Steering Guard Opinions

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Stuballsed

Stuballsed

New Member
Posts
1,093
Location
Oxfordshire
arrfernoon all,

Can we have some opinions on the various steering guards for a 90 Defender please?

i.e. Single piece, 3 piece, with or without recovery eyes, steel or ally pan and who makes/sells a good one, i.e Paddocks?

p.s. trying to hold out to see what iannotts comes up with but he's obviously a lazy bastard as he did'nt instantly drop everything and make me one straight away when I enquired:p
 
I'll give the thumbs up to the rebel ones as well, I bought the branded one (didn't fancy the gold coloured bling!!) with the towing eyes which is great and very easy to install!
 
I have an alloy 3 piece one, it used to look really nice but bends and scratches easily. It came in a britpart box with lots of other bits when i bought the landy. Ok it might be lighter but I will be going for the steel one from paddocks with recovery eyes next time. Or the monster from chevoit 4x4 Defender Daisycutter Steering Guard | Cheviot 4x4. I've seen a mates steel one from paddocks take a huge ammount of abuse and it still looks like new.
Also it gives you strong recovery points.
Harry
 
I've been reading a few posts that recon these guards can be a major pain, acting as mud ploughs when trying to reverse out of trouble and you get stuck because you end up 'beaching' on the things. Any views on that?

At this point I don't intend getting in to too much deep ****e, mainly wanted it to aviod a front impact, tree stump kind of thing :doh:(and yes, because I think they look cool):D:eek:
 
I used to make the guards for Raz (rip), we never had a problem with them reversing over rocks or muddy terrain, the 2 towing eyes that we incorporated work well as it was an all welded construction it spreads the load evenlythroughout the guard and the chassis mounting points. I did have a Mantec 10mm Alloy guard on my 110 but took it off as it was forever bending/getting caught when reversing and it also had some of the bolts shear that held the skid plate to the main bracket assembley, one major problem with it was that it required removal to replace steering damper or lower steering arm ball joint.
 
Personally im not a steering guard fan.

I have HD bars and relocated the damper on my Disco to defender position.

However, i also appreciate the fact that the lack of guard allows me to get a grab on the tyres just that little earlier rather than having the guard just beach me.

I'm not a smash and dash kinda off roader, i like to pick my route and use power when necessary, so i dont tend to need a steering guard to take the brute force impact that i see a lot of people using them for!

Agagin, it depends what youre after really :)
 
I drove a slitty for a while (shogun) that had a two piece steering guard fitted as standard. It doers inhibit rear recovers as it scoops the mud when being pulled backwards. However... this is just something else to take into sonsideration when assessing the terrain you are about to attempt. The protection when you hit something solid is suddenly very welcome! Especially when your driver is 10 years old and not quite as observant as you had previously thought!
 
Another reson I want a guard if for some fixed tow eyes up front. Need them for a fixed line tow from RAC etc. (If no guard ws goint to fit Jate rings on front end)

I assume another point for a fixed eye would be on the front bumper?
 
Hi there, came back from the LRO show at Billing yesterday. Had a look on the Southdown stand. I already have one of their fuel tank guards/drop plate for tow bar on my Disco 1 and know what a good piece of kit it is. What I did see was an axle guard that protected the rear bar that goes behind. I have a guard on the front but this piece of kit will look after the rear bar. Can't remember the exact price but somewhere near £100.00/120.00.
Not cheap but then quality never is.

Cheers LT
 
A qt diff guard also helps to take a lot of the bashing away from the track rod...

Personally I couldn't make my mind up over them axle guards, is it good to have a full length skid or are you better off with the higher clearance of a bare axle?!

Cheers, sam
 
Hi there, yes it does reduce the ammount of ground clearance but only by a small amount. What made me think very hard about it was, maybe you have strengthend steering bars and maybe they don't bend. The fact is that some of that energy has to go somewhere, i.e. track rod ends !!!!!!!!! . There could be a problem where the track rod end gets fractured but doesn't snap until some time later when rust has it's effect leaving you without any steering on the motorway.

I couldn't afford one at the week-end but I will be getting a Southdown axle guard.
 
I have considered the fact that if the bar don't bend then the ends must take the heat - I also scratched my head when nobody supplies a HD end to resolve this issue.

So yes I agree, HD bars give the ends more stick than normal bars - but we'll have to see what happens!!

Post up pics of your axle guard becore and after fitting please! :D
 
couldnt this argument swing both ways?

you are not fitting a hd bar to bounce off the rocks it should be used as protection but there also should be less chance of catching it with it being higher up than a steering guard along with some saying rear recovery can be easier.

Steering guards will protect and if damaged should not cause other problems but the problems with these are lower ground clearance and in a friend of mines case he hit the guard and also bent his damper because it wasnt protected being behind the axle (he has since fitted the hd bar and moved the damper forward and swears by it). Have also heard that if lifted and articulated steering guards offer little protection as the steering arms will stretch below the guard itself (not sure how true but only going off what I have heard).

For me I will be trying the bar when funds allow and keeping my bull bar fitted to help as a warning if I come close to catching it :)
 
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