Anyone tried these bash plates?

No, but as "engine protection of the gods" how can you go wrong :lol:
 
haha, gotta love the Chinese marketing.
A lot of the time this is crap stuff, but with this a sacrificial plate, as long as it's even just an alloy it should be enough being 2.5mm thick?

Almost tempted to order a set and see how they go.
 
at that price , make one yourself and save $100
 
Asked me that 1 year ago when I had access a CNC router, welder and lathe, plus ample room to work on it in the garage I wouldn't have even bothered looking at the prices for any exterior protection.

But nowadays, I don't have any tools for even doing it on the driveway.
How do much you reckon a fabricator would charge in Aus?
 
200USD for an engine / gearbox / rear diff plate why the hell not! Looks the part has the folds in the right places. It should be strong enough by the looks of it my crossbred sump guard is only 2.5mm steel and its taken some big hits. I doubt it's made out of titanium alloy as the add says though :lol:
 
I sent in a Chinglish inquiry, so hopefully will hear something back soon or I'll just get a Subaxtreme one.
 
I'm not sure how thick the cast alloy sump guard is from SubaXtreme, but it appears to be about 4-4.5mm. It also has much thicker reinforcing ribs and 'humps' cast into it.

That Chinese set looks a lot fancier, but at 2.5mm thick, it would need to be plate, rather than cast.

As Id and others have said already, it's hard to go wrong for that price!

The ABS plastic engine bay shield is very tough for what it is. The main problem with it is that it deforms very easily when you bounce on something, so offers all but no protection at all from hitting something hard-ish. The bottom of my sump is very crinkled ...
 
My response to 4-5 questions, only 1 of them was answered:

yuang liu said:
3MM.Aluminum alloy
:ebiggrin: thank you
Click to expand...

I think I might just get the Subaxtreme one. I don't plan on driving on jagged rocks.
 
^ Yup ... :poke: :iconwink:.

For all that some here have had very ordinary experiences with the SubaXtreme cast alloy sump guard, I was suitably impressed that I was able to put a block of wood on mine and belt the hell out of it with the back of a small Canadian block splitter without apparently cracking or otherwise damaging it!

Mine was s/h, and had taken a few mighty thumps that had bent it as much as ~1" out of shape - maybe a bit more in places, specially down the middle.

Using the above process, I straightened it out by about this much, one part at a time (leading edge where it slopes down from the from cross-member; and the flat part under the engine), and then went to work on the 'wings', bending them down and out away from the headers/exhaust pipe shields. All parts of the shape required multiple hits to get them straight, one small area at a time.

This amounts to belting the crap out of it with a small sledge hammer with all the force I could muster using one hand (albeit with a small block of pine, about 4x2x2.5", between the hammer and the guard, with the guard supported flat on the paving on the other side).

This is a pretty massive amount of force to apply to anything IMO. It assured me that this guard will probably take anything I am likely to do it. Even if it does break up and protects the sump while doing so, it will have served me well :biggrin:. I doubt very much that I could apply this amount of force to my sump without completely buggering the engine ...
 
Ratbag said:
I doubt very much that I could apply this amount of force to my sump without completely buggering the engine ...
Click to expand...

Wanna Bet! :iconwink:

As much as I like the SubaXtreme cast alloy guard for general use, it is much more brittle than plate alloy. I've had mine repaired a couple of times and it now sits damaged and I've swapped over/back to my plate alloy sump guard.
 
^ I'm not sure which would do Roo2 more harm:

hitting the sump as hard as hell with the sledge hammer; or
tipping it over onto its roof so that I could get a good swing at the sump ...

:iconwink: :rotfl:.
 
How much do you guys reckon a fabricator would charge to make a plate one?

The annoying thing is they'll have to borrow the car for a while to measure it up and make it fit, if only there were drawings online somewhere.

I asked the Alibaba guy about why they say Titanium Alloy but he says Aluminium Alloy, my response I get was:

yuang liu said:
There are two kinds of material,
Aluminum alloy is the best
OK
Click to expand...

I wish we had easier access to all the off-road gear they have in the States.
Last time I checked Australia was known for it's Outback so why do we lack so many things, or if not pay so much for them?
 
Kevin said:
As much as I like the SubaXtreme cast alloy guard for general use, it is much more brittle than plate alloy. I've had mine repaired a couple of times and it now sits damaged and I've swapped over/back to my plate alloy sump guard.
Click to expand...

I agree, Kevin. I would far prefer even a light steel sump guard (3/16") or a somewhat heavier aluminium plate guard to the cast SubaXtreme one.

Problem is with both the ADRs and my insurer, as well as the statutory insurer (TAC). Regardless of whether having such a sump guard would have any actual effect in an accident or not, the onus of proof would shift from the insurer/s (in the case of an air bag compliant guard - the SubaXtreme one) to me as the driver, as the non-compliant guard would automatically make the car non-compliant with the relevant ADRs, and therefore automatically unroadworthy. If it were found by a court to have had any effect whatsoever on the outcome (almost impossible to disprove this assertion), the resulting un-insured costs and legal costs would almost certainly bankrupt us.

This is the real world effect of using an item that does not comply with the relevant ADRs that apply to the car that one owns.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one's viewpoint ... ) I know far too much about the law and insurers to put myself in this position. It's far, far cheaper to scrap the car or engine than it is to put ourselves in this kind of financial jeopardy ...
 
Going to order my SubaXtreme guard tomorrow, I'll go with the non-powdercoated one.
Now to look for recovery points, and get some rust protection.

Do you recommend using a rubber washer or bushing between the aluminium and steel to prevent rust acceleration?
 
Just ordered the Subaxtreme, needed the piece of mind for insurance. Hopefully I'll have it by Friday to install it for the weekend!
 
Thanks for that Ratbag. Should this be something I should tell my insurer (AAMI)? Would I need to provide a copy of the certification?
 
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