Been green-laning today, and 'proper' off-roading a few days ago in my '97 Disco 300 Tdi, and want to look further into this a lot more. I'm happy enough with the vehicle, but want to take care of it, and think that a steering guard may be 'a good thing', especially as the areas we go to (a couple of local quarries) has a lot of rocky areas and some huge boulders.
Anyone with a Disco fitted a steering guard ? Anyone got any preferences / reasons for their choice or rejection of particular manufacturers steering guards ? Anyone had any particular problems caused by them ?
I'm not bothered at all about looks, it really is more for protection of what I think looks a vulnerable area.
It's a bit of an odd one with Discos. Steering guards hang down off the front chassis rails and (hopefully) deflect anything before it gets to the steering gear. I have a Scorpion Racing one which I bought mainly because it also has two recovery eyes, and 2 hi-lift jack points. It's quite a good, and popular, bit of kit (but mine was a bogger to fit!)
However, this doesn't give the whole story, as on the Disco, the steering paraphernalia isn't actually totally protected by this device. In particular, all the gubbins behind the axle (which are elsewhere in a Defender) could still come a cropper. You can actually move it all out the way (I forget who does the kit), or you can do as I have done and get an axle guard (Southdown) as well. This sits underneath and moves with the axle and hence protects everything very nicely thank you very much, including the axle and diff, which become totally impregnable. I have a particular problem as my 2" lift means the steering arm drops below the Scorpion steering guard, especially when the axles are articulating, so the axle guard helps here too.
Of course, it gets more complicated. The axle guard doesn't reduce ground clearance at the diff, but it does reduce the ground clearance along the rest of the axle. This means you may be more likely to get grounded out in soft mud, as I once did.
So, for rocks I'd say go with a steering guard and axle guard for maximum protection, but for mud you may want to stick to the steering guard alone. The Southdown axle guard is designed so that you could actually take the main bits of it off pretty easily and leave the brackets behind, it would take about 10 mins, so it's possible to change it on the fly.
If you're interested I may be able to dig out some photos.
Thanks, David. I've still to actually look under it 'properly' yet .. Only had it a couple of weeks, and already seeing and feeling, some limitations with what we want from it ... ;) Our problem is when we do go off-road or green-laning, we invariably have our two kids and at least two others with us, and they all want to sit in the back, right where I'd prefer not to have them really .. ;)
We're looking to enter a couple of RTV trials later this year, maybe .. then when we get another S3 we're gonna 'do it up' to suit off-roading more and use the Disco in a more multi-purpose role.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.