leeds wrote:

I hear this plough comment about steering guards when being recovered backwards.

Surely for the steering guard to act as a plough the back edge of the steering guard has to be in the mud?

Making some general assumptions here, if the back edge of the steering guard is below mud level, surely at least the bottom of the front and rear axles are below mud level?

So will not both the front and rear axles act as ploughs as well?

Ok they may or maynot gather as much mud as the steering guard, but surely they will also give resistance to being extracted backwards.

Now why there are equations to work out the force to recover a vehicle, I wonder how much resistance to being recovered is given by the two axles compared to the so call plough effect from a steering guard?

Brendan

Yes and yes. The diference being that whilst the axles give a pile of resistance, it's nothing like the resistance given by the guard. But worse than that, what happens is that whatever you're stuck in, be it mud, snow, sand etc, when you're recovred backwards gets shoved up into the engine bay, totally filling it. I've seen it happen with sand and with snow, it's not pretty. The snow one I recovered (petrol v and it wouldn't start, no surprise really. The 110 in the sand was worse, it took three vehicles to pull it out, and the sand forced up into the engine bay buckled the bonnet and tore off /ripped various pipes and ultimately broke the guard itself. There were also issues with brake hoses, fan and radiator - it was a real mess.

Granted, the majority of people here with steering guards will unlikely get into that situation on a green lane, but for overland travel it's a consideration which is why i always had the bar on my 90's. If it isn't a consideration for here, then I would say why have a steering guard at all. They have become an "automatic buy" for people with defenders despite them not really being needed. on a Defender, a diff guard is far more useful (in my opinion) due to the relatively thin steel the pan is made from.

ZeDefender wrote:

So if you have a basic LR guard fitted, is there anywhere safe on the front where you can be recovered? (by professionals of course).

A quick search found this sort of thing...

Does it make sense?

Already have combi-towing hitch on the back.

Do you want me to bring some across when I am in Germany next month?

Try fitting a winch into a military bumper


Brendan

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

Zagato wrote:

If dosh ever allows I was thinknig of getting a steering guard with a heavy duty Devon4x4 bumper which has built in recovery eyes - will put a link up, the bumper looks very standard, ELZ had one on his

http://www.devon4x4.com/index.php?page=sho...;Itemid=14

Good thread, any more steering guard pics, I will be interested one day........purely for looks of course

Personally i don't think the standard bumper gives enough protection to the front end. theres not enough steel between my air con grill and the front of the bumper.

This ones on my list

leeds wrote:

Do you want me to bring some across when I am in Germany next month?

I just checked and my sodding soft A-bar is exactly in the way
Anything else you can bring? Thought about drilling sideways through the front end of the chassis (about 2" back) and fitting something?

Cheers
Matt Tell someone you love them today because life is short.
But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing...

ZeDefender wrote:

leeds wrote:

Do you want me to bring some across when I am in Germany next month?

I just checked and my sodding soft A-bar is exactly in the way
Anything else you can bring? Thought about drilling sideways through the front end of the chassis (about 2" back) and fitting something?

Cheers
Matt

Zagato wrote:

Good thread, any more steering guard pics, I will be interested one day........purely for looks of course

£100'ish from Rebel 4x4.... 10mm steel brackets and 8mm ali guard. Looks almost identical to the one Paddocks do for similar money.

Wondering about the holes in the guard.... are they just for looks or were they put there specifically to mitigate some of the possible 'ploughing' effects previously mentioned??? Never really thought about it until I dug out the pic......

Knowing that you like a gleaming finish Zag, Rebel state on their website that you can get a highly polished finish on these with plenty of brasso and elbow grease Not something I shall be trying myself..... still haven't washed her since August!


Click image to enlarge Jon - 110 td5 [sold]. Currently Defenderless.