have a ladder up the back to gain access to the roofrack. This also prevents us having to climb over the tent all the time, which proves a big task when it is erected!!! |