from AZ.
Right, the OB is not nearly as good as it could be, especially due to all the crap plastic up front
I agree on the front plate first but I beg to differ on the reason.
The oil pan is not what hurts the most. Destroy the CVT and will cost you more than the engine, talking 10,000 usd with labor, not to mention you can turn the engine off the moment you bust the oil pan...
The reason the front plate is more important is that the CVT is behind the front wheels and thus unlikely to get the hit; high-centering situations should be obvious.
I have the Primitive full armor, it is 15% off if you buy all of them at once.
The Primitive plate is terrific on dirt roads and easy trails and has covered my back on three occasions with aplomb. However, the Primitive plate will probably not provide sufficient protection against a direct bad hit, like during a descent of a rocky hill. Needless to say, CO offers a ton of opportunities to impale your front real bad and no skid plate on this no-frame, no-strong attachment points car will help if you just slam it on a big rock, I think. BUT, the SubaXtreme plate may offer enough protection against any less than catastrophic hit. Look it up on the Foz forum, they have a really good discussion. Blue Fox claims to have jacked up under the oil pan without issues. The Primitive front plate will not survive that, they allow jacking under the rear edge only.
On the other hand, the AT armor looks attached to very solid points and it covers much less area support-to-support. Looks very solid to me. I rolled off both the front and the mid plate once and skidded down a rut off both without issues. I trust it to provide protection against high-centering. High-centering will destroy your exhaust before it touches the CVT without plates but the plate is lower than the exhaust, which should help.
I have only heard the rear differential plate once. BUT if you use the Primitive lift kit you will drop the rear differential and thus make the plate helpful. Probably not needed at all otherwise.
My biggest gripe with the Primitive plates is that they drop your minimum clearance by 0.5", both front and mid. The AT/CVT one cannot be any different and, again, is behind the wheels so that is not a big issue. But the front one is a big deal.
If I were doing this again, I would press SubaXtreme to tell me the effect of their plate on clearance and if less or even equivalent to Primitive I would get that plus Primitive mid and rear plates.
Also, remember that a stock OB will have a real-life clearance of much less than 8.7. I have 225-65-17 Geolander AT-S on mine and the tire has lost 0.5" height beyond treadwear. Same with the previous, stock sized set. Same with stock tires.
You do not want to go on any but the easiest of trails on stock tires.
If you have the 17" wheels you are lucky: 235-65-17 offers good options and good prices. That is barely doable a size for me, it is just too much so I am stuck with mostly so-so options.
Can you give me examples of Colorado trails you want to do?
I have done a bunch in San Juan though nothing rockier than Cinnamon Pass, Ophir Pass, and Arrastra Gulch. I have done worse around Moab and a lot worse in AZ. Yet to drive Imogene and Black Bear though I almost went up Imogene last year. At the end, timing and weather prevented me from doing that.
You do not want to drive any of those on street tires. Stock tires are a joke even on maintained dirt roads (handling, cornering) and can make you furious even on easy trails.
Remember Traction Control OFF in deep mud, sand, or snow and foot on gas if stuck over hard surface: not too little, not too much. Car will typically regain traction without yielding an inch. There is no such thing as diagonal spin on VDC Subarus...
Good luck
Driving a Subaru off-road in the Southwest is a sport of its own.
If you can avoid some of my mistakes, you can do more faster, spending less...
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